The Union of European Theatres (UTE; ) is an alliance of European public theatres. It promotes European integration through cultural interaction. It does transnational theatre work comprising over ten thousand performances and reaching three million viewers each season.

History

The UTE was founded in 1990 by Jack Lang, then Culture Minister of France, and Italian theatre director Giorgio Strehler. Apart from fostering European integration, their motivation also was the perceived threat to European cultural diversity posed by globalisation:

Mission

The UTE's stated mission is The UTE is a “multinational house”, an idea which corresponds to the so-called “Mehrspartenhaus” in German Theatre – that is, one major theatre with different departments, and in the case of the UTE one theatre that consists of seventeen national theatres but yet remains a single entity. This “multinational house” intensively discusses the questions of a European identity and the role of culture in its formation. Its goal is to promote cultural activities across national borders that respect the principles of the particular identities, a thing that requires common and continuous research. Its current programme focuses on projects that put new working methods to the test and connects experienced theatre creators with enthusiastic newcomers, projects which are close to the citizens of the different European cities, and all this on a long-term scale.

Members and structure

The UTE is governed by a General Assembly and a board of directors. The president is Gábor Tompa, artistic and general director of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, Romania. Today the UTE has 19 member theatres in 15 European countries and beyond: Individual members: Honorary members: The operations of the UTE are supported by the "Creative Europe" Programme of the European Union. The UTE is headquartered in Bobigny, France.

Activities

The UTE presents theatre festivals, exhibitions, workshops, theatre school collaborations. artist exchanges, publications, conferences, colloquiums, theatre co-productions and translation initiatives throughout Europe. The Union des Théâtres de l'Europe has over 40 members, 20 of which are major national and municipal theatres from 17 countries.