Theater Festivals
Social Benefits or Social Costs?
Researching the Social Impacts of Theater Festivals on Local Resident Communities
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Theater Festivals – Social Benefits or Social Costs?
Researching the Social Impacts of Theater Festivals on Local Resident
Communities
Master’s Thesis in Arts, Culture and the Media, University of Groningen
Lukas Müller 1774263
Specialization: Theater/ Arts Policy
Supervisor: Dr. S.P.M. Bussels Dr. Q.L. van den Hoogen
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Contents
Researching the Social Impacts of Theater Festivals on Local Resident Communities ... 1
Master’s Thesis in Arts, Culture and the Media, University of Groningen ... 1
Contents ... 2
Abstract ... 4
Introduction ... 6
1. The Social Impacts of the Arts – Terms and Definitions ... 8
1.1 Defining the social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities... 9
1.2 Towards a model for measuring social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities ... 13
1.3 Matarasso’s “Use or Ornament?” The social impact of participation in the arts ... 14
1.4 Small’s Understanding the Social Impacts of Festival Communities ... 17
1.5 Van den Hoogen: Performing Arts and the City ... 20
1.6 Conclusion of Chapter I ... 21
1.6.1 Development of a Questionnaire to measure the Social Impacts of Theater Festivals ... 23
2. Typology of Theater Festivals in German and Dutch language areas ... 26
2.1 A brief overview over the development of theater festivals throughout history ... 26
2.2 Writing a typology ... 28
2.2.1 Historical Festivals ... 29
2.2.2 Jury Festivals ... 30
2.2.3 Theater and Performance Festivals ... 31
2.2.4 Street Theater Festivals ... 33
2.2.5 Amateur Theater Festivals... 34
2.2.6 Puppet- and Object-Theater Festivals ... 36
2.2.7 Theater and Dance Festivals ... 38
2.2.8 Mixed Media Festivals ... 39
2.3 Conclusion of Chapter II ... 41
2.3.1 How to define a trend?... 42
2.3.2 Typology of theater festivals in German and Dutch language areas ... 43
3. Researching Theater Festivals regarding their social impact on local resident communities ... 46
3.1 Holland Festival ... 46
3.2 Kaltstart Festival ... 49
3.3 Oerol Festival ... 52
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3.4.1 Towards a model for measuring social impacts of theater festivals on local resident
communities – Next Steps ... 55
Conclusion ... 58
Appendix ... 60
Questionnaire for Local Resident Communities – Dutch Version ... 60
Questionnaire for Local Resident Communities – German Version... 64
Questionnaire for Local Resident Communities – English Version ... 68
Oerol Festival Questionnaire Evaluation ... 72
Frequencies ... 72
Frequency Table ... 74
Histogram ... 83
Questionnaire for Festival Associates – Dutch Version ... 89
Questionnaire for Festival Associates – German Version ... 92
Questionnaire for Festival Associates – English Version ... 95
Questionnaire for Festival Associates – Holland Festival – completed ... 98
Questionnaire for Festival Associates – Kaltstart Festival – completed ... 101
Bibliography ... 104
Articles ... 104
Books ... 105
Policy Plans ... 106
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Abstract
In this thesis, conducted for the study Arts, Culture and Media of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands, the influence of performing arts on the society has been researched. Therefore, the relationship between theater festivals and their neighborhood, the local resident community, has been studied in more detail.
To begin with, the focus has been put on a multiplicity of terms regarding the world of theater and social research. This has been mainly based on existing studies, conducted by van den Hoogen, Poplin, Sauter and Reeves. Furthermore, studies by Katie Small, Francois Matarasso and Quirijn van den Hoogen have been researched in detail in order to use their statements made about the social impacts in general and respectively the social impacts of events and theater in particular. That concluded in a list of potential social impacts Theater Festivals could have on local resident communities. In order to develop and test technics to measure social impacts Theater Festivals could have on locals this list of social impacts has been recoded into statements applicable to result in a questionnaire.
In the following, recent developments and trends in the scene of European theater festivals have been researched in order to introduce and distinguish different types of theater festivals. The differentiation of these festivals was based on the following parameters including Event Theme, Economic Dependence, Event Size, Spatial Concentration and Age of Event as well as Total number of audience opportunities and Ticket prices. This resulted in a typology containing 10 different types of theater festival and their corresponding
characteristics.
Finally, the empirical field work has been conducted to prove the hypotheses made about the social impacts of certain kinds of festivals but also to test the developed questionnaires on their viability. The questionnaires were handed out to visitors and associates of one German and two Dutch theater festivals. On top of that local inhabitants living close to the festival areas were questioned about their awareness of the festival. The main purpose of the empirical field work was to receive a feedback from different social groups.
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end of chapter two. Also the size of the festival in proportion to the size of the town plays an important role. In order to measure the impacts theater festival can have the pretest
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Introduction
Over the last years/decades an innumerable amount of different festivals focusing on a special theater form, language, specific identity or regional character evolved in the
Netherlands. However, with the increasing number of festivals, local communities are faced with the challenge to figure out their role within the development of those festivals
(Delamere et al. 11). And also the festival organizers themselves have to be aware of the impacts their festivals might have for the local communities. Within my thesis, I want to introduce and test measurement technics witch which one can measure and analyze the social influence of performing arts. Therefore, I will have a closer look at the social impacts of theater festivals in general and how they influence, respectively can change society. Given the roots of a festival in the community and its potential as a community development mechanism, the impacts related to a festival are more specific than general tourism-related impacts (Delamere 26). Consequently, I will analyze how local residents perceive the social impacts of the festival – personal and in a more general sense considering the impacts on the community. For this research I have chosen two Dutch and one German theater festival, each of them of different size, concept, image and place. The three festivals are the Holland Festival in Amsterdam/ the Netherlands, the Kaltstart Festival in Hamburg/ Germany and the Oerol on Terschelling – an island in the Dutch Wadden Sea.
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place, duration and attendance, number of shows, community size and concept of the different festivals (Small, 2007, 47).
In the end of my thesis I want to test the questionnaires developed throughout my research. It is my intention to introduce an appropriate technique to measure social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities. In order to find out whether the questionnaires developed are a useful measure technique or not, I will focus on the social impacts of three theater festivals in particular and how they affect local communities. The outcomes then will hopefully offer some insight information on the social impacts of theater festivals.
