Central is proud to support the launch of the second annual International Online Theatre Festival, an online theatre festival showcasing the work of diverse global artists and hosted digitally by The Theatre Times.

The theme of the 2020 International Online Theatre Festival is ‘in a world where you can be anything…’ and it aims to create an online space that blurs geographical boundaries, rejects simplifications about borders and national identities and brings us together as a community to think about what it means to be human.

All productions are free to watch from anywhere in the world.

Celebrating theatre-making from across the world, the Festival presents 25 different productions and films from a range of international companies including Schaubühne, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Reckless Sleepers, and English Touring Theatre. Iconic productions to be screened include Enemy of the People (dir. Thomas Ostermeier), (A)pollonia (dir. Krzysztof Warlikowski), and Lenin (dir. Milo Rau).

Creating a digital place for exploring multiple definitions of theatrical space, audiences can see a range of work from global artists and companies, as well as renowned filmmakers who have turned to theatre as a mode through which to explore process, craftmanship and performativity.  Alongside the productions and performances, The Theatre Times’ videoconferencing chat rooms offer a series of talks and online events related to the screenings.

Featured in the 2020 line up is ‘Home Makers’, a non-traditional theatre collaborative work by BBC and AHRC New Generation Thinker and Central’s British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Ella Parry-Davies, working alongside migrant and domestic care workers in Lebanon and the UK: Sara, Rose, Dara, Ann, Lina, Espoir, Alehandro, Amara, Lu, Helen and Alexandra.

The Festival was curated by co-Artistic Directors Alma Prelec and Gabriel Vivas-Martinez (doctoral candidates at Central), and Xunnan Li (doctoral candidate at Royal Holloway).  Central’s Director of Research, Professor Maria Delgado, is the Festival’s Executive Director.