CPH STAGE EXPANDS WITH PERFORMING ARTS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

For the first time, children and young people will have their own curated programme at CPH STAGE. With the launch of CPH STAGE JUNIOR, the festival is opening its doors to a new audience and presenting a selection of some of the strongest performing arts experiences for children and young people from across Denmark.

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Since its foundation, CPH STAGE has been a meeting point for Danish performing arts for adult audiences. Now, the festival is expanding with a new curated line that puts the spotlight on professional performing arts for children and young people, giving it a prominent place at Denmark’s largest theatre festival.

The initiative is the result of a new collaboration between CPH STAGE and six of Copenhagen’s key venues for children and young people: Anemonen, Batida, Riddersalen, Teater Hund, Teater ZeBU and Teatret Zeppelin. The programme will feature five to six productions for audiences aged 0–16, hosted by the six venues.

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A festival for the whole city

For CPH STAGE, this new initiative marks an important step in the festival’s continued development.

Morten Krogh, Director of CPH STAGE, says:

“Over the years, we have received many enquiries about productions for children and young people at CPH STAGE. I am therefore delighted that we can now take this step. If we are serious about developing the performing arts and their audiences, then we must, of course, also make room for our youngest audiences and their families – so that we can be a performing arts festival for the whole city. CPH STAGE JUNIOR gives us the opportunity to present some of the most exciting performing arts for children and young people being created in Denmark right now. I am particularly pleased with the support we have received from the city’s venues for children and young people. It is wonderful to now be able to welcome them into the CPH STAGE collaboration as well.”

The productions will be selected through an open call, inviting theatres and companies from across Denmark to apply to be part of the programme. The aim is to create a curated line that reflects the artistic quality, diversity and development that characterise performing arts for children and young people in Denmark. At the same time, the initiative will strengthen the connections between Copenhagen’s venues and the theatre for children and young people produced elsewhere in the country.

One of the partners is Anemonen, which sees the new programme line as an important recognition of a field that plays a central role in Danish performing arts.

Sidsel Ramdal, Theatre Director at Anemonen, says:

“Performing arts for children and young people are an integral and essential part of the wider performing arts landscape. This is where powerful artistic formats and stories are developed, giving children and young people the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the world, ask questions and experience a sense of community through art. That is why it is also important for work created for children and young people to have a prominent place at a festival such as CPH STAGE.”

“At Anemonen, we are both delighted and proud to help develop this new strand alongside the other venues for children and young people. It is an important initiative because it raises the profile of the field and makes it possible to introduce even more children and young people to high-quality performing arts.”

The new open call opens tomorrow, October 21, alongside the festival’s other open calls. It is not possible for the collaborating theatres to apply the open call with their own productions.

The selection panel will include one representative from each of the six Copenhagen venues for children and young people listed above, Festival Director Morten Krogh, Ditte Felding from Teaterhuset Filuren and Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen, Artistic Director at WunschMachine.