Steph Vajda

Sri Lanka has hosted many international events such as film festivals, musical shows, fashion and visual art shows in the past. But an international theatre festival has not been organised in the country so far. Inter Act Art understands the value of international arts exchange and showcasing and is presently organising the Colombo International Theatre Festival. The event will be held from 26 March to 2 April 2012, the first time an international theatre festival will be hosted by Sri Lanka.

For a current interview with the Director of the festival, M.Safeer, please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhLcPR_Vfw

If you do not speak Sinhala, please select the CC option at the bottom right of the viewing area.

The main objective of this project is to build a common multicultural platform between international and Sri Lankan theatre communities. There are different cultural identities in Sri Lanka, but very seldom or rarely are they able to move toward a common forum or space. This project is organised to fill this gap.

It will, in addition make a conducive stage where the Sri Lankan audience will be able to understand and learn about modern trends and models of international theatre, paving the way for constructive dialogue with international artists and scholars, to provide opportunities to bring forward the drama, dance, music and the modern performing arts to a multicultural space.

Also, this theatre festival is organised to provide opportunities to use any language of one’s preference. Performances will help the creators to move away from the traditional Proscenium theatre to Black Box Theatre, as exchange between groups from different countries helps to build a multicultural platform for our work.

You can buy tickets here - http://www.ticketslk.com/movies/305/show_movie

For the group's Facebook page, go here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colombo-International-Theater-Festival/107601319294661

Benefits of the CITF

• Gain experience from the multicultural forum, learning about modern techniques and models of international theatre
• Interaction between people from participating countries
• This festival will bring international recognition to Sri Lanka, and will be a platform for the Sri Lankan theatre community to gain experience from the international theatre arena
• This also will be a turning point for theatre in Sri Lanka as it will open opportunities for Sri Lankan artists to share knowledge & experience with the international community
• We envision this festival will become an annual event which will promote artist exchange and tourism in Sri Lanka
• Provide the broader society the opportunity to witness and experience international theater
• A long term turning point in the filed of drama & theatre education in Sri Lanka.

What is Inter Act Arts (IAA)?

Inter Act Art is a cultural organisation registered with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of Sri Lanka. The country “with its long history has been an important convention point for world arts and cultural affairs, both oriental and occidental society.” IAA, which was inaugurated in 1990, has completed many activities for the last two decades. Basically, IAA is involved in theatre and performing art. Also, IAA is a multi ethnic, multi language and a multi religious group. It’s decision making activities are conducted by a committee comprising of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim representatives.

By identifying and studying the modern trends of the theatre art we have achieved a lot. We have been the pioneers to introduce Black Box Theatre to Sri Lanka, as a different dimension to Sri Lankan theatre, located in Sri Jayawardenapura, capital of Sri Lanka. (The theatre includes a library and an academy).

We have trained young creators, school teachers and university students island wide in modern trends and techniques, as our main objective. We have a publication section which deals with theatre art. A few books published by our organisation have been prescribed as reading material for A Level students who are following performing art as a subject, by the National Institute of Education. We have also given the opportunity for young people with creative ideologies to work part time to fulfill their objectives by providing basic facilities. Most of their creations have won awards at the national level. We are having the first Black Box Theatre in Sri Lanka and the second in South East Asia. We have held two alternative national level theatre festivals namely this Sri Lankan theatre festival and a Black Box short play festival which are annual events at present. We are doing all this with much interest and commitment to create better theatre in Sri Lanka. Even though we get some help from certain institutions we feel we are marching alone to achieve our objectives. However, as a small organisation, we have built a considerable relationships with the international institutions.

For more information contact Safeer - [email protected]

What is Venesa?

Venesa (formerly lkCreate and meaning ‘change’ in Sinhala) is a program initiated by Australian based organisation Ferment Collaborate. Our main objective is to collaborate with local community artists, facilitators and change agents to develop new approaches to community development, tourism, enterprise and education and to utilise creative cultural development approaches to activate social change

Our vision is to support connected, collaborative, skilled and networked practitioners to develop grass roots driven, livelihood creating, community-focussed programs and resourcing.

For more information please email Steph Vajda at [email protected].