Teodorico’s Ravenna: a melting pot of inspiration for contemporary performing arts creation

For its 10th edition, taking place in May 2027, and as part of the programme of Culture Moves Europe, POLIS Teatro Festival launches an open call for performing artists from Creative Europe countries for an artistic residency dedicated to the figure of Teodorico, the Ostrogothic king who made Ravenna the capital of his kingdom, to celebrate also the 1500th anniversary of his death. 

Performing artists are invited in Ravenna to develop a research-based project inspired by Teodorico’s legacy and the political vision of his reign, often considered an early example of multicultural coexistence. Participants will have the opportunity to explore historical sites connected to his history and engage with the local context through research, interviews, and dialogue with scholars and experts from different fields.

POLIS will cover travel expenses, provide accommodation and per diems, working spaces (as exposed below), artistic mentoring and production support, with the aim of developing a new work to be presented within the programme of the festival, which will take place from May 4th to May 9th 2027.

• WHEN:
  The residency will have a duration of 28 days, from April 12th to May 9th 2027.
  
• WHERE:
  First 2 weeks: CreSco, a creative coworking space that brings together cultural professionals, artists and organizations working in the cultural and social sectors. This environment will provide a stimulating context for research, exchanges and meetings with local experts while developing the project concept.
  Final 2 weeks: Artificerie Almagià, a former industrial space now dedicated to performing arts, fully equipped, where residents will translate research into a new artistic creation to be shared during the final days of the festival.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be residing in eligible countries under the Creative Europe programme, excluding Italy;
• Applicants must be 18+ years old;
• Applications are accepted from already established performing arts groups or collectives of maximum 5 people;
• The call is open to artists working in performing arts (including hybrid and multidisciplinary practices), with a clear connection to contemporary theatre;
• As the residency is part of Culture Moves Europe Call for Residency Hosts, applicants are not eligible to participate as residents in another residency project funded under any Call for Residency Hosts running from 2025 to 2028;
• Applicants must be available for the whole period between April 12th and May 9th 2027.

Application Requirements

Applications must be submitted by July 31st 2026 exclusively through the following form https://forms.gle/z8FoMK95cb44Gjo49 and include:

• Proof of residence (ID card or official document confirming registration in the country of residence of all the applicants);
• CV in English of all the applicants;
• Artistic portfolio of the company/each applicant in English;
• First project proposal and residency work plan with work methodology (max 3000 characters including spaces).

Please note that, if selected and upon consent, the project title and summary may be published on the websites and social media channels of the European Commission, Culture Moves Europe, and project partners.

Image: Palazzo Imperiale (Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna) | Photo © Opera di Religione della Diocesi di Ravenna

POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna, “Ateatro”, July 17 2026

https://www.ateatro.it/2026/07/17/tourfest-2026-dal-nord-delleuropa-una-riflessione-sul-piacere-la-cura-il-patriarcato-la-politicita-dei-corpi-ma-anche-sulla-nostalgia-e-sulla-relazione-con-laltro/

“The freezing wind from the Baltic countries didn’t stop at Teatro Rasi: it swept through the MAR loggia, raced between the tables of Teatro Socjale in Piangipane, and then headed back towards the water behind the doors of Almagià, where on Thursday 7 May a strange electronic sound, fused with the ancient tongue of Sophocles, began to resonate. Tracking Satyrs into Morse is a psychedelic journey in search of Apollo’s lost herd, amidst dark sounds and languages waiting to be deciphered. Demetrio Castellucci takes Sophocles’ incomplete satyr play, The Trackers, and translates it into Morse code: two forms of language suspended between the ancient and the modern, bridging the gap between what is known and what slips away. In the background, fragments of the text scroll past; at the centre, Castellucci commands beats and percussion in a ritual designed to awaken the satyrs within the audience. The Morse code becomes poetry; the DJ, a satyr.”

Carullo-Minasi rediscover the story of Asja Lacis, “Krapp’s Last Post”, June 15 2026

https://www.klpteatro.it/carullo-minasi-asja-lacis-recensione

“It all began with an erasure… To erase, one need not destroy. Sometimes it is enough simply to cover up, says Minasi, “and this is what has been done with the life, work and legacy of Asja Lacis. The production, therefore, aims to reveal what was hidden, using a narrative approach that tells a story without being overly didactic, sharing experiences to foster empathy and curiosity. A narrative that, by alternating moments of storytelling, pause and performance on stage – thanks also to the exquisite musical and vocal counterpoint provided by musician Irida Gjergji – seeks to offer a portrait of a life, and at the same time of the work of the artist and the woman, mother, lover and muse.”