Furthermore, I am curious how the opinions concerning social impacts of a theater festival differ between professionals and “the mass” (the people living in that area, for example the local residents of Terschelling). So as to find out, I am also going to do
questionnaire-interviews with professionals working for the festivals in question. The purpose of these interviews is to explore the range of opinions and different representations of the issue. They will provide the basic data for understanding the relations between the respondents and their situation (39).
To conclude, I want to suggest new ways and technics of measuring the relationship between community satisfaction and long term sustainability of a festival. Besides that I want to hypothesis how different types of Theater Festivals influence communities in different ways. Hence, the outcomes of my research can be helpful to improve the
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1. The Social Impacts of the Arts – Terms and Definitions
“Our relationship with cultural artifacts, mediated by values, is forever shifting. Art as activity, process and object, is central to how people experience, understand and then shape the world: ‘Culture is where we live our shared mental lives. We need a way of understanding this habitat, of treating it with the respect and care it deserves’ (Eno, 1996: 20).”
On the following pages, I intend to define the social impacts in the field of theater, theater festivals in particular. Furthermore, I want to develop a questionnaire on how to measure the social impacts of theater festivals influencing or changing local resident communities. In doing so, I will refer to different social impact definitions, measurement techniques and analyses regarding the social impacts of the arts. It will mainly be based on the researches and findings of Katie Elizabeth Small, Francois Matarasso and Quirijn van den Hoogen, as well as Thomas A. Delamere’s “Development of a Scale to Measure Resident Attitudes toward the Social Impacts of Community Festivals”.
In her thesis Understanding the Social Impacts of Festivals on Communities, Katie Small tries to provide a better understanding of residents’ perceptions of the social impacts a festival creates. By this she intends to help satisfying the diverse needs of distinct community subgroups and use festivals to contribute to community wellbeing and the enhancement of social capital. In her research she used quantitative and qualitative methods and included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observational techniques, document analysis and a residents’ perceptions questionnaire (Small, 10).
In his article from 1997 titled Use or ornament? The social impact of participation in the arts, Matarasso shows how participation in the arts can have social impact on participants (4). Therefore, he focused his study on how evidence of impact is sought and assessed. Furthermore he tested different approaches to evaluate the participation in arts projects (Matarasso, 14).
Van den Hoogen, wrote his PhD thesis Performing Arts and the City for the Rjiksuniversiteit Groningen about “Dutch municipal cultural policy in the Brave New World of evidence-based policy”(van den Hoogen, synopsis). In this he has been focusing his research on “the
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performing arts bring up in society, van den Hoogen presents a Framework for describing the functioning of the performing arts in urban society.
The three authors mentioned, focus more or less on the social impact events can have on communities, festival associates or the audience. While Small focusses on the impact
festivals might have on communities, Matarasso researches the social impacts arts can have on participants. And Van den Hoogen on the other side concentrates on social impacts the performing arts can have on society.
By combining the three researches and findings aforementioned, I will have an appropriate definition with which on can analyze how the social impacts of theater festivals influence and change local resident communities.
1.1 Defining the social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities
In the following, I will mainly concentrate on the term society and its relation with “culture” and “community”. Besides that I want to outline the functioning of performing art in society. Since I want to focus on theater festivals, I also have to investigate the terms “events” and “festivals”. Furthermore I am going to define the term “social impact”.
In his thesis Performing Arts and the City, Quirijn van den Hoogen defines a society as a population living in the same geographic area. This population shares a culture and a common identity, while its members are subject to the same political authority (van den Hoogen, 39). This almost coincides with the opinion about local communities shared by Poplin, Willmott and Taylor, describing a local community as a “cluster of people living within a specific geographic area” (Poplin, 9), interacting with each other and sharing a set of common interests held by members of the community. While the authors do not mention a political connection, they state that common interests and ties between people are of greater interest in a local community than in society. Through these interests and ties, local residents are able to identify with their community. That plays an important role in providing an environment in which social interactions and transactions can occur (Small, 16).
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basis to structure society. Van den Hoogen goes into detail when it comes to cultural expression; he describes its function as a representation of shared values and beliefs in society. Cultural expression he states is representing the identity of members of a society and/ or specific groups within a society. Furthermore he adds that art is a specific form of cultural expression in which existing values and beliefs are challenged (van den Hoogen, 40). This challenging of existing values and beliefs coming from within the society also happens in the world of the performing arts. That is because theater can be regarded a two-way
communication activity; cultural activities have effects on the performing artists themselves and on their audiences. That is why theater can be divided into individual and collective/ societal level (42). Furthermore one can differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic
functions of the performing arts. While intrinsic functions of the performing arts are “linked to the specific cultural or artistic nature of productions”, “extrinsic functions result from qualities of the production”, these are not necessarily artistic in their nature (139). During his research van den Hoogen went deeper into detail regarding the intrinsic and extrinsic
functions of performing arts from the perspective of the audience. While splitting up the intrinsic functions into personal experience (145); personal development and identity (147) and social interaction (149), he divides the extrinsic functions into effects of cultural
institutions amongst one another (154); attracting young artist and young artists’
organizations; city image and city identity; economic function and strengthening the local amateur artists (155). Those distinctions are quite important for this research, since they have been used for van den Hoogens’s development of a Framework for describing the functioning of the performing arts. On top of that, he adds that performing arts can foster activities and liveliness in city boroughs through their ability of occurring outside on the streets and mostly after office hours. This quality though, he states carefully, also holds true for other cultural activities such as sport events (160).
Donald Getz describes the terms “event” and “festival” in more details, in his article Festivals, Special Events and Tourism. According to him one of the most important
characteristics of an event, is that it is an occasion which is open to public, having the main purpose to celebrate or display a specific theme. Events take place annually or less
frequently and opening and closing dates predetermine the length of the event.
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actual experience of participating is most important. All of these characteristics are rather broad and consistent with each type of event or festival. That is why one needs to
understand the difference between regular events and art respectively theater festivals. In his introduction for Festival Culture in Global Perspective in Theatre Research International, Willmar Sauter defines a theatrical event based on four different elements, theatrical playing; playing culture; cultural context and contextual theatricality. While theatrical playing describes the encounter between stage and auditorium, playing culture refers to “playful activities” and performative events in general. Cultural context refers to the status and the tradition of the theatrical event within the realm of public life and contextual theatricality outlines the local organization and historical definition of the event (Sauter, 238). Using those definitions to distinguish between regular events and theater festivals, one can say that especially the cultural context as well as the contextual theatricality plays an important part. Whereas the theatrical playing labels a theatrical event but is hardly to witness from the outside, playing culture also applies to other events.
