producer

The International Playable Theatre Lab was a two-week digital residency offering artists in North Macedonia and Mexico the opportunity to explore the potential of interactive and playable theatre. We’re brought together three theatre-makers in North Macedonia and three in Mexico for a two-week online programme of workshops with leading Playable Theatre artists, combined with time for the participating theatre makers to work on a project idea of their own.

This inaugural edition of the IPTL was funded by the British Council Arts Digital Collaboration Fund.

This project was led by Upstart Theatre, and delivered in collaboration with two partner organisations Teatro al Cubo and MI Film who, through an open call, selected 4 further Participant Artists to take part in the programme. The IPTL ran on weekdays from Monday 20^th September to Friday 1^st October 2021. It consisted of daily 3-hour training sessions (10 in total) led by Artist Mentors – experienced artists with a track record of making digital and playable theatre. Alongside this, Participant Artists worked independently on developing their idea for a new playable theatre show. These ideas were presented in a sharing session on the final day of the residency, where Artist Mentors were in attendance.

You can read more about the IPTL here and read our full evaluation report here.

Partners
Upstart Theatre, UK (Artistic Director Tom Mansfield, Producer Hannah Tookey)
Teatro al Cubo, Mexico (Director Aarón Hernandez Farfan, Producer Mishell Ordóñez)
MI Film, North Macedonia (Director Ivica Dimitrijevic, Coordinator Jasmina Vasileva)

Artist Mentors
Tom Mansfield, Artistic Director of Upstart Theatre
Rachel Briscoe, Artist of theatre company Fast Familiar
Tassos Stevens, Director of theatre company Coney
James Blakey, Independent Artist and Upstart Theatre’s Director of Co-Creation
Chloe Mashiter, Independent Artist
Lucy Wray, Associate Artist of Meta Theatre
Eve Leigh, Playwright
Celia Pearce, Game Designer, Academic at Northeastern University and Founder of PlayableTheatre.org

Participant Artists
Diego Sosa Ortega (Mexico City, Mexico)
Isabel Vázquez (Xalapa, Mexico)
Aarón Hernandez Farfan (Mexico City, Mexico)
Ivana Balabanov (Skopje, North Macedonia)
Teodora Ezhovska (Skopje, North Macedonia)
Ivica Dimitrijevic (Skopje, North Macedonia)
Jasmina Vasileva (Skopje, North Macedonia)