Dear Colleagues,

İzmir Small Letters Big Dreams Children and Youth Theatre Festival  that will be held as the fourth of by The Historic Peninsula Arts and Culture Association still keeps its reputation as being the only festival in the field of children and youth theatre since the day it began. With the experiences during the two festivals we have had, in the 5th festival we will hold having much more strength, we aim with our street performances, workshops,concerts, sharing days and panels to give our young and small audience unforgettable moments and besides to create sharing environments that different theatre groups from different cultures can cherish together in one of the most important cities in Europe,İzmir.

The theme of our festival this year is peace.All of our plays are just in spite of the relentless warmongers of the world.Peace theme,chosen by the festival committee with the hope of ensuring a world that all children live in peace as soon as possible is a fact that should be stuck with heart and soul by everyone who loves art especially theatre, undoubtedly. We,as the festival committee,believe that the imaginary world of children and youngs who are so vulnerable and sensitive to be affected from the idea of war can be kept pure and they can only be healthy individuals only by means of theatre.Our trust in that bringing different cultures together will make it more meaningful is endless.

The festival held by The Historic Peninsula Arts and Culture Association and undertaken by Su Performing Arts Stage has an importance as being a largely independent festival. Except the Ministry of Culture’s, Metropolitan Municipality’s and some public institutions’, not provided with large amounts of financial support,the festival committee with the experience of previous years sought agreement to cooperate with big shopping malls of İstanbul in order to reach much more audience and comfort the budget of the festival.Each participating group will find chance to give their performances , being in the first place on Dramatik Sahne Sanatları, and on many different  technically  equipped  stages,  besides,in  accordance  with  the  cooperation  above- mentioned, the groups should assuredly be ready to perform and prepare for a workshop in any public places that do not have technical equipments.Every participating group,within the scope of the festival will make a presentation informing  others about the culture, living style and traditions of their countries. The style of the presentation depends solely on the creativity of the group, for the intercultural sharing, here are some activities suggested for the presentations:

• Teaching of one of the games spesific to the country to other participants
• Making participants taste one or more country-specific flavors
• Presenting/transfering the examples reflecting the traditional theatre understanding of the country
• Promotion one of the artists of the country who has costed the world
• If available, presenting country-specific toys
• Presenting a small vignette reflecting the cultural life of the country
• Transferring  information  about  the  efforts  made  in  the  field  of  children's  theater  in  the country, especially in the field of theater facilities, etc.

Above-mentioned suggestions are given only to have ideas, every group is free to create their own concept of presentation in the two hours placed for themselves.

If you want  to be a participant of festival that will be held by the execution of Dramatik Sahne Sanatları, with the contributions from the leading theatre organizations such as TOBAV (The    State    Theatre,    Opera    and    Ballet   Employees Foundation), Yarın Association,KETİB ( Coastal Aegean and Aegean theater association) OYÇED (Playwriters and Translators Association), please be so kind fill in the form attached and send it with the DVD, photograph and brochures that belong to the play you applied with to the Central Office of The Historic Peninsula Arts and Culture Association.You will be contacted again according to the result made by the decision of the jury.

Groups can participate in the festival as ten people including the technical personnels.Transportation is in the responsibility of each group. Accomodation and food will be provided by the festival committee. Except these expenses, no payment will be made for performing groups.

The application deadline is 30 December 2016. We look forward meeting you in İzmir

Best regards.

Nurhan Uslu
Head of the Festival Committee