STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
municipal theatres. The New Capitalism of the nineties made the fringe theatre tending to
become a scene of individuals who worked in different groups and projects.
The fringe theatre scenes are located in the bigger cities of Switzerland where there are theatres,
or rooms to be discovered and a certain public support. There are special fringe theatres for
touring groups. There is a high pressure everywhere. The municipal theatres diminished their
ensembles out of the need to save money. Actors with a long experience in the institutional
theatre and young ones tend to switch to the fringe scene. The identity of the fringe scene has
become scattered because the municipal theatres took over a lot of things which were first
initiated by the fringe theatre: opening new rooms, discovering alternative places like old
factories, projects integrating other art forms, getting closer to the audience, introducing
new, provocative plays, projects and playwrights.
The possibilities for fringe theatre groups to tour have increased in the last years. Zürich as the
economic center of Switzerland has the biggest alternative theatre scene. The struggle to survive
is hard.
United Kingdom
In the UK overall responsibility for Arts and Culture rests with the governmental DCMS
(Department for culture, media and sport). The national Arts Councils are responsible for
providing funds for the large state theatres and for the Independent sector, and although a high
proportion of funding is taken up in supporting an infrastructure of regional repertory theatres,
since the arrival of lottery funding there has been an increase in support for independent and
alternative arts. The UK has a thriving fringe and alternative theatre scene with a complex layer
of “revenue funded”, “project funded” and “un-funded” companies, organizations and venues.
With regard to revenue funding in the South East region alone there are over 100 companies
being funded in this way. The best funded of the independent groups in this selection is given
over 300,000 euros a year about a half which gets The Nuffield state theatre Southampton. The
National Lottery Grants are available for irregular funded companies, “Decibel” is the funding
program for independent black and Asian theatre in the UK.
There is a strange anomaly in the work of the Independent theatre in Britain in that outside
London fringe groups are paid to perform their shows. However; in the capital there are a
number of venues which have a high profile but do not pay actors and charge extortionate rates.
The Grand Theatre of Lemmings dedicated to creating original comedy theatre, the Lemmings
have been touring since 1984. The first stage show Laugh I Could Have Died opened the same
year and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1985 to excellent reviews. By 1986 the
Lemmings had started touring internationally and played to audiences in Israel. In 1988 their
international reputation developed further when they became one of very few British companies
invited to perform at the World Exposition in Brisbane, Australia and at the Silk Road
Exposition, in Nara, Japan. In recent years they have made a name for themselves as one of
Britain's foremost Street Theatre companies performing at major British and European
festivals.
The best example of street theatre sharing ability can be illustrated by the Europe Street - a
celebration of European diversity festival in Beijing celebrating the 30th anniversary of EU-
China Diplomatic Relations (2006). During the two-day fair, a series of street theatre
performances was presented where street theatre forms dominated the unique European culture
presentation for Chinese.
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