Teaterunionen - Swedish ITI

Newsletter from Sweden
Please contact us at info (at) teaterunionen.se if you want to have our newsletter by e-mail.

Newsletter

mars 2012

TEATERUNIONEN – SWEDISH ITI

ABOUT TEATERUNIONEN - SWEDISH ITI
Svensk Teaterunion – Swedish ITI is the forum for co-operation and information within Swedish theatre and dance and also a centre for contact and exchange across borders. The Centre is a member organization for 94 Swedish theatre and dance institutions and organizations. Svensk Teaterunion represents Sweden in the Nordic Theatre Union (NTU) and in the International Theatre Institute (ITI).

SWEDSTAGE 2012 – SAVE THE DATE
SWEDSTAGE 2012 is the first Swedish showcase for theatre. It will take place in Stockholm, Sweden November 18-20, 2012. SWEDSTAGE 2012 is an initiative by Svensk Teaterunion · Swedish ITI and Swedish ASSITEJ to create an international showcase for Swedish theatre. During three days in Stockholm, we will present Swedish performances of the highest quality for children, youth and adults. All the performances are able to tour internationally and are adapted for the international audience. Please contact Lovisa Björkman at lovisa (at) teaterunionen.se if you want to have more information about the Showcase.

THE NEW SWEDISH BIENNIAL
The Swedish Theatre Biennial is changing shape and will become The Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts. Together with Dance Biennial, we are now forming a festival for all genres in the performing arts world, such as theatre, dance, music theatre etc. The next Biennial will take place in Jönköping May 21 to 26 2013 in Spira, the new house for performing arts.

PROJECTS IN INDIA AND CHINA
Svensk Teaterunion – Swedish ITI has received a new grant from the Swedish Arts Council and SIDA within the culture partnership programme. Within this, we will arrange two workshops in 2012. One of the workshops will take place at Nandikar Theatre in Kolkata, India and the other one will be organized in China together with the China Theatre Association.

SWEDISH THEATRE REGISTER UPDATED
Swedish theatre register is a complete document of all Sweden's performing arts institutions, groups, production companies, festivals, schools, newspapers, organizations, etc. The register is being updated continuously and 2012:1 is now available at our website. If you wish to receive the register, please download it from the website or contact us at: info (at) teaterunonen.se.

SCENDATABASEN.SE – NOW IN ENGLISH
Scendatabasen, The Swedish Database for Theatre, Dance and Opera, began its documentation of the professional performing arts in Sweden in the autumn of 2006. The site is both in Swedish and English and records of almost every stage performance produced in Sweden since 2007 are contained in the Database, which also serves as a monthly calendar of upcoming premieres. Here one may seek information about productions, playwrights, composers, performers, theatre companies, dance companies, mime troupes, new circus and performance art. Our documentation provides a basis for all sorts of statistics. For more info, please visit: www.scendatabasen.se.

SWEDISH PERFORMANCES ABROAD

MINNA KROOK DANS – TOUR IN POLAND
Ah hallo bebis is a dance performance created by the Swedish choreographer Minna Krook. The performance is made for babies 6-8 month old. Ah hallo bebis will perform at Little Kontrapunkt, a part of the Kontrapunkt festival in Szczecin, Polen April 13-15. For more info, please visit: www.minnakrook.se.

BOUNDARIES IN ENGLAND
Peter Svenzon has for Art Of Spectra created a new production with an international cast. In an atmosphere inspired by the worlds of David Lynch, he examines general human issues in this physical, expressive and uploaded performance. The multi cultural background of the dancers bringing different experience of boundaries and environments has influenced the creation of the performace. Boundaries will perform in London, Mancherster and Leeds in Mars 2012. For more info, please visit: www.artofspectra.com

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS IN SWEDEN 2012

STRINDBERG
August Strindberg is one of Sweden’s most widely read and translated writers. May 14, 1912 August Strindberg died, 63 years old. His funeral was followed by over 60 000 people. One hundred years later, August Strindberg, is more alive than ever. Throughout 2012 the author will be noted all over Sweden in many different ways. The Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet) is gathering all the events connected to the Strindberg year on a special website. If you want to see all the events going on, or if you are hosting an event related to August Strindberg’s work, please visit http://strindberg2012.se for more info.

