Developed in the context of the 2012 UTE Decentralized Academy, the idea of creating a collective of young theatre artists from all over Europe first arose in the course of a masterclass directed by Russian theatre director Lev Dodin in Saint Petersburg. Named after the Stanislavski concept of Super Objective, the** ISO Theatre**italic text was created with the aim to explore—on the ground and on stage—what being European means today.
Originally composed of 14 young European actors from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Portugal, France, Italy and Israel, the ISO Theatre recently integrated new members from Germany, Poland and Palestine, thus forming a group of artists from 9 countries in Europe and beyond. They do not share the same language, culture, theatre education, working method; even the way they relate to theatre in general differs. This is precisely the reason why they want to work together.
After a first residency at the Academy for Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg (Ludwigsburg, Germany) and the presentation of their work at the Teatro di Roma, Italy, in November 2013, the members of the ISO Theatre were brought together again in 2015 to open a new chapter in the history of the group. From June to August 2015, thanks to the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the Union of European Theatres invited the ISO actors to participate in masterclasses and attend a three-week residency programme in Bulgaria and Italy, organised in cooperation with the Sfumato Theatre in Sofia, the Teatro di Roma and the Bulgarian Institute of Culture in Rome. In 2016, the ISOs worked together in Portugal and Bulgaria. Finally, in 2017, the last year of Conflict Zones | Zones de Conflit, the ISOs collaborated with the Emerging Playwrights of Harbour40 during a residency in Thessaloniki.
