The project “Stories of Latvia. Shakespeare meets Blaumanis.” of the Latvia’s Centenary’s official programme was began in February 2018 and will continue till the end of 2019. It’s implemented by the foundation INITIUM in co-operation with the Latvian national Centre of Culture and the British Council Latvia.
In 2018 professional directors, actors, stage designers from Great Britain, France, Portugal, visited Latvia and organised masterclasses in 12 different places. Kay names - Jan Vilem van den Bosch and Baņuta Rubess.
About 100 directors from Latvian amateur theatres, new actors, future directors, actors, producers of culture, experts of youth policy, instructors of improvisation theatres, anthropologists, folklorists and other interested people participated in these masterclasses. At the end of the training, ten ideas from participants were chosen to be transformed into performances of contemporary community theatre in 2019. The local people from communities, local amateur theatres, youth theatres under the lead of their managers and directors are working on plays and performances, but there