TUPP
Where: Uppsala
When: April
More info: www.tupp.nu

GÖTEBORGS DANS & TEATERFESTIVAL
Where: Göteborg
When: May 18-27
More info: www.festival.goteborg.se

BIBU.SE
Where: Lund
When: May 23-26
More info: bibu.se

MADE
Where: Umeå
When: May
More info: www.m-a-d-e.se

INGMAR BERGMAN INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL
Where: Stockholm
When: May 27- June 6
More info: www.bergmanfestivalen.se

9TH WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Where: Stockholm
When: August 15-21
More info: www.wpinternational.net

STOCKHOLMS KULTURFESTIVAL
Where: Stockholm
When: August 14-19
More info: www.kulturfestivalen.stockholm.se

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What we are

• the forum for co-operation and information within Swedish theatre and the centre for contact and exchange across the borders

• a member organisation for over 90 Swedish institutions and organisations within theatre and dance

• represents Sweden in the NORDIC THEATRE UNION and in the INTERNATIONAL THEATRE INSTITUTE

What we do

• arranges national and international seminars, conferences and festivals

• arranges the Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts, which is the biggest Swedish national festival and theatre meeting, organised in different cities in Sweden and in close co-operation with the Swedish theatres www.teaterbiennalen.se.

• handles various national and international theatre projects - present projects are a project for improving the international knowledge of Swedish plays and an international project on education for development, both with governmental support (see below)

• regularly publishes information in Swedish and English – a newsletter which includes a list of premieres all over Sweden and a magazine in English about Swedish Theatre (see below).

ITI
www.iti-worldwide.org

ITI is an international non-governmental organisation and was founded in Prague in 1948 by UNESCO and members of the international theatre community. The objectives of ITI is: to promote international exchange of knowledge and practice in the domain of the performing arts, to stimulate creation and increase cooperation among theatre people, to increase public awareness of the need to take artistic creation into consideration in the domain of Development, to deepen mutual understanding thus contributing to the consolidation of peace and friendship between people, to join in the defence of the ideals and aims of UNESCO, to combat all forms of racism or social and political discrimination.

Office

Teaterunionen – Swedish ITI is situated in the heart of Stockholm, close to the City Hall. In the same building you will find the Swedish Union for Theatre, Artists and Media and Teatercentrum (the association for independant theatregroups). In the office we keep the latest information about repertoire, festivals and other performing arts events in Sweden and abroad. We also keep a number of theatre publications, books and statistics about theatre, opera dance etc. We also have information about Swedish theatre in other languages.

Website: www.teaterunionen.se
Visiting address: Kaplansbacken 2
Postal address: Kaplansbacken 2 • SE-104 65 STOCKHOLM
Tel: +46 8 462 25 30 • Fax: +46 8 462 25 35
E-mail: info (at) teaterunionen.se


Contacts:

Ann Mari Engel
telephone: +46 8 462 25 31
Director
annmari (at) teaterunionen.se

Lena Norlén
telephone: +46 8 462 25 37
Financial Manager
lena.norlen (at) teaterunionen.se

Ann Sofie Nilsson
telephone: +46 8 462 25 33
Editor Scendatabasen
scendatabasen (at) teaterunionen.se

Lovisa Björkman
telephone: +46 8 462 25 34
Information Officer
lovisa (at) teaterunionen.se

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Members

We are a member organisation and if you click here you will get a list of our members.

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Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts

The next Biennial will take place in Jönköping May 21-26 2013!

The Swedish Theatre Biennial is changing shape after ten successful biennials at various theatres in the country. Along with Dance Biennial we will now be a place for all genres in the performing arts.

The Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts will feature guest appearances with productions from across the country, workshops, seminars and many other opportunities for artistic exchange and dialogue.

The choice of performances will be made in a new way. We have selected a jury with representatives of various performing arts fields, which will make the selection of performances. The selected performances can be played at any stage right up to May 2013 and some may even have its premiere at the Biennale.

We invite all producers in the country to nominate their performances to the Biennial. In Jönköping there are many scenes of varying size.

The performance should:

• be dance, musical theatre, theatre, etc.
 • have had/ have premier between January 2011 and May 2013
• be for children, youth or adults
• have "Biennial qualities"
• be practical and technically possible to play at the Biennial

It must be the producer (theatre/ group/ production company, etc.) itself that nominates the performance. A motivation is a must, but it should be a maximum of about 1 A4. The proposal involves a commitment, which of course cannot be binding but that signal interest and opportunity to participate in the Biennial.

Proposals can be sent continuously until December 31, 2012 to
scenkonstbiennalen (at) teaterunionen.se or
Svensk Teaterunion
Biennial förslag
Kaplansbacken 2
S- 112 24 Stockholm

History
The Swedish Theatre Biennial is both a national festival and a meeting place for everyone involved in the world of Swedish theatre. The Swedish Theatre Union arranges the Biennial every other year in collaboration with different regional theatres.

