Last week LIFT kicked off our 2011 30th Birthday Celebration by contributing to Shubbak, a London-wide festival of Arab Culture produced by the Mayor of London, and what a week it's been. We've been whisked away to a world of espionage and mystery with Tania El Khoury in her one-on-one performance Jarideh; we've felt the beating heart, heat and whispers of Cairo and Tahrir Square in Ahmed El Attar's On The Importance Of Being An Arab; witnessed a merging of Middle Eastern art and UK innovation with the British Council's Gulf Stage and engaged in and explored the art and politics at the heart of the Arab Spring in Mark Ball's Culture Now discussion.

A participant of Jadrideh described "feeling positively challenged, disturbed, embarrassed and inspired" whilst an attendee of On The Importance Of Being An Arab said "It was brilliant - made me think about theatre as an art form; about politics...about lots of things..."

LIFT have been supported throughout this programme by our Hotel Sponsor Grange Hotels.

LIFT are also grateful for support from Amnesty International who we are proud to be affiliated with.

 

On top of our Shubbak programme we've also been hosting our summer Festlab workshop.Last week saw 15 producers from across Europe arrive in London for Festlab workshops hosted by LIFT. LIFT are part of the EU network Festivals In Transition which this year issupporting young Festival producers to develop their skills and practice. Our time together began in the pit at Sadler’s Wells watching Hofesh Shechter's Political Mother and over the next two days we explored sustainability, digital and developing audiences. The events were hosted in conjunction with the British Council, the ICA and the Arcola Theatre, with contributions from Maya Gabrielle (National Theatre), Helgard Haug (Rimini Protokoll), Deborah Dignam (British Council), Tom Beardshaw (Native HQ/NTW), Ben Todd (Arcola), Clare Patey (Artist/Curator) and James Marriot (PLATFORM). We also enjoyed performances from Shubbak, Gulf Stages and Shoreditch Festival alongside the all important conversations over food and drink. Five participants are also doing residencies and LIFT are hosting a joint project with Homo Novo in Riga, working with Joon Lynn Goh (BAC) and Ilana Mitchell (Wunderbar) on DISTANCE which between now and the end of year will take place in London, Riga and Newcastle, so keep an eye out for more details on that as it develops. Next stop Riga.

FESTIVAL LAB is an initiative of 8 festivals in 8 countries, an intensive training programme for European festival directors and producers which combines theory and practice.

FESTIVAL LAB is a collaboration between the festivals SPIELART, Munich (DE), Baltic Circle International Theatre, Helsinki (FI), Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatralne, Krakow, (PL), Homo Novus, Riga (LV) and LIFT - The London International Festival of Theatre, London (GB). Associate partners are BALTOSCANDAL, Rakvere (EE), EXODOS, Ljubljana (SI) and METEOR, Bergen (NO).

This project has been funded with support of the European Commission.