IYME


ITs Festival Amsterdam is part of the International Young Makers’ Exchange (IYME), a unique and exciting collaboration between nine European theatre festivals that aims to promote and develop the work of student and young emerging performance artists at a formative stage in their careers. This through exchanging works, providing workshops and developing co productions.

The IYME started as a pilot project in 2003 through a collaboration between ITs Festival Amsterdam and ACT Festival (Spain). Soon after that other festivals came on board, including Fabrica de Movimentos (Portugal), SKENA UP (Kosovo), FIST (Serbia), MESS (Bosnia), Short Theatre (Italy), ITSelF (Poland) and BE Festival (UK).

Many performances of ITs participants were scouted during the festival and invited by any of the other festivals to perform abroad. A fantastic opportunity to broaden your horizon, update your network and experience a different kind of cultural landscape.  

The Dutch young theatre maker Hiske Eriks, for example, graduated in 2010 with her performance Wacht! at ITs Festival Amsterdam. Wacht! (Wait!) is about a smyth in a museum waiting for nothing. The non spoken and comical performance has been scouted by many programmers ever since. Hiske already performed Wacht! at IYME partnerfestivals in Bilbao, Rome, Belgrade and Sarajevo. Hiske: “The IYME project has really been a stepping stone for my career. Having to organize everything myself and getting to know a different drama culture has made my ‘mini tour’ an unforgettable and valuable experience”.

For more information check the IYME website. Follow IYME on Facebook and Twitter as well!

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