The most recent Biennial festivals have brought together more than a thousand participants from all parts of the world of theatre in Sweden. Increasingly, guests from abroad are also taking advantage of this unique opportunity to encounter a concentrated version of Swedish theatre. The whole of the Swedish theatrical world has a part to play in the Biennial, in performances, seminars, exhibitions, lectures, master-classes, meetings and arrangements of various kinds. While the programme is linked to the performances being shown, it also reflects current debates and social analysis, dealing with issues vital to our work and presenting individuals of interest together with theatre projects both from home and abroad.

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Projects

Introduction of swedish drama
In a special project we work with promoting Swedish plays in english translation. Seminars, readings and by updating the Catalouge of comtemporary Swedish drama in translalion, are some of the ways we launch Swedish drama abroad.

Swedish drama - Swedish theatre 2008 by Margareta Soerenson
(published in The World of Theatre 2008)
A pale winter sun breaks shyly through, illuminating large letters: BACKA TEATER. A boat, like one of Venice’s vaporetti, rushes between the piers of Göteborg’s central waterway, tying up at the adjacent dock. Dazzling architecture in glass and cement crops up among surrounding older red brick buildings: warehouses, foundries and workshops from the days when the area housed a shipyard, housing now private schools, a university and the city’s illustrious  technical college, Chalmers, with its library, dormitories and  restaurants.

Illustrious is also a suitable word for Backa Teater which inhabited for many years another factory building in another part of the city. Illustrious for being one of Sweden’s leading theatres for children and youth, some would argue the foremost. The flood of new and independent theatres that sprouted up during the seventies was especially important to the field of children’s theatre, providing a momentum that continued during the eighties and nineties to make this one of Sweden’s most active and interesting cultural domains; both in content, by leaving all the old taboos by the wayside and in form, through bold experiment, challenging a young audience that had few preconceptions about what theatre should be.

The first years of the new millennium have not been marked by the brazen pioneering spirit characterizing the seventies, but a solid foundation had been laid for high quality theatre for young people. Everyone working with theatre in Sweden is aware that theatre made for children can in no way be inferior, more simple or superficial. Göteborg, Sweden’s second city, has always advocated an ambitious çultural policy and giving Backa Teater a new residence in a newly built theatre in this prestigious “new” neighbourhood must be seen as a symbol of this ambition. Recently appointed as artistic director is playwright and director Mattias Anderson, who in 2007 received the Ibsen Award for a playwright working in the spirit of the grand old master. For the opening of the new Backa Teater, they invested in a large project grounded in the sociological research methods  that  Suzanne Osten created at Unga Klara. The ensemble spent several months discussing the major themes of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment in the classrooms of Göteborg’s children and teens. What is rightful punishment? Can all crimes be forgiven? How does the motive behind a crime change our view of the transgressor and his actions?


With a foundation in this research, Mattias Andersson then adapted the novel,  placing it in modern times and in a place that could just as easily have  been Göteborg as St. Petersburg. A play for pre-teens, To Kill a Carnival  (Att döda ett tivoli), freely discussing the questions poised by  Dostoyevsky, was simultaneously commissioned as well as a
play for first to  third graders, Dunce Cap (Dumstrut). The last named work is a collage of texts composed by playwrights using material generated by the discussions between the theatre and children and youth. In all three plays the Backa ensemble appear alongside six musicians in a huge hangar-like set complete with cars, shipping containers, movable wall segments and all mnner of  junk, congenially arranged both functionally and aesthetically by one of  Sweden’s foremost set designers, Ulla Kassius. A musical, mobile almost to the point of dance style of performance created a lively, exciting and  fanciful theatrical experience that was wholly contemporary.

While Backa Theatre and their three times Dostoyevsky opened at the end of 2007,  it can be said to exemplify in many ways the state of Swedish theatre over  the past couple of years. Not all, but a good portion of theatre for the children and youth audience still spearheads our nation’s theatre. A recent tendency to focus on the youngest audience
has also gained respect, both in Sweden and in other parts of Europe and the USA. Celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, Dockteatern Tittut, a pioneer company creating  performances for children aged two to four, has now a sister stage in the United States, at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Christer Dahl, who in 2008 replaces retiring artistic, founder Ing-Marie Tirén,  was  guest director at the theatre in Minneapolis. There is a great deal of interest in the typical Tittut style where tempo and dramaturgy is adapted  to the youngest audience without sacrificing artistic work of high quality  in text, design, music and acting. From her base at Stockholms  Stadsteater Unga Klara, Suzanne Osten continues to experiment with  children’s theatre, this time teaming up with Ann-Sofie Bárány to  create Babydrama, a play for those between six months and one year of  age.