In the end, the context makes a difference; while “open to public”, “displaying a theme”, “predetermination through opening and closing time” and “experience of participation” also holds true for other events, a theater festival can be defined through the context in which it is held. That means that the people, artists and organizations attracted by the festival are defining the actual event. The atmosphere and knowledge exchange as well as the collective identity and city image created by the identification with the theme of the festival in
question, also play an important part. That is why it is difficult to give a general definition of art or theater festival, because it is mainly the theme of the festival that distinguishes it from other sorts of events. In chapter two I will go into further details regarding different themes and types of theater festivals.
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world we mostly speak of economic and social impacts. But what exactly are social impacts? Social impacts can be described as those effects that go beyond the artifacts and the
enactment of the event or performance itself. Therefore they have “a continuing influence upon, and directly touch, people’s lives” (Landry et al, 1993). Reeves adds that, “Social impacts of the arts are those effects which are sustained beyond actual arts experiences, and have resonance with the life activities and processes of individuals” (Reeves, 29). Consequently Reeves belongs to the positive tradition1. That stands in contrast with the concept of the negative and autonomous traditions, which state that the arts either have a negative or no impact at all on society (van den Hoogen, 18). Belonging to the positive tradition one can distinguish between direct and indirect social impacts on society. Under direct social impacts we understand providing “socially valuable” leisure activities, elevating peoples thinking as well as contributing positively to their psychological and social well-being (Reeves, 30). Indirect social impacts can be the stimulation of public amenities and creativity or the enhancement of innovation through a disregard of established thinking models. As stated above the study of social impacts has been split up in a positive and a negative tradition. While social impacts having a positive effect on people’s live are named social benefits, social impacts affecting them in a negative way, have been called social costs (Reeves, 30).
To conclude, a society can thus be described as a population living in the same geographic area, sharing a common identity. Within this society, communities have been formed, sharing the same interests and ties. That helps to provide an environment in which social interactions and transactions can occur. To structure these interactions and transactions, norms and values are necessary. According to van den Hoogen these norms and values shared by the people in the community can be described as “culture”. Within a specific culture, cultural expressions represent the identity of members of a society and/ or groups. In this sense theater can be described as a cultural expression, affecting actors and
spectators in their personal experiences, developments and identity as well as fertilizing social interactions. That also applies to theater festivals, which differ from other sorts of
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events especially due to their context and theme, which attract certain spectators, artists and organizations.
While attracting certain spectators, artists and organizations, theater festivals can influence local resident communities. These influences can be economic but also social impacts. Social impacts go beyond the enactment of the performance itself and therefore can have “a continuing influence upon, and directly touch, people’s lives”. In this sense there can be negative and positive social impacts, in the following addressed as social costs and social benefits. In the following chapters I want research in which ways theater festivals are able to have social impacts on local resident communities in specific.
1.2 Towards a model for measuring social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities
Based on the definitions aforementioned, we can now try to develop measuring methods to find out how theater festivals can have social impacts on local resident communities. When citing McDougall and Munro2, Delamere notes that there are three approaches that can be used to develop an attitude scale. The first approach is the selection and use of a scale that has been previously developed and tested by other researchers. The second approach is the development of a scale through the modification of an existing scale or the introduction of a new set of items to the existing scale. The third, and most time-intensive, approach is the development of a new scale (Delamere et al, 20). For my research, I want to modify existing scales to introduce a number of guidelines and themes concerning the social impacts of a theater festival. Therefore I will have a closer look at the research methods implemented by Small, Delamere and Matarasso as well as the framework van den Hoogen used to describe the functioning of the performing arts in urban society. By combining these existing methods and models I want to intend to filter the most important social impacts a theater festival could have on its local resident community.
Impacts of art and respectively theater festivals may be more specific than for example the more general tourism-related impacts, given the festivals ability to shape the image of a community (Delamere, 26). Because of that I will have a closer look at different research
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McDougall, G. H. G., Munro, H. “Scales and attitude measurement in travel and tourism research”. Travel,
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approaches before I will use the outcomes of these approaches to layout and define a list useful to measure the social impacts of theater festivals on local resident communities. The appropriateness of scientific methods -particularly those which rely heavily on the use of quantitative research in order to measure such dimensions as artistic quality, quality of life or the processes through which those impacts are generated- are highly questionable (Reeves, 37).Therefore social impacts are best examined through a mixed-method
methodology featuring quantitative research as well as qualitative methodologies such as a residents’ perception questionnaire (Greene et al., 274).
When creating a questionnaire it is important to pay attention to: questionnaire length; layout; format and readability. Besides that, it is important to check for loaded, ambiguous or double-barreled questions as well as missing response options and unintentional biases (Small, 59). While questionnaire length, layout and format are important to keep the reader interested and entertained, loaded or double-barreled questions can confuse him or affect his answer.
1.3 Matarasso’s “Use or Ornament?” The social impact of participation in the arts
For his article Use or Ornament? The social impact of participation in the arts, Francois Matarasso intended to “identify evidence of the social impact of participation in the arts at amateur or community level”. Therefore he conducted case study researches in several arts facilities in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Finland and the US. In the end he wanted to figure out ways of assessing social impacts, helpful and workable for policy-makers and those working in the arts or social fields (Matarasso, 7).
