Westwind 2022 – 38th Theatre Meeting for young audience NRW

To mark the 38th edition of the WESTWIND festival, an international group of eight festival directors, theatre makers and cultural managers from Egypt, Georgia, India, Mexico, Thailand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom travelled to Bochum from 11 to 15 June to take in the festival programme, meet with the organisers, including Cathrin Rose, artistic director of Junges Schauspielhaus Bochum and WESTWIND 2022, as well as with participating artists and to get to know other protagonists from the field of children's and youth theatre in NRW and to network.

The guests had the opportunity to exchange ideas with Brigitte Dethier, Chairwoman of ASSITEJ e.V. Germany, Stefan Fischer-Fels, Artistic Director of Junges Schauspiel, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and board member of ASSITEJ Germany, and Jutta Maria Staerk, Artistic Director of COMEDIA Theatre Cologne, among others. In Düsseldorf, the group met with Irina Bârcă, dramaturge for children's and youth theatre projects at FFT Düsseldorf, for a joint discussion. The guests also visited the URBANATIX premises in Open Space Bochum, where they had the opportunity to discuss the co-production "Trial & Error" with the project participants from URBANATIX and theatrekohlenpott (Herne).