* What is a Connect festival?
The ISTA Connect initiative was established in 2013 as a service learning programme with the aim of using theatre and the ISTA experience to:
● connect diverse young people from different communities and backgrounds;
● connect ISTA to a range of communities and young people worldwide that it has not worked with before and who would benefit from the ISTA experience;
● burst what might be conceived as the international school ‘bubble’;
● connect ISTA member schools to their communities through service learning.
The ISTA Connect festival brings together young people from ISTA member schools with young people from the host school’s pre-existing local service learning community to engage, not in service learning, but in collaborative theatre making and play. Learning at an ISTA Connect festival comes through dialogue, exchange and friendship.
Click here for more information about ISTA Connect festivals.
** Cross-arts festival and dance/physical theatre festival
As part of ISTA’s new 3-year strategic plan we are delighted to announce a number of pilot festivals that will take ISTA festivals beyond Theatre.
In partnership with Dulwich College, Singapore we are producing our first cross-arts festival. Using the ISTA festival model this festival will incorporate music, film, visual art, dance, technical art and theatre.
We are constantly in search of new methods to capture the world and our experiences of it. New approaches to making art, to apply traditional methods, new inspirations and new perspectives. A cross-arts collaboration fosters a process and leads to a performance where different forms are not in service to each other but are interconnected, interrelated and interdependent.
At this festival we will be inviting participating schools to bring students from all of the above disciplines.
In partnership with Singapore American School we are producing our first dance/physical theatre festival. Many international schools have thriving dance programmes in the middle school but are underrepresented in a festival experience. Here, ISTA brings physicality and movement to the forefront.
The dance/physical theatre festival will be a workshop model event where all students will select a core workshop to follow for the duration of the festival.
At this festival we will be inviting participating schools to bring both dance and theatre students.