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PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT (Matarasso, 25):
• Increase people’s confidence and sense of self-worth
• Extend involvement in social activity • Give people influence over how they are seen by others
• Stimulate interest and confidence in the arts • Provide a forum to explore personal rights and responsibilities
• Contribute to the educational development of children
• Encourage adults to take up education and training opportunities
• Help build new skills and work experience • Contribute to people’s employability • Help people take up or develop careers in the arts
SOCIAL COHESION (Matarasso, 37):
• Reduce isolation by helping people to make friends
• Develop community networks and sociability • Promote tolerance and contribute to conflict resolution
• Provide a forum for intercultural understanding and friendship
• Help validate the contribution of a whole community
• Promote intercultural contact and co-operation
• Develop contact between the generations • Help offenders and victims address issues of crime
• Provide a route to rehabilitation and integration for offenders
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-DETERMINATION (Matarasso, 48):
• Build community organizational capacity • Encourage local self-reliance and project management
• Help people extend control over their own lives
• Be a means of gaining insight into political and social ideas
• Facilitate effective public consultation and participation
• Help involve local people in the regeneration process
• Facilitate the development of partnership • Build support for community projects • Strengthen community co-operation and networking
LOCAL IMAGE AND IDENTITY (Matarasso, 58):
• Develop pride in local traditions and cultures • Help people feel a sense of belonging and involvement
• Create community traditions in new towns or neighborhoods
• Involve residents in environmental improvements
• Provide reasons for people to develop community activities
• Improve perceptions of marginalized groups • Help transform the image of public bodies • Make people feel better about where they live
IMAGINATION AND VISION (Matarasso, 67):
• Help people develop their creativity • Erode the distinction between consumer and creator
• Allow people to explore their values, meanings and dreams
• Enrich the practice of professionals in the public and voluntary sectors
• Transform the responsiveness of public service organizations
• Encourage people to accept risk positively • Help community groups raise their vision beyond the immediate
• Challenge conventional service delivery • Raise expectations about what is possible and desirable
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING (Matarasso, 75):
• Have a positive impact on how people feel • Be an effective means of health education • Contribute to a more relaxed atmosphere in health centers
• Help improve the quality of life of people with poor health
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Matarasso distinguishes between six different themes. Under the header of Personal
Development he summarizes subthemes which can have a transformative effect on people’s lives. Within the theme of Social Cohesion he includes subthemes supporting the promotion of stable, co-operative and sustainable communities. Furthermore he introduces the
headers of Community Empowerment and Self-Determination as well as Local Image and Identity. Community Empowerment and Self-Determination mainly focusses on the
empowerment and ability of people and groups to develop more equitable relationships and gaining control over their own affairs. The topic of Local Image and Identity deals with material which touches on people’s perception about where they live and how they connect with others. And the header of Imagination and Vision comprises everything which has to do with issues close to the nature of arts activities and finally Health and Well-Being adds subthemes creating the link between arts and healthcare.
The analysis of the main topics is complicated due to the fact that several subthemes overlap with each other. For example subject matters such as personal and group identity occur in both, Social Cohesion and Local Image and Identity, Social Cohesion and Community Empowerment and Self-Determination both dealing with the issue of networking and the relationships within a community. Finally Health and Well-Being as well as Personal Development focus on the positive effect arts can have on people’s live. These similarities imply an improvidence which makes it important to not only work with the outcomes of Matarasso’s research but also include other studies by Small and van den Hoogen.
Although Matarasso does not refer to participation in the arts in his list of impacts, he states that it can also have negative effects.
For a long time art has been portrayed as frivolous, absurd or dangerous, hence the participation in the arts can also have negative effects for those participating (Matarasso, 84). According to him especially communities with a narrow horizon, tend to attack, tease or exclude people who participate in the arts and step forward. That is why the “loss of social relations” and the “separation from the community” can be added to the list of social impacts the arts can have on local resident communities.
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resident communities - not necessarily participants but people located in that area - not all of the impacts presented by Matarasso are suitable for our research. And also the usability of the research theme “Health and Well-being” for our research is highly questionable, since without any direct participation, there is no impact on people’s well-beings, not to mention health.
In order to use Matarasso’s themes and divisions for the current research, I have marked the subthemes assumed to be important for measuring the social impacts theater festivals can have on local resident communities. In my opinion some of these impacts are important although they just become effective when locals at least have attended some of the festival performances. Hence it will be important to distinguish between social impacts that already occur if the festival takes place at the same geographical spot and social impacts that only occur through the actual attendance of the theater festival. Furthermore it is of great importance to reconsider his division into the different themes and subthemes, because of the overlapping. In order to reevaluate them, the study of Small’s and van den Hoogens distinctions will be helpful.
1.4 Small’s Understanding the Social Impacts of Festival Communities Matarasso is quite specific about the six research themes he introduced in his book. However, he is not getting into detail when it comes to his research methods. And also his list of different themes and subthemes features quite a few similarities and overlaps. To research the methods of social impacts in further detail as well as to differentiate further between all kind of themes and subthemes, I will have a closer look at Katie Elizabeth Small’s thesis Understanding the Social Impacts of Festivals on Communities. In her thesis Small tries to understand the social impacts festivals have on their host communities. In order to
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positive or negative” (200). As a result the SIP scale got used within Small’s research
questionnaire. Respondents were asked to comment (either Yes, No or Don’t know) whether or not they believed the stated impacts have occurred, and to indicate on a scale from 1 (very large negative impact) to 11 (very large positive impact) the level of impact they believed the item had (42). Throughout her research Small also developed two tables with expected positive as well as expected negative social impacts, festivals can have on local communities. Under the header of positive social impacts she names themes as Community Identity and Cohesion (Outcomes of the festival which have an impact on the sense of community identity and cohesion felt by community members (167)); Entertainment and Socialization Opportunities (Opportunities for entertainment and socialization gained by residents as a result of hosting a festival) and Community Growth and
Development(Opportunities provided to the community for its growth and development that occur as a direct result of staging a festival (168)). As negative social impacts of community festivals she labels Inconvenience (represents the issues that arise from the hosting of a festival which serve to inconvenience members of the local population);
Community Identity and Negative Cohesion (Outcomes of the festival which have an impact on the sense of community identity and cohesion felt by community members); Personal Frustration (Frustration felt by residents as a result of having more visitors in their
community, and their feeling of taking second place to these visitors (167)); Entertainment and Negative Socialization Opportunities (Opportunities for entertainment and socialization gained by residents as a result of hosting a festival); Negative Community Growth and Development (Opportunities provided to the community for its growth and development that occur as a direct result of staging a festival) as well as Behavioral Consequences (Issues such as underage drinking, delinquent behavior and vandalism perceived as the behavioral consequences which can occur at a festival (168)).