Theatre for everyone or only the chosen few?

Sweden, in  2006, elected a conservative coalition government after decades of almost  unbroken social democratic rule. This paves the way for new directions in a  variety of areas, most notably affecting workers rights and benefits for  the sick and unemployed. Principles defined by lower taxation and a higher  degree of self financing are all pervasive, and the degree in which this  economic philosophy will effect national cultural policy is still difficult  to determine. Accepted notions regarding accessibility and regionalisation  have not yet been thrown out as the newly instated conservative minister of culture has had difficulty defining her own line on cultural policy. A  major investigation of overall cultural policy will be undertaken  during 2008, an updating of the previous investigation from the 1970’s  is probably long overdue. Meanwhile, artists and other in the  culture sector are deeply worried over the policy changes that might be  looming on the horizon. The conservative notion that the state should  not decide what culture its citizens should have access to, is hard to reconcile to the European tradition in which the theatre, the  symphony and the library stand literally side by side in the centre of  town.

It is already noticeable that since the 1990’s, the Swedish state supported theatre institutions have been forced to an increasing  degree to rely on box office receipts. The demand for full houses  is relentless forcing experimental work onto the institution’s  studio stages. A shrinking number of independent companies are carrying  the torch of innovation in Swedish theatre. Moment:teater,  Teater Tribunalen, Teater Giljotin, Barnens Underjordiska scen in  Stockholm; in Malmö Teater Terrier (which reemerged as Institutet in 2008)  or Teater Trixter in Göteborg all do battle with meager  national and local government grants that in no way reflect their  increasing artistic importance.

Stockholm Stadsteater embodies most  closely the ideal theatre of the present decade. It is the largest theatre  in the Nordic region with a yearly audience numbering half a million, a  large number of stages including free performances by Parkteatern in the  parks during the summer.
Artistic director Benny Fredriksson runs the house  like a pressure cooker. Less successful productions discretely disappear  from the repertoire while old favourites reappear time after time. With  the ensemble trimmed down brutally, actors now work even harder,  ”stars” come and go, including a large number of actors from the Royal  Dramatic Theatre who freelance at Stockholms Stadsteater between films and  other engagements. Stockholms Stadsteater has succeeded in producing a  number of main stage hits including an updated version of The Jungle  Book, full of humour and gravity, by director Alexander Mörk-Eidem who  also
provided the theatre with a wonderfully successful A Midsummer  Night’s Dream. His recent Hedda Gabler featuring a Hedda drugged  by consumption, reclining in a sofa that has become cult classics from  the 60’s, the era in which The Culture House, the edifice that  houses Stockholms Statsteater, was built, has drawn an even larger audience  to
the classics. Stockholm Stadsteater is also the home of Suzanne Osten’s company, Unga Klara, has recently incorporated the  renowned Marionetteatern, and produces one hour long plays for sold out  lunch time audience each day at Soppteatern (The Soup  Theatre).

Women and male geniuses

Though Sweden is often hailed  as a paragon of gender equality, and despite the lack of any formal  obstacles, the theatre has dragged its feet when it comes to equality  between the sexes. It is still generally men who are artistic directors,  directors and playwrights, even though there are exceptions such as  Birgitta Englin who heads Riksteatern, Sweden’s national institution for  touring theatre. Englin has been a driving force in investigating the role of women in theatre and in suggesting practical steps and strategies for  change. One of a number of such initiatives is to locate and to produce  woman playwrights from
earlier times. A number of radical female  contemporaries to Strindberg and Ibsen, wrote plays discussing issues of  family and gender, and were widely produced during the last decades of the  1800’s. Recent productions of their work have garnered much interest, both  for their inherent theatrical value and for the new perspective they lend  on the times of Strindberg and Ibsen.