We are delighted to announce that POLIS Teatro Festival is now an official member of the EFA – European Festival Association, a prestigious international network bringing together around a hundred festivals and national organizations from forty countries across Europe.

EFA brings people and organisations together – to exchange, create, and act – whether sparked by a project, a context, or a pressing societal issue.

EFA currently includes around one hundred festivals and national coordination organizations from forty countries

Founded in 1952, in the aftermath of the Second World War, EFA aligned with the mission to rebuild Europe and the world through the arts.
EFA connects a wide range of stakeholders who embrace and advocate for various social, political, and economic dimensions and causes. EFA’s mission is to unite perspectives and connect festival makers in their efforts to support artists and society.

ErosAntEros – POLIS Theatre Festival will be presenting itself to members during the Arts Festival Summit 2026, 16–19 May, Budva, Montenegro, and was unanimously welcomed into the Association, alongside 17 other European festivals.

Between May 5th and 10th, the festival hosted thirty-five events, including performances and debates featuring the most prominent names from the Northern European theatre scene. The program included six national premieres and one preview, as well as opportunities for discussion and round tables between international artists, scholars, and professionals, confirming the festival’s commitment to high artistic quality.

Identity, censorship, female pleasure and the politics of the body, solitude, nostalgia, and community: these were the keywords that shone in the celestial vault of POLIS 2026.

Check out the photo gallery (Ph Dario Bonazza) and the video, realized by Les Bompart Produzioni.

Thu, April 30 2026

Tue, May 5 2026

Wed, May 6 2026

Thu, May 7 2026

Fri, May 8 2026

Sat, May 9 2026

Sun, May 10 2026

POLIS Teatro Festival 2026, “Dramma.it”, May 19 maggio 2026

https://www.dramma.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41199:polis-teatro-festival-2026&catid=40&Itemid=12

“NORDIC FOCUS is the ‘epigraph’ title of this ninth edition of the Festival conceived and generated by ErosAntEros—the Ravenna-based company of Agata Tomšič and Davide Sacco, which has always made, and once again makes, contradiction its ordinary nature. It is a fertile contradiction between aesthetic forms and languages that, in theatrical and dramaturgical practice, exalt rather than sever the thousand threads binding the stage to Community and History, seeking to intercept the thousand diverse forms of human creativity without rigidifying them.

A continuous and stubborn crossing of borders—be they external, geographical, and cultural, or the often far more rigid internal and psychological ones—in search of what composes, and thereby values and connects in a shared feeling, the diversity of ‘diversities’. This begins with gender, to recreate the stable/fluidity of sexuality as a search for a pleasure that is not erotic solipsism; it moves from the concept of ethnicity and nation, confronting itself through what oppresses it (and what oppresses it is not always ‘outside’); and it arrives at an idea of a ‘rainbow’ humanity that is both guest to and host of Nature.

Significant, in this regard, is the image of Greta Thunberg ’embraced’ by the Polar Bear, which also visually depicts the spirit of this edition of a festival that took place in various venues across beautiful Ravenna from May 5th to 10th.

Finally, a ‘trespassing’ that tends to compose an aesthetic and, at the same time, a geography of heresy—not only theatrical, as evidenced by the panel discussion that concluded the final day of the festival with the presentation of Marco De Marinis’s book, Regia Eretica (Heretical Directing).

This year in particular, as I was saying, in which POLIS delves into the climatically cold North-East of Europe, among Scandinavians, Baltics, and Finns (an apparent homogeneity made also of profound diversities) to ignite a ‘focus’ that illuminates and warms what is born and lives around that theatre.”

POLIS Teatro Festival: The Brave and Youthful Scene of the Baltic and Scandinavian Countries, “Theatron 2.0”, May 14 2026

https://webzine.theatronduepuntozero.it/polis-teatro-festival-la-scena-giovane-e-coraggiosa-dei-paesi-baltici-e-scandinavi/

The focus this year is on the Baltic and Scandinavian countries. What can you tell us about the protagonists and the selection criteria?

Agata Tomšič: This year, Davide and I worked just as we did in previous years, leveraging the international relationships we have built over time, both as artists and as artistic directors. This research doesn’t just come from visiting these countries, their festivals, foundations, and institutions that promote the circulation of their local artists—a feature that is very prominent in Northern Europe and guarantees these artists international visibility.