EXPECTATIONS OF POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACTS Community identity and cohesion
Togetherness within the community
Community ownership of the festival
Community spirit
Positive cultural impact
Increased pride in the town
Enhanced community identity
Entertainment and socialization opportunities
Entertainment opportunities
Opportunities for social interaction
A good time
More visitors to the community
Brings a small town alive
Meet new people
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A diverse range of visitors attend
Host family and friends
The free street party
Youth-related impacts
Community growth and development
Impacts on local trade
Raises the profile of the town
Money to the community
Tourism
Fundraising opportunities
Community groups work together
Encourages people to move here
Encourages music interest and skills
Good for the town
Display musical talents
Job opportunities
Improvements to infrastructure
Develop new skills
EXPECTATIONS OF NEGATIVE SOCIAL IMPACTS
Inconvenience
Increased noise levels
Increased litter
Increased traffic
Difficulty finding parking
Crowded streets
Road closures
Crowding in local facilities
Community identity and cohesion – negative
Negative residents
Dissatisfaction with the festivals’ organization
Inappropriate sponsors
Divides the community
Worn out volunteers
Personal frustration
Disruption to normal routines
Frustration with visitors
Reduced access for locals
More visitors to the community
Impacts on older residents
Locals take second place to visitors
Locals avoided the festival
Frustration with visitor attitudes
People sleeping everywhere Entertainment and socialization opportunities –
Negative
Decline in free street entertainment
That costs prohibit attendance Community growth and development – negative
Impacts on local trade
Strain on local resources
Increased price of goods and services
Tourism
Behavioral consequences
Drinking and its impacts
Delinquent behavior
Vandalism increased
Underage drinking
Crime increased
The types of visitors attracted
Increased use of prohibited substances
Youth-related impacts
Violence
Decreased road safety
Lacking police presence
Bad language
Locals frightened
Family atmosphere reduced
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researching the social impacts theater festivals can have on local resident communities3. Putting “Festivals” into the spotlight, Small’s study adds a lot to the current research.But to introduce the performing arts into this research I want to focus on the impacts and
functions, theater can have on and for local resident communities. Thus, in the following section I want to have a closer look at the Framework for Describing the Functioning of the Performing Arts in Urban Society introduced by Quirijn van den Hoogen in his PhD-thesis for the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Performing Arts and the City.
1.5 Van den Hoogen: Performing Arts and the City
Whereas the studies conducted by Matarasso and Small were introducing a list of social impacts regarding the participation in arts projects or impacts festivals in general can have on local communities, van den Hoogen includes the world of performing arts in his research. Van den Hoogen promotes the development of new skills through cultural activities and distinguishes between artistic skills and organizational and social skills. While organizational and social skills can arise from all forms of communal activities, artistic skills are specific to cultural activities and can lead to creative problem-solving and connections to one’s surroundings, place and community (290). Just like Matarasso (Matarasso, 85), van den Hoogen claims that individual skills translate into wider social impacts and collective skills through “empowerment of individuals who […] develop aesthetic skills on the one hand and social and organizational skills on the other”. That again helps social activation, which feeds skill development (292). Furthermore van den Hoogen distinguishes between the intrinsic and extrinsic functions and values of the performing arts. He summarizes the characteristics of the physical location, the gathering at a certain place and time and therefore the
acceptance of social norms and values of the community as well as the break from everyday routine through theater under the header “extrinsic values” (314). Intrinsic values and functions he describes as being the following: empathizing with imagined emotions and excitement due to the experience of non-present worlds; experience of new perceptions and the delight in using one’s power of imagination; lead a person to change his or her views and insights; audience members can feel they belong to a collective because they have had the same experience as other audience members (317). Again, and that applies especially to the
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intrinsic values and functions it is important to note that not all of these values and functions holding true for non-participants living in the area of interest. While these effects have all been more or less positive, van den Hoogen also mentions negative social impacts, when citing Putnams work about “the dark side of social capital”. In his work Democracies in Flux Putnam introduces the terms of bonding and bridging social capital. While bridging social capital “refers to social networks that bring together people who are unlike one another”, bonding social capital “denotes ties between people who are like one another in important respects” (Putnam and Goss, 11). The latter – van den Hoogen notes - has the ability to be exclusionary in its nature. In this sense it is meant the same as before in the case of
Matarasso; since the social network – in this case the community – brings together people with the same characteristics, it becomes quite obvious if one breaks character in
participating in the arts. In this case it would be easy for the rest to tease or attack him (van den Hoogen, 298).
1.6 Conclusion of Chapter I
In this first chapter, I have defined the different terms I want to work with in the following. Furthermore I focused on the different researches and studies dealing with the social impacts of the arts, concentrating either on a certain type of people (participants, Matarasso), event (festivals, Small) or art form (performing arts, van den Hoogen).
22 Expectations of positive Social Impacts
Personal Development
• Help people develop their creativity • Extend involvement in social activity • Stimulate interest and confidence in
the arts
• Contribute to the educational development of children
• Encourage adults to take up education and training opportunities
• Help build new skills and work experience
• Help people take up or develop careers in the arts
• Break from everyday routine through theater
• Belong to a collective because of the same experience
• Creative problem-solving
• Change his or her views and insights
Community Identity and Social Cohesion
• Promote tolerance and contribute to conflict resolution
• Provide a forum for intercultural understanding and friendship • Provide a forum to explore personal
rights and responsibilities
• Promote intercultural contact and co-operation
• Develop contact between the generations
• Host family and friends
Community Development
• Encourage local self-reliance and project management
• Facilitate effective public consultation and participation
• Help involve local people in the regeneration process
• Build support for community projects • Strengthen community co-operation
and networking
• Transform the responsiveness of public service organizations • Impacts on local trade • Money to the community • Tourism
• Fundraising opportunities • Encourages people to move here • Job opportunities
• Improvements to infrastructure • Acceptance of social norms and values
of the community
Local Image and Identity
• Develop pride in local traditions and cultures
• Help people feel a sense of belonging and involvement
• Create community traditions in new towns or neighborhoods
• Improve perceptions of marginalized groups
• Help transform the image of public bodies
• Make people feel better about where they live
• More visitors to the community • A diverse range of visitors attend • Brings a small town alive
• Entertainment opportunities
Experience of the Arts
• Erode the distinction between consumer and creator
• Allow people to explore their values, meanings and dreams
• Enrich the practice of professionals in the public and voluntary sectors • Encourage people to accept risk
positively
• Challenge conventional service delivery
• Raise expectations about what is possible and desirable
• Provide a unique and deep source of enjoyment
• Empathizing with imagined emotions and excitement
• Experience a phase of transformation
Expectations of negative Social Impacts Inconvenience
23 • Increased traffic
• Difficulty finding parking • Crowded streets
• Road closures
• Crowding in local facilities • Costs prohibit attendance
Community Identity and Social Cohesion – negative
Negative residents
Dissatisfaction with the festivals’ organization
Inappropriate sponsors
Divides the community
Worn out volunteers
Disruption to normal routines
Frustration with visitors
Reduced access for locals
More visitors to the community
Impacts on older residents
Locals take second place to visitors
Locals avoided the festival
Frustration with visitor attitudes
People sleeping everywhere
Behavioral Consequences Drinking and its impacts
Delinquent behavior
Vandalism increased
Underage drinking
Crime increased
The types of visitors attracted
Increased use of prohibited substances
Youth-related impacts
Violence
Decreased road safety
Lacking police presence
Bad language
Locals frightened
Family atmosphere reduced
Community Development – negative Impacts on local trade
Strain on local resources
Increased price of goods and services
Tourism
Personal Frustration
Disruption to normal routines
Frustration with visitors
Reduced access for locals
More visitors to the community
Impacts on older residents
Locals take second place to visitors
Locals avoided the festival
Frustration with visitor attitudes
People sleeping everywhere
Separation from the community
Loss of social relations
I have marked the social impacts developed by Matarasso, Small and van den Hoogen.