Perhaps the power of tradition  is greater than we would imagine in the world of theatre, often seen as  radical, independent and self-questioning. If one would pick a couple of  names that mark the past years´ theatrical season they would be male and  middle aged: Mats Ek and Lars Norén. Lars Norén, until the end of 2007, led  a division of Riksteater, Riks Drama, which chiefly featured productions of his own plays. At the same time, his plays, he being as always,  fiercely prolific, have been produced on other stages, not in the least,  on other stages outside of Sweden. A partially new theme has emerged  in these later works in which the situation for children is  spotlighted. Children, in the family and in society at large, are locked in  the crossfire between traditional values and ruthless commercialism,  with child pornography sexual abuse as extreme expressions. Fördold (Hidden), at The Royal Dramatic Theatre, and À la memoire  d’Anna Politkovskaja, for The National Theatre in Brussels which both  opened during the autumn of 2007, focus on the exploitation of  children.

Mats Ek is internationally known foremost as a choreographer and his works are danced on opera stages throughout the world. In Sweden  during the past decade he has begun to work with large theatre  productions, integrating dance into the dramatic expression. At The Royal  Dramatic Theatre he follows Molière’s Don Juan, Racine’s Andromache  and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice with a fourth work,  August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, in which the beloved Victoria at the  opera is a ballet dancer. As in earlier works, professional dancers are  added to the ensemble while Ek incorporates choreography and movement  on several levels, for the acting dancers and the “normal” actors. His technique utilises the normal gestures of daily life, which through choreographed patterns emerge to light up the production. His  A  Dream Play is updated to our own times. The battle of the four faculties  has, with little manipulation, become a war between Christianity, Islam  and Judaism on the one hand and on the other hand the good common sense of secularism.

Mats Ek has also for the first time directed and choreographed an opera, Gluck’s Orpheus in the Berlioz orchestration, for Stockholm’s Opera. Ten dancers and a choir numbering thirty created around  the three soloists, Orpheus, Euridike, and Amor, a landscape of deep  sorrow and heavenly joy, masterfully layered with references to  contemporary mundane existence. Once again working with one of the country’s best known visual artists, Marie-Louise Ekman, symbols for frayed  marriage and the drudgery of daily life took on new meaning while  the production’s middle aged, worn and torn Orpheus was not any less  tragic or deserving of our love.

A new work for the dancers at The Opera is in the planning for Mats Ek, who holds an odd position in a  Swedish dance world that prefers to seek models in Belgian dance companies  and in the culture of performance. A subtle shift might be in evidence.  Choreographer Kajsa Giertz has for a
time now moved towards theatre and  dance theatre taking an enormous stride recently with a dazzling Christmas  2007 productio of Snow White for The Malmö Dramatic Theatre. Birgitta  Egerbladh also continues to evolve close to theatre, but newer and younger  names are scarce in Swedish Dance. Örjan Andersson’s neoclassical style is  evident in a
suite of dances to Shostakovich string quartets, while Virpi Pahkinen continues to create solos inspired by Asia. Dorte Olesen has in  recent productions given evidence of her energy and sense of humour, as in  her installation featuring women over 55 chopping wood. On Stockholm’s most central square they sawed the wood into logs with chain saws and  went on to split the logs with an axe and to pile the birch wood  into perfect stacks. It reminds us of a primordial Nordic activity, at  the same time pointing out how rare it is to see mature women in  collective action in a public space.

The artistic sustainability of wood chopping remains to be seen. The dance world has been busy overseeing its structures and 2008 will be a year of new artistic directors with Johan Inger leaving Cullberg Ballet and the opera houses in both Göteborg and  Stockholm seeking new chief choreographers. Dansens Hus receives a new leader in Virve Sutinen from Finland, who has major experience from Helsinki, of young audiences and mixing dance and other art forms - such as  graffiti!

Margareta Sörenson

Barnens Röst – Childrens Voice
Children's Voice is a joint project within the field of dramatic art in Asia in cooperation with Swedish counterpart. The Swedish Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) has run the Children’s Voice project in Asia since 2004 with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The project originally encompassed long-term cooperation with theatres in India and Bangladesh but was expanded in 2007 to include a further project area of Vietnam, Laos and China up to the end of 2009. Cooperation with professional practitioners of children’s theatre from Sweden is also included in the project plans.

The Children’s Voice project initially embraced work with four professional theatre groups in India and Bangladesh. During the first four years of the project, all these groups have started or expanded extensive theatre activities for children and youth, some of them include a larger scale
national dissemination. The local and regional collaboration between the groups has been boosted. The project area was broadened starting in 2007 to also include Southeast Asia, with 12 new joint partners in China, Laos and Vietnam. Children’s Voice is conducted via direct cooperation with a core of 16 theatre groups/organisations/institutions in five countries. The fields of work and local conditions vary greatly between the joint partners, as does their geographical spread. The four theatre groups in India and Bangladesh work in the second phase of the project with an activity that reaches approximately a further 15 drama groups and organisations via broader cooperation.