What I mean is that there are public or private institutions that invite festival directors, like the two of us, to visit their countries and get to know their artists. This way, you have the opportunity to connect with many artists in just a few days. They also offer a reimbursement of expenses, if not total, at least partial, just as they do when their artists come to our country. These are concrete opportunities that do not exist in our country, or exist only to a very small extent. This financial support not only provides visibility for the artist outside national borders but also offers the opportunity to “take risks” in terms of aesthetics and experimentation.

That being said, regarding the selection criteria, Davide and I investigated firsthand by traveling to Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. We also went to Finland, while for the other countries, we relied on consultations with professionals we met in international contexts. It wasn’t possible to bring every reality we encountered to the stage—sometimes for financial reasons, other times due to scheduling conflicts—but what we discovered is an extremely rich, brave, young scene that is highly focused on female creation, not only in terms of authorship but also curation. The artistic directors and dramaturgical consultants of the festivals we visited are mostly women between 35 and 45 years old, with remarkable energy and a radical approach that struck me deeply, and with whom I found myself very much in tune.

On Multiplicity. A (Double) Gaze at Supernova and Polis Teatro Festival, “Gagarin,” May 13, 2026

https://www.gagarin-magazine.it/2026/05/visto-da-noi/o-della-molteplicita-un-doppio-sguardo-su-supernova-e-polis-teatro-festival/

“[…] Western cultural history is well acquainted with this tension. From Ramon Llull, who in the 13th century envisioned his combinatory machines as tools for generating thought through the rotation of elements, to Leibniz’s Ars Combinatoria, European knowledge has repeatedly fantasized about the possibility that meaning arises not from unity, but from arrangement. In his Mnemosyne Atlas, Aby Warburg created a dialogue between images through proximity, friction, and secret echoes; there was no hierarchy, only montage. Similarly, in the 20th century, the Avant-gardes — from Surrealism to post-dramatic theatre — progressively replaced the closed work with constellations of fragments.”

A contemporary festival, when truly successful, works precisely within this tradition: it does not program events, but rather constructs perceptual relationships.

Both Supernova and POLIS Teatro Festival seem to have operated within this tension. This is evident not only in the plurality of languages summoned but in the way these were made to coexist within a single experiential duration. Audiences traversed spaces, listened to different languages, and continually adjusted their sensory disposition. The festival day thus became a practice of internal montage: those present had to become archivists of their own impressions […]”.

Medea against patriarchy: a violent revolution, “Corriere di Romagna”, May 8 2026

“Müller’s text is not just a reflection on women and the female figure: her violent rebellion against a patriarchal system is one of the most violent revolutions. Medea kills her own children to change the system she lives in, to deny her role as a wife and mother—a woman who steps aside when her husband no longer desires her or no longer uses her for his own political purposes, because Jason does that too. We are talking about a Greek hero, an exporter of democracy, who occupies a barbarian territory and appropriates the Golden Fleece, using the king’s daughter for his own colonizing purposes. And when the king’s daughter becomes an exile with him in another land, and is also the mother of his children, but no longer serves his political purposes, he sees fit to ask for the hand of the daughter of the king of the realm they have moved to, thus making his social climb. Using another woman for his own purposes, as if she were an object. One can understand from this alone the power that this text also holds over our present. This was already written in the ancient myth, but Heiner Müller has the ability to emphasize it to the nth degree, writing a triptych where the third monologue is no longer in the first person by Medea, but is written in a collective first-person plural, where I and the audience are equally victims and perpetrators of the world we have plundered, colonized, capitalized on, and of the catastrophe resulting from these actions of ours, in the face of which we are no longer able to react.”

Interview with ErosAntEros, curated by Sergio Lo Gatto on Rai Radio 3, as part of the program Teatri in prova, April 27, 2026, featuring contributions from Laura Kutkaite and Carullo-Minasi, along with a preview excerpt of Tracking Satyrs into Morse by Demetrio Castellucci.

Listen to the PODCAST here.

On March 30, 2026, a new session of GreenkedIn was held—the Fondazione Cirko Vertigo platform that promotes sustainable touring and a circular economy within the performing arts.

During the last workshop, Agata Tomšič shared POLIS Teatro Festival’s experience regarding sustainable communication. The meeting focused on a key question: how can we narrate and share sustainability?

POLIS Teatro Festival demonstrated how communication serves as a strategic lever to generate awareness and drive change. The discussion among participants also highlighted shared needs and critical issues, opening up a space for collective reflection on language, responsibility, and impact.