1.6.1 Development of a Questionnaire to measure the Social Impacts of Theater Festivals
In order to develop and test technics to measure how theater festival might influence the local communities, I want to create two questionnaires. Therefore it is important to clarify which people one wants to reach, how the questionnaire has to look like to achieve the best possible rate and what to do with the results (Kirchhoff et al., 13).
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perceptions of these two groups differ and how one would be able to conduct a better dialogue between both groups. The easiest way to get in touch with the associates of the festival is sending off the questionnaire to the festival in question. In order to receive an appropriate answer, the person who is in charge of the communication department is the best to address. That is because the head of communication is mostly responsible for the dialogue between festival and its surrounding. Apparently it is more complicated to find test persons that are appropriate to fill in the questionnaire made for the resident community. How to make sure that the people asked would represent an appropriate copy of the whole population? And how many people one has to interview to receive an image representing the whole? In the end I decided to go into the field, handing out the questionnaires myself. While doing that I tried to reach people working and residing in different fields of society in order to reach the highest divergence possible.
Furthermore the structure of a questionnaire is important. What to include and how to present it (19). To create a chronological questionnaire it is important to start with the basics, according to Friedrichs these are
- Name and Address
- Topic of the questionnaire
- Relation between topic, goal and interest in the participant
- anonymity (Friedrichs, 238)
That is why I added an introduction to the questionnaires explaining what I wanted to do and what I needed the participant’s opinion for. Furthermore I assured the anonymity of the final valorization and added items such as “Job”, “Age”, “Sex”, “Theater performances per year” as well as a box for notes and comments to the questionnaire in order to get a better idea about the participant and his or her context.
To measure the opinion locals have about the festival in their neighborhood, I decided to create statements. Using a scale from 1 (total disagreement) until 6 (total agreement) as well as a “Don’t Know”-box, I wanted to give the participant the chance to express his or her level of agreement with the statement in question. Therefore I had to recode the sub items of the different impact themes assembled and aforementioned in the conclusion of the first
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impact theme in order to create a questionnaire informative for the researcher and bearable for the participant at the same time. Out of these items I created a questionnaire made for local residents recoding the items into statements.
With the aim of creating a questionnaire suitable to capture the position Festival associates take regarding the social impacts their festival have on resident communities and relate them to the opinion locals have, I formed 11 questions out of the 32 statements created for the “local resident” questionnaire. Next to items as “Age” and “Sex” I asked them for their name, their festival and their specific task on the festival in question. Both questionnaires can be found in an English, German and Dutch version in the appendix.
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2. Typology of Theater Festivals in German and Dutch language
areas
In the second chapter I want to focus on the “performing art world” with “theater festivals” being an important part within this world. Therefore I will give a short overview regarding the development of theater festivals throughout the ages and different periods of the “performing art world”, to conclude with a typology of theater festivals nowadays. For that reason I have to distinguish between different types of theater festivals and have to search for a frame useful for differentiation as well as limitation. Since a typology of all different kinds of theater festivals, would go beyond the scope of this research, I want to narrow down my investigations to the western cultural area, to be more precise the Dutch and German language area.
In chapter 1.1 of my thesis I described a theater festival in terms of an “event” as “being open to the public”; “celebrating or displaying a specific theme”; “taking place annually or less frequently”; “consisting of one or more separate activities”; “promoting participation” as well as “occurring mostly after office hours”. Since this is a rather broad description and focuses more on the general event than specifically on theater festivals, I want to add a few lines I have found in “The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre” regarding theater festivals, just to continue with a brief investigation of the development of theater festivals throughout history.
The “Companion” describes theater festivals as a traditional time of communal celebration as well as an enjoyable and exploratory collective experience rooted in a particular place (Chambers, 273). Furthermore it defines theater festivals as a series of linked events mounted at a particular time of the year, mostly in summer time (272). In the following subchapter, I will research how and through which circumstances all this came into being. 2.1 A brief overview over the development of theater festivals throughout history
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dialogical form. But since these topics have been widely discussed throughout the science of Theater History, I will only give a short overview of the developments of Theater Festivals made in Europe of the 20th century.
In 1917 Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal founded the Salzburg festival and re-introduced the idea of a festival as a series of linked events mounted to a particular time of the year (Chambers, 272). The popularity of theater festivals further increased after the Second World War, when festivals were presented as ways of building the peace and of “fostering new understanding across Europe through displaying the work of an international community of artists” (Chambers, 272). In times of the
hippie-movements theater festivals became a place for radical theater from around the world, it became a platform for cross-cultural developments in performance that often could not find its place in conventional theater buildings. From then on questions about nature and society played an important part in the staged plays (Chambers, 272). This became obvious when in 1968, the theater festival in Avignon/ France had to handle demonstrations against its “reactionary” leadership and several theater troupes were offering fringe performances outside of the official program. The fringe movement first appeared in the 1960’s in connection with the Edinburgh Festival when theater troupes appeared outside of the official program, demonstrating for greater Scottish representation. Back then a critic noted that these performances had happened on the “fringe” of the actual festival, through which the name came into being (Rebellato, 294). Fringe Theater distinguishes oneself through the focus on political and environmental issues and trying to be inexpensive and collective. Through improvisation they present an anarchic and subversive combination of artistic events, such as acting, mime, juggling or puppetry (Elsom, 400).
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large cities slowly took over this power. As a result, the reputations of cities in the
international competition became an important part which is why many cities sponsor one or more international festivals these days. Through this a new relationship between festivals and local communities were established and the role of the place where theater was made as well as the role of the locals and their history became more important. Furthermore festivals nowadays become a tourist magnet and civic pride, working as a destination for pilgrimage audiences seeking either for exotic and adventurous experience or following the tracks of great celebrities such as Shakespeare or Wagner (Williams, 562).In the 20th century theater festivals increased their popularity by creating networks between international communities of artists as well as promoting cross-cultural performances. Lately theater festivals are used to enhance the popularity of cities and their population in functioning as a tourist magnet; these festivals often focus on the honoring of a single world artist or a special theme.