You can download the complete folder here! (1,1 MB)

You can download a review from Sida here! (eng) (756 KB)

Picture gallery

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Publications
The publications in english can be ordered free of charge from The Swedish Centre of the ITI at the following e-mail address: info (at) teaterunionen.se

Theatre for Development
Experiences from an international theatre project in Asia “Children’s Voice”
This book is published by Swedish ITI for the project Children's Voice. The book is a collection of articles written by Swedish, Indian and Bangladeshi collaborators. They have gathered experiences from working with theatre in development for and with children. Editor Christina Nygren.



click here for pdf. version

6 x Contemporary Swedish Plays
The Swedish Centre of the ITI presents the anthology 6 x Contemporary Swedish Plays with the following authors and plays:The Dolphin by Gunilla Linn Persson, The Alco Hole by Cristina Gottfridsson, The Day Day Died by Rasmus Lindberg, Invasion! by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, White Baby by Sofis Fredén och Monsters by Niklas Rådström.

A Catalogue Of Contemporary Swedish Drama 2002/2008
The catalogue contains information about more than 1 100 translated plays in 30 languages. Here you will find continously updated information about title, author/dramatist, translater/year and publishers/rights. It was first published in 2002 and a supplementary was made in 2004. Now the catalogue for 2008 is available to download as a pdf.

A Catalogue of Contemporary Swedish Drama 2008

News From Swedish Theatre
This is a magazine about Swedish Theatre in English. Last issue was published in 2008 and focuses on Swedish Regional Theatres. The former name of the magazine was Théâtre - Suedoise - Theatre, was published until 2000, and was bilingual english/french. Can be ordered from ITI.

News from Swedish Theatre 2010

News from Swedish Theatre 2008

News from Swedish Theatre 2006

Facts about Swedish Theatre is a folder with information about The Swedish Centre of the ITI (in Swedish) and about Swedish Theatre - policy, general facts etc. (in English)

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Facts about swedish theatre

• 9 million inhabitants

• 6 million theatre attendances yearly

• 3 national theatres

• 31 city and regional theatres

• 200 independent theatre groups and production companies

• 50 dance groups and choreographers

• 8 national colleges for theatre and dance

• 50% of all performances made for children and youth

(The figures refer to 2007 and are approximate)

Arts Policy
Theatre plays an important part in national and regional arts policy. Government subsidy to theatre and dance amounts in 2007 to more than SEK 1,3 billion (approx. € 119 million). The subsidies go to the theatre institutions as well as more than a hundred independent theatre and dance groups.

National arts policies are administered by the Ministry of Culture and the National Council for Cultural Affairs. The Swedish Parliament has agreed on national goals for its cultural policy, including to safeguard freedom of expression and to create genuine opportunities for all to use that freedom. Local authority councils also take considerable economical responsibility for the regional and local theatres and groups.

In a European comparison, Sweden has the highest proportion of theatre visits per inhabitant.

Theatres all over the country
The are two national theatres in Stockholm: The Royal Opera, established 1771 which produces opera, ballets and concerts, The Royal Dramatic theatre, established 1778, which has six stages, produces classical drama as well as new Swedish and international plays.

The Riksteatern is a national touring theatre, based on 220 non-profit local theatre associations all over the country. Every year Riksteatern takes around 60 productions on tour, performing at theatres, community centres, schools and festivals.

The 31 regional and local theatres vary in size from 6 to 400 employees, covering the country from Luleå in the north to Malmö in the south. Some produce operas and ballets, many produce musicals as well as dramatic plays. A majority of the productions are based on new Swedish drama.

Other institutions with special national support are House of Dance, Drottningholm Court Theatre, The Strindberg Theatre, Confidencen, the Vadstena Academy and the Sámi Téahter.

Theatre for young audiences
Most theatres in Sweden also perform for children and youth. A considerable amount of the independent groups produce exclusively for young audiences.

Sweden has since the late 1960s had an explosive development of theatre for children and youth with a great advancement in both quantity and quality. Many regional and city theatres have a special department for young audiences, like Unga Klara in Stockholm, Backa Theatre in Gothenburg, Ung Scen Öst in Norrköping and Unga riks at Riksteatern. Both Instititutions and
independent groups perform in the schools’ own spaces and class-rooms. The productions are often created in close cooperation with the children and many themes relate to the children’s own life and experiences.

New Swedish dramas written for young audiences have to a great extent been translated and performed throughout the world.

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