User:WTTI/World Theatre Training Institute

The World Theatre Training Institute AKT-ZENT was originally founded in 1995 as AKT-ZENT International Theatre Centre Berlin by Artistic Director Jurij Alschitz and Programme Director Christine Schmalor. Since 2011, AKT-ZENT has operated as the principle research centre for training methods of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) – the World Organisation for the Performing Arts. In 2017, the centre was renamed the World Theatre Training Institute to reflect new tasks and objectives within their broader educational remit and sphere of influence.

History and Mode of Operation
Since its foundation, AKT-ZENT has been committed to developing new training methods and educational programmes aimed at professional actors and directors. Between 1995 and 2009, AKT-ZENT conducted a three-year modular postgraduate programme in close partnership with the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow (GITIS). The programme was implemented in Germany, Russia and across European partner institutions in Estonia, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Greece. From 1996 onwards, the organisation has since expanded to create a comprehensive training methodology including seminars, summer school academies, practical experimentation through laboratories, festival showcases and live performances. These projects were enabled to a large extent by the European Cultural Programmes Caleidoscope, Culture 2000 and Culture 2007-2013, and jointly realised with European performing arts centres, academies, national ITI centres and other governing bodies. Over the course of these extensive, decade long collaborations, the importance of stringent research within a performing arts context became a significant and recurrent theme.

Here, the term practical theatre research constitutes methods of training: practical exercises are tested and continuously developed to create an enhanced standard of training for theatre professionals. Specialised training programmes for acting teachers and theatre pedagogues have been advanced to create a new methodological awareness of the teaching process itself thereby helping to foster innovation in the field of theatre education and to contribute to the upgrading of drama school teaching as a profession.

Based on practical suggestions and amendments pioneered in the realm of theatre education, the World Theatre Institute aims to contribute to the innovation of education more broadly. In doing so, the organisation explores wider ongoing debates around education, engaging critically with conventional teaching formats and calling their contents into question by presenting new ideas at specialist conferences and through rigorous practical testing.

A central feature of the World Theatre Institute’s working method is its unique international team of teachers, which has been built up by the Artistic Director over years and operates flexibly in different configurations and contexts.

Each project is internationally orientated and thrives off the interactions between different and diverse cultures.

Ars incognita, the publishing department of the World Theatre Training Institute, publicises  the research results of Jurij Alschitz in several languages.

Research Projects

 * METHODIKA - since its inception in 1999, the International Festival for Theatre Training Methods brings theatre makers together every two years to exchange and discuss new training methods regarding teaching and rehearsal practice.
 * The World Theatre Training Library - from 2011 onwards, this project has been exploring educational traditions in their day-to-day practical forms throughout the world. On this basis, new rehearsal, teaching and training methods are collectively developed in international group laboratories and made accessible to the international theatre community.
 * Teaching Professional Theatre Practice - the MA Programme for Acting and Directing Teachers was first implemented in 2012-2014 in collaboration with the Centro Universitario de Teatro at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. The course forms the basis for further methodological development to be implemented in various formats.
 * Hybrid Theatre Training - in 2017, the institute created an online learning platform to test innovative new training formats including a specialised combination of online training and practical rehearsal tasks. The focus of methodological investigation lies on the research of specific exercises and tasks dedicated to self-education and the development of creativity. Courses on the training platform grant subscribers global access to the professional portfolio of training knowledge, as well as direct contact with the international team of teachers.
 * ALthattheatre introduces quantum pedagogy to the education and further training of actors. Here, the team of teachers apply innovative impulse training concepts derived from wave and resonance theory. ALthattheatre stands for the principle of self-education and the development of the homo creativus.

International Network and Memberships
The World Theatre Training Institute AKT-ZENT is the main organisational body of the European Association for Theatre Culture. Parallel to the creation of AKT-ZENT International Theatre Centre Berlin, Jurij Alschitz and other artists opened similar theatrical centres in their own respective countries and, in the year 2000, they decided to form the European Association for Theatre Culture.


 * PROTEI – Progetti Teatrali Internazionali (Italy 1995)
 * ECUT – Europeiskt Skaninaviskt centrum för utforskning av teater (Sweden 1994–1998)
 * SCUT – Skaninaviskt centrum för utforskning av teater (Norway and Sweden 1998)
 * Koïnè langages transartistiques (France 2003)

The World Theatre Training Institute AKT-ZENT is the Research Centre of the International Theatre Institute ITI – World Organization for the Performing Arts


 * Member of ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts
 * Member of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute
 * Member of  Landesverband freie darstellende Künste Berlin e.V.

Weblinks

 * World Theatre Training Institute
 * Hybrid Theatre Training Platform
 * International Theatre Institute
 * ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts

Reference List
Category:Theatre Category:Performing arts