International Online Theatre Festival

Following the vision of digital accessibility and environmental sustainability of performing arts outlined in our Future Stage Manifesto, metaLAB joins TheTheatreTimes.com, European Theatre Convention, and Digital Theatre Plus, to launch the 4th edition of IOTF: International Online Theatre Festival. IOTF also includes a partnership with STAGES (Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift, an ambitious theatre experiment aiming to challenge how the cultural sector interacts with the concept of sustainability. Featuring 39 shows from 23 countries for free, the festival runs April 17-30, 2023. IOTF will also offer 6 international discussion panels, hosted by metaLAB, related to the screenings, including one on theatre and sustainability with STAGES (see schedule below). Through a range of auxiliary events, we aim to contextualize local works nested within particular cultures for a global, international audience.

This year’s festival theme, Theatre and its Others, honours the human, animal, and machine interdependencies of theatre practices and tests cultural, social, political, and economic acts of “Othering.” A contemporary moment marked by wars, health crises, and ecological collapse calls us to care for our shared materiality and environments. This year’s festival strives to showcase the alterities and the marginalized.

Discussion Panels

• April 24 at 3 pm EST / 21:00 pm CET - Narrating Communism-Capitalism Transformation in Contemporary Polish Theatre. Info/Registration.
• April 26 at 8:00 am EST / 14:00 pm CET - STAGES: Sustainable Theatre Experiments. Info/Registration.
• April 26 at 2 pm EST / 18:00 pm CET - Opera and Othering. Info/Registration.
• April 29 at 2:15 pm EST / 18:15 pm CET - Tell Everyone | Just Tell No One - Amplifying the Critical Voices of Ukrainian Playwrights in a Time of War. Info/Registration.

The full schedule of shows and panels is available at thetheatretimes.com/iotf2023/.