It can be said that the theme of an event has been and will be always important, when it comes to the relationship between festival and community. While in ancient times religious rituals have been an audience attraction, these days’ exotic themes or the focus on one specific artist can work as a magnet. Furthermore the level of participation as well as the type of contact residents have with the festival can be important. In the end spatial
concentration of the festival in town but also its cultural context can have a major influence on the theme and therefore on the local community.
2.2 Writing a typology
In order to acquire a typology for theater festivals, I want to differentiate between different theme-types of festivals. To do that, I have been examining recent developments and trends in the scene of European theater festivals. Since there is an overwhelming wealth of
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culture, which makes it easier for theater groups to adjust to the respective mentality and encourage a dialogue.
While studying recent trends of theater festivals by simply using Google and Wikipedia, typing in “theater” “festival” and either “Germany”, “the Netherlands” or “Belgium”, I came across a lot of different festivals of all kind of sizes and themes. Investigating the different trends and relations in the current scenes of theater festivals in the German and Dutch language areas the following list of different theme-types were created: Historical Festivals; Jury Festivals; Theater- and Performance-Festivals; Street Theater Festivals; Amateur Theater Festivals; Student Theater Festivals; Puppet- and Object Festivals; Theater- and Dance-Festivals; Mixed-media Festivals and Established Theater Festivals.
In the following I want to classify these different types of festivals using relations and attributes common within the European theater scene. In doing this, I want to outline how these different types were generated and distinguished from each other.
2.2.1 Historical Festivals
The category of “historical festivals” refers to theater festivals that focus or interpret historical events and/ or developments. A famous example of these types of festivals would be the Nibelungenfestspiele in Worms, which I will describe in more detail later.
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today than just displaying historical facts (5). This can be connected to Gadamer’s “merging of the horizons”, when he says that in each interpretation the chronological horizon of the text is merging with the horizon of the interpret (6). In this case that would be a fusion of the historical statement of the play with the scope of mind of the audience.
This brings us back to our initial question, how to define a historical theater festival. A historical theater festival focuses on poetic interpretations of historical events, mostly located in an historical setting, such as castles or historic town centers. One of these festivals, centering on poetic interpretations of historical events, is named the
“Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall” and takes place in Schwäbisch Hall since 1925, in front of the city church St. Michel and since 2000 also in the “Globe Theater” of Schwäbisch Hall. In the early years it was called the “everyman plays” because of the play Everyman by Hugo von Hofmannsthal which was displayed exclusively.4 Today the “Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall” attract more than 64.000 visitors of young and old to come to the small town of Schwäbisch Hall between June and August to see in total 175 performances. Prices differ between 5€ and 38€5.
2.2.2 Jury Festivals
In the first chapter of her book Theater, kritiek, jury en publiek Lucia van Heteren states that the human being is willing to take in a position to its environment and judge it from this point of view. Because humans are rational beings, judgments help them to organize their perception (van Heteren, 13). Although prevailing and objective standards are often frowned upon in the art world; it cannot free itself from judgment and position-taking. Especially in the subsidized sector of the art world, governments and authorities try to define “high art” in order to legitimize the substitution of particular art forms or objects (9). This is also happening in the theater scene of Europe. Jury festivals do not necessarily focus on one topic like historical theater festival do but rather reach their common accord whilst all plays being selected and in the end judged by a jury.
4 “Wann fanden die Freilichstpiele zum ersten Mal statt?“ Online. Internet. August 6. 2012.
Available<http://www.freilichtspiele-hall.de/de/faq/eintraege/Freilichtspiele-zum-ersten-mal.php>
5
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This is also the case with “Het Theaterfestival”, which has been researched in detail in the book of van Heteren. “Het Theaterfestival” exists since 1987 and takes place in either Brussels or Antwerp. Since the year 2006 there is also a Dutch version held in Amsterdam and called “Nederlands Theater Festival”. “Het Theaterfestival” takes place in the end of August in different theater houses spread out over the city center.6 Ticket prices differ from 8€ to 35€. Each year the jury, consisting in 2012 of 5 members, all engaged in theater business, choses at least 6 (in 2012, 107) plays out of the huge pool of plays staged in the last season in Flanders and the Netherlands (in season 2011/12 this pool comprised 254 productions (Juryverslag 2011-2012, 1)). Selection criteria are for example the segmentation between plays from the Netherlands or Flanders or between man and women (van Heteren, 46). The jury itself states that they select especially plays which show harmony in the
combination of direction, dramaturgy, acting and production (48). In the end of the festival the most conspicuous production gets crowned with the “great theater festival award”. Since 2011 “Het Theaterfestival” also hosts a section for new talents called “CircuitX”, which have the opportunity to show their plays during the festival and go on tour through Flanders afterwards8.
2.2.3 Theater and Performance Festivals
During my research in the theater scenes in German and Dutch language areas, I found a lot of different festivals referring to themselves as “Theater and Performance Festivals”. But what exactly is a performance? It is rather difficult to answer this question in one sentence. For example the performance festival “Springtide” describes the nature of performance art as something which “lies in the unpredictable, the visualization of the processes of constant change. A quiet note alongside colossal movements and the capacity of destruction”9. Other festivals like the “Stromereien” in Zurich presents “a packed program of situational
performance projects in public and semi-public spaces, offering an overview of current
6
“Info”. Online. Internet. August 6, 2012. Available <http://www.theaterfestival.be/2012/info>
7 “Jury”. Online. Internet. August 6, 2012. Available <http://www.theaterfestival.be/2012/jury> 8
“CircuitX”.Online. Internet. August 6, 2012. Available <http://www.theaterfestival.be/2012/circuitx>
9
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forms, trends, strategies and attitudes that occupy the cross-disciplinary interface between performing arts and performance art.”10
So, how to restrict the wide field of performance art and how to define a Theater and Performance Festival? To start with, I want to use a definition Peggy Phelan gave in her book Unmarked. The Politics of Performance:
“Performance occurs over a time which will not be repeated. It can be performed again, but this repetition itself marks it as >different< (Phelan, 146).”
With this statement, she separates performances from audio or video performances, which are repeatable in their nature. Performances defined by Phelan only existing in the presence and can be described as unique events with a propensity for unpredictability. Furthermore performances distinguish themselves from traditional theater in their use of body, space and time. Whereas theater or arts in general use those elements to represent something, a performance makes use of the body as a real object (Fischer-Lichte, 243). To come closer to a definition of performance, I also want to quote Ad de Visser in his book de tweede helft, when he makes a distinction between the happenings in the 60th and the performances in the 70th and 80th. While happenings were “something that happens to happen”,
performances were presentations, still more predictable than happenings and held in front of an audience (de Visser, 180).
To conclude regarding the definition of performances, we could say that performances are not repeatable staging’s, at the edge of unpredictability. They are held in front of an audience, using theatrical elements as body, space and time not as representations but as real objects. But as the preceding discussion has shown, it is quite difficult to stay in these narrow limits. That is why, since the 80s many artists used theater elements in their performances.
In this sense “Theater and Performance Festivals” refer to all kind of different festivals, also including the small festivals on the margin of this theme. One of these festivals is the “Transeuropa” festival, held in a three years cycle in Hildesheim, Germany. It was founded
10
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in 1994 and since then tries to “bring forward a new emerging generation of the independent theatre scene in Europe and to inspire exchange among the countries.” Therefore it hosts not just productions of theater, dance and performance, but also creates an “open space” in which the “typical roles of artists, audience, organizers, and promoters will be nullified, focusing the artistic (group) process and the emancipation of the audience.” The festival takes place in 4 different locations in the inner city of Hildesheim and attracts each time over 2.700 visitors, offering round 70 performances in the range from 7€ to 11€ (Transeuropa, Pressemappe 2012, 5). Each year the festivals has to generate a budget of 100.000€ in order to be able to held it’s annually event (12).
2.2.4 Street Theater Festivals
First forms of “street theater” were the rituals and processions held by the Egyptians 1200 BC (Zarrilli, 54) or the morality- and mystery-plays staged on town squares and fairs during the 14th century (78). Street theater as it is known today, as a form of theater happening in streets and parks became popular in the 1960s. In the beginning of the 20th century theater and art in general were intended for the elite and not for everyone accessible. However, this changed in the in the middle of the 21st century. With the hippie movement, there came a much greater demand for art to be accessible to a wider public and especially to the poorer social classes which could not afford the ticket prices of the big theater houses. Another reason to bring theater to the streets was to reach people who were unfamiliar with theater. Since it was easy for the audience to just turn around and walk away, it was necessary to create something new and spectacular. To bond the audience to the scene of event, it was important for the street theater groups to create plays diverting and easy to understand (Mason, 13). In this sense street theater has often been used to express a
political opinion or to call people’s attention. For example in the late 60s groups such as “the Living Theatre” tried to spotlight the situation in the Vietnam War (Rosenthal, 150). While taking place on the streets and sometimes under circumstances in which an abrupt
termination of the show is necessary, street theater often have improvisational elements in their show, renouncing a huge stage design and/or extensive lighting. In so far street theater of these days is reminiscent of Location Theater as well as the happenings and
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Nowadays, festivals are an integral part of the street theater scene. These festivals are mostly free of entrance and invite street theater groups from all over the world on an unpaid basis. These compagnies of passage are often provided with a site, a time and an entry into the published daily program, so they can earn money by collecting into the hat (Mason, 197).
One of these many festivals is “Deventer op Stelten” which takes place for four days in July and brings over 130.000 visitors to the small town of Deventer in the Netherlands.
“Deventer op Stelten” exists since 1995 and offers its visitors a range of 150 different performances, from drama over juggling and circus to workshops and spectacles on stilts. The festival and all its activities are free of charge but subsidized by the Province of
Overijssel and the “Fonds voor Podiumskunsten” as well as different private sponsorships. It takes place in the inner city of Deventer and attracts young and old on an annual basis.11
2.2.5 Amateur Theater Festivals
What exactly includes amateur theater and how to distinguish it from professional theater? First of all there is the cultivation and transmission of cultural knowledge; also theater plays itself can be described as something happening in the presence, the dramatic plays of Shakespeare and Schiller taking us back in time and letting us experiencing how for example clothing and commerce have been back then (Braat, et. al., A1100-3). However, while this ability is not exclusive for amateur theater but also applies to professional theater, the social aspect of amateur theater is way more important. Professional actors play theater mainly to make a living, yet, amateurs play theater to have an encounter with themselves but also other people (A1100-4). The enjoyment of playing actually seems to be the most important factor for amateurs to play theater. Amateur theater went through a couple of different periods. In the 1950s, relaxation and encounter were important aspects of
amateur theater. Self-development had a central task during the 1960s. In this time not the performance itself but the process leading to this performance was crucial. During the 1970s amateur theater was following the footsteps of professional theater and working together with professional actors to reshape the society. Especially in the Netherlands these concepts of collaboration were successful in the work of groups such as Proloog and het Werktheater.
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Also in this time student theater became more popular and especially university students were deeply involved in the introduction of new theater writers as well as theater styles (A1100-44).
Although most of the time there is no money involved in amateur theater, in the sense of salaries for actors, directors, staff etc., staging a play costs money. Therefore amateur theater groups rely on entrance fees as well as substitution and sponsorship from private and government institutions (B1005-1). One of these festivals is the “Theatertage am See” which exists now since 1984 in St. Martin, a small community in the Lake Constance region. The festival focuses on encounters of old and young as well as foreign and handicapped people, while the age range of the performers differs between 5 and 82 years. Since 1993 the festival gets supported by a booster club, especially putting its focus on the funding of schools and theater educational projects12.
2.2.5.1 Student Theater Festivals
When writing about Student Theater, first of all one has to define what exactly is meant by it. Is it theater made by students or theater made for students? Certainly there are overlaps, such as the “Jonge Harten Festival” in Groningen, a festival organized by students and focusing mainly on performances made for students. But in this chapter I am focusing on Student Theater in the sense of amateur work, subsequently I will go into detail regarding theater made by students.
In her book Kinder- und Jugendtheater der Welt, Christel Hoffmann describes “the play” as the most important activity during a child’s process of growing up. The act of playing offers children the opportunity to test and act with themselves without any consequences. By this a child can figure out how life works and what it means to be a human being. Hence, the childish play is an important part of growing up (Hoffmann, 6). Theater in this sense is an easy way to combine the fun, children have while playing, with education and
self-development. That is why in student theater the emotions and thoughts of the children are always more important than a good newspaper review. This makes student theater more a search for meaning, in which the process is more important than the end result.
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