Opening & Welcome • DAY 1 • European Theatre Forum 2020: European Performing Arts in Focus

The first day of the European Theatre Forum started with this opening with Forum Presenters Gina Calinoiu and Ian de Toffoli. This session was live streamed on 11 November 2020. The sign language interpretation of this webinar has been produced live; this is not an edited translation. Welcome Speeches: • Monika Grütters, German Minister of State for Culture and Media, Berlin/Germany • Barbara Klepsch, Saxon State Minister for Culture and Tourism, Dresden/Germany • Joachim Klement, General Director & Artistic Director, Staatsschauspiel Dresden/Germany European Theatre Initiative: • Barbara Gessler, European Commission, DG EAC, Head of Unit Creative Europe, Brussels/Belgium, in conversation with Forum Presenters Gina Calinoiu and Ian de Toffoli Reunite What is Scattered: PROJEKT EUROPA • Serge Rangoni, General Manager of Théâtre de Liège, ETC President, Liège/Belgium • Maria Aberg, Artistic Director PROJEKT EUROPA and Associate Artist, Royal Shakespeare Company, London/United Kingdom ***** The “European Theatre Forum 2020: European Performing Arts in Focus” is an international platform for vision, discourse, exchange, networking and policymaking to strategically strengthen the structurally highly fragmented European theatre and performing arts sector. The “European Theatre Forum 2020: European Performing Arts in Focus” was organised in the frame of the German EU Council Presidency and in cooperation with the German Minister of State for Culture and the Media and the European Commission. It offered, for the first time, a European representation for the entire sector as one of Europe’s major art forms, within and outside Europe. In focus: Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the performing arts and perspectives for the sector. More about the 'European Theatre Forum 2020: European Performing Arts in Focus' on www.europeantheatreforum.eu. *****