15 years of the ACT Festival for Independent Theater Festival
Fifteen years is a long time, but it is not yet adulthood. Perhaps that is why the voice of the independent scene often remains somewhat on the sidelines, almost unheard. This anniversary should be a powerful demonstration of strength, and we have not lived in a more threatening world for a long time. Support for independent culture in Europe has not been so uncertain for decades. Until recently, we thought there was some predictability in at least part of the world around us, but that illusion has completely shattered. Democracies behave like dictatorships, and dictatorships run rampant under the pretext of protecting the freedoms of their citizens. It has never been so obvious that words and deeds may not coincide.
The ACT Festival has been around for fifteen years. Hundreds of performances and guests from all over the world, dozens of workshops, discussions, and studios, old and new partnerships and friendships. None of this is enough to stop even one war, but that's not really its job. Our task is clear: to give visibility to the independent scene, to support its international visibility and cooperation, to bring together audiences who otherwise do not feel welcome, and last but not least: to show the bold, unexpected moves in art, those actions that move it forward.
The most important thing about the independent scene is its ethics. We say things that need to be said, even if not everyone hears them. We make mistakes because we ask questions that sometimes no one knows the answers to yet. We get lost because we try to blaze trails. We persevere because no one can stop us.
Support for independent art is support for a free society. As long as someone wants to be free, everything is fine. Freedom is beyond funds.