We live and breathe our mission statement ‘Culture for a Changing City’ and we’re constantly responding to the ever-changing cultural landscape of London, which is why we’re extremely excited to announce we’ll be a partner venue for London’s European theatre festival, Voila! here in autumn 2019.

Now in its seventh year, the festival brings together theatre-makers from across Europe for two weeks of multilingual, multidisciplinary, multicultural performance.

As part of this exciting festival Voila! are inviting submissions from UK and European companies from the 13 May to present or develop a new show or bring an existing show to a London stage. Any type of live performance will be considered (theatre, dance, comedy, music, stand-up, performance art etc.) so long as there is a connection to Europe.

Produced by the Cockpit since 2012, Voila! began as an annual French and English bilingual fringe festival. In response to Brexit, the 2017 festival expanded to include all European languages, with performances at The Cockpit and two more venues, Etcetera Theatre and Applecart Arts.

 

Festival Directors Sharlit Deyzac and Amy Clare Tasker said of the partnership:

“We’ve seen strong multicultural performance by emerging artists at Rich Mix, and even created a show here ourselves. Now we’re delighted to come in as programmers and contribute to the venue in a new way – including offering residency support to three companies as part of the festival.”

Both Voila and Rich Mix encourage cross-cultural conversation and support artists to experiment with new ideas. There’s no theme prescribed for the festival nor a strict definition on who is and who isn’t ‘European’ – any theatre-maker that feels that Europe is relevant to their work is encouraged to be part of the submission.

With uncertainty still looming over Brexit, Voila! festival will continue in the same spirit and continue to cultivate captivating European theatre in London.

We’re fascinated to see what this year’s festival has in store…

 

Applications are open now through the 13th of May. Find out more and apply at www.voilafestival.co.uk