Info Doc CASA 2013

CASA LATIN AMERICAN THEATRE FESTIVAL 2013 Sept 28 to Oct 6 RichMix & The Barbican Centre CASA Latin American Theatre Festival is a pioneering annual showcase of exceptional contemporary Latin American theatre in London. With the Barbican Centre and Rich Mix as new high-profile partner venues, increased Arts Council England support and an international programme of work featuring some of Latin America’s finest theatre companies, CASA 2013 is set to be one of this year’s most thrilling international theatre events, building on the UK’s ever-growing interest in the region.

Mission Statement - To present the very best Latin American theatre to UK audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

- To engage with the Latin American community through theatre.

- To nurture, support and develop the work of Latin American theatre artists living in the UK. - To facilitate cultural exchange between Latin American and UK-based theatre artists.

A Growing Impact and Profile Founded in 2007, CASA has quickly grown into a popular and acclaimed arts festival of national and international repute.

Winner of Cultural Event of the Year in the LUKAS (Latin American UK Awards), CASA 2012 was a sell-out success featuring world class theatre from Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico and exciting new work from UK-based Latino theatre-makers and artists, as well as food, music, talks and workshops. Building on that success, we are moving the festival from our old home of Ovalhouse Theatre to take place at RichMix and the Barbican Centre, home to some of the most important international festivals that London has to offer inlcuding Spill, The London International Mime Festival, Colombiage and Mexfest 2012 - CASA only

2013 - including new partner venues

- Audience numbers doubled - 5047 unique visits to website - 1500 Facebook international followers and growing - 650 Twitter follows and growing - mailing list grew to 4000+ - 3000 brochures printed and distributed

- Potential audience capacity doubled - 1,000.000+ unique visits to websites - 55,000+ combined Facebook followers - 114,000+ combined Twitter followers - 58,000+ combined targeted mailing lists - 30,000+ combined brochures

Bringing the Best in Latin American Theatre to London CASA has achieved its ambition to present award winning theatre from leading companies such as Timbre4 (Argentina), Julio Adrião (Brazil) Gustavo Ott/Teatro San Martin (Venezuela) and Tryo Teatro Banda (Chile) while giving audiences the opportunity to also discover the regions most exciting emerging new companies such as Vuelve en Julio (Argentina), Anima Teatro (Mexico), Rene Lovo (El Salvador), Troupp Pas D’Argent (Brazil) and dance theatre troupe Diego y Ulises (Argentina) At CASA 2013 we will present our most explosive combination of established and emerging companies to date. It will feature performances from two of Latin America’s most consistently ground-breaking and award winning theatre companies, Teatro de los Andes (Bolivia) and Teatro Malayerba (Ecuador), alongside powerful work from the Grand Dame of Uruguayan theatre Nidia Telles and emerging companies from Chile and Brazil including the Edinburgh Herald Award Winning Udi Grudi

Tryo Teatro Banda - © Alex Brenner

Julio Adrião - © Alex Brenner

Troupp Pas D’Argent - © Alex Brenner

Building Bridges and Facilitating Exchange CASA is also a unique opportunity for theatre makers, artists and cultural leaders to share and learn from each other.

Throughout the festival, CASA facilitates both exchange between theatre artists and organizations from the UK and Latin America and invests and develops Latin American theatre talents in the UK To achieve the former, CASA runs a complementary programme of theatre workshops, talks and debates during the festival that is aimed at creating a range of opportunities for artists from the UK and Latin America to meet, learn together and collaborate on new projects. We are also planning new international joint projects with partner festivals in Latin America.

To achieve the latter, CASA has established a development programme for UK-based Latin American theatre groups that has seen us support over fifteen different projects in the past three years. We have invested our resources as an organisation and offered artistic mentorship to two of these groups and in doing so, we have helped create two original works, including the Edinburgh Fringe First-winning Juana in a Million by Mexican performer, Vicky Araico Casas.

Reaching New Audiences and Engaging with the Latin American Community CASA is dedicated to reaching audiences of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds and making the festival as accessible as possible. All our visiting companies perform in the original Spanish or Portuguese with English surtitles and with ticket prices from just £5, CASA 2012 was hugely successful in this goal, with over 50% of the audience being of Latin American origin, over 60% under 35 years old, and 18% made up of people who go to the theatre once a year or never. There was also a rise in non-Latin American audiences discovering the festival for the first time, a trend set to continue through our affiliation to the Barbican Centre and Rich Mix. Last year alone, CASA activities were enjoyed by well over 5000 people.

At the same time, the Latin American community in the UK is at the heart of what CASA does and how CASA operates. From running year-round workshops to large-scale community events, CASA makes a special effort to engage positively and creatively with members of the Latin American community through theatre, in partnership with some of the key companies of the Latin American/hispanophone media in the UK, such as Aculco Radio, La Tundra and El Iberico Gratuito This year will see the creation of a new community theatre company. Led by a professional theatre director and supported by a professional theatre team, this company of up to thirty amateur actors from London’s Latin community will create and perform a new theatre show at CASA 2013. We are also converting to charity status to better reflect the work we undertake and to enable us to fundraise more effectively.

Kids Workshop - © Alex Brenner

Adults Workshop - © Alex Brenner

Post Show Music - © Alex Brenner

The Audience - © Alex Brenner

CASA’s Future CASA is in good shape. On top of increasing financial support from Arts Council England (£9000 in 2010, £16,000 in 2011 and £46,000+ in 2012), CASA is building ever stronger relationships with key organizations in the UK such as Kings College London and the Cervantes Institute and developing highly beneficial collaborative relationships with partner theatre festivals in Latin America and Europe including Mess Festival in Boznia and Herzevogina, FIT Cadiz in Spain and Translatines in France.

Furthermore, as London’s Latin American community gets bigger every year (180,000+ Latinos live in London) and interest in the region’s theatre and culture grows and deepens, CASA is primed to become one of the UK’s biggest international theatre festivals over the next five years.

However, we are still dependent on the generous support of donors both public and private to enable our continued growth whilst keeping ticket prices as accessible as possible. We are looking to expand our supporters network both in the UK and in Latin America. The only thing limiting CASA’s growth is our resources, but with your help we can work together to create a truly memorable and important cultural experience; be able to programme an even wider variety of work, including more complex, larger shows to even larger audiences and truly do justice to the theatrical riches of a continent.

Interested?

If you would therefore like to find out more about what we do with a view to partnering, supporting and/or collaborating with CASA, please contact Artistic Director Daniel Goldman at daniel@casafestival.org.uk or General Manager Felix Andrew on felix@casafestival.org.uk