Playground

Coordinated by PAV in collaboration with Ariel Children and Youth Theatre, Euradia, Heartefact and La Mousson d'été, Playground brings together five European institutions to promote and nurture emerging playwrights and their compelling stories.

Its training programme fosters stronger links between the professions of the theatre, including playwrights, directors, translators and performers. At its heart lies the analysis of script and character as they appear on the page, but also the wider questions of translation and adaptation across cultural contexts.

Playground workshops connect two European countries at a time, creating an international and multicultural hub for exchange and artistic growth. The programme aims to map and nurture an international community of playwrights, amplify under-represented voices, use digital tools for a sustainable and inclusive distribution of the work, and build skills for the sustainable and inclusive touring and presentation of the performing arts.

London Residency · January 2026

Our London Residency left us full of new ideas and fresh connections, and with a deeper sense of what can happen when artists come together across borders. From rehearsals and workshops to industry conversations and our final sharing at Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End, the residency offered space to listen, question, test ideas and connect. We are especially grateful to our partners at Foreign Affairs for their generosity and hospitality.

Across the week, we developed fragments of Road Trip by Andreea Tănase and Quiet Hours from Two to Six by Sofija Dimitrijević and Tara Mitrović, directed by Flo Dessau and Ria Samartzi and performed by Anjelica Serra, Miranda Shamiso, Olivia Negrean, Youness Bouzinab, Lanna Joffrey and Ella Jarman.

Partners' meeting in Sarajevo · September 2025

Sarajevo hosted our first in-person partners' meeting during the inaugural Sarajevo Theatre Showcase, where we encountered bold performances and fresh plays and set concrete plans for Playground's next steps. The city's history, marked by the longest siege in modern times, reminded us how culture sustains the human spirit.

Non correre Amleto by Francesca Garolla · Belgrade, 3–9 November 2025

Heartefact House in Belgrade hosted the R&D workshop on the play by Italian playwright Francesca Garolla, led by Marija Milenković with actors Stojša Oljačić and Nevena Mihajlović, translator Julijana Vučo and facilitator Patrik Lazić. The play begins with a deeply personal event: on 29 May 1993 a humanitarian convoy heading to Bosnia and Herzegovina was ambushed on the Diamond Route, and Francesca's uncle was among those killed. The public reading on 8 November was followed by a discussion in which the audience became active collaborators.

Scenes from the Life of Family Stuck by Oana Hodade · Paris, 10–14 November 2025

La Mousson d'été, in partnership with Théâtre Ouvert, welcomed Romanian playwright Oana Hodade with translator Fanny Chartres, director Cécile Arthus and performers Élodie de Bosmelet, Claire Cahen, Hugues de La Salle and Philippe Lardaud. Oana heard her text performed in French for the first time, after readings in English, German and Romanian.

In the Pink by Irene Petra Zani · Târgu Mureș, 24–28 November 2025

Ariel Theatre welcomed the Italian playwright for a week-long residency, with Olga Macrinici directing, Eva Simon translating and a cast of Emilia Banciu, Georgiana Bighescu, Mariana Iordache, Georgeta Lozincă, Mioara Topor and Cristina Ungureanu. The play reclaims pink as both comic and cruel, a lens through which a chorus of women of different ages, classes and origins take back the stories that History has silenced. The residency ended with a public reading on 28 November.