Grand Final of the 33rd edition
After a nourishing week of theatre, we were all eagerly anticipating this evening. In the general excitement of our grand cultural experience, we could easily have missed the presence of the jury at the individual performances. They carefully evaluated all the productions so that they could fairly and responsibly choose who the best of the best was
And we have to admit that this year they certainly didn't have it easy. Students from every corner of the world showed that they are well on their way to being the future of theatre in their respective countries. As the closing speech said, “You did a great job”. Although the festival is non-competitive, the closing ceremony included the presentation of awards to individual artists for their performances this year. Students were given awards in several categories.
This year’s Marta award for directing went to Kateřina Volánková from DAMU for her adaptation of the play The Beggar's Opera. In the physical theatre category, the production Lysistrata earned the prize, and dancer Nino Nozadze received the award. The prize for devised theatre this year went to Aleksandra Gosławska for her monodrama Stand-up. Although the jury wanted to award one whole ensemble for their outstanding acting performance, it was not possible as the rules unfortunately did not allow them to do so. Therefore, they gave an award to Maurice Läbe on behalf of his entire ensemble. The Festival Director's Award was received with great enthusiasm by a group of actors from the London College of Music, University of West London for their production of Miss Brexit. Our sincere congratulations to all the winners.
In this way, we, the editors of Meeting Point, would also like to thank all the participants of the festival for their great performances, but also those who were behind the festival, built it, and gave us the opportunity to witness the great moments of ENCOUNTER 2023. And we hope “encounter” everybody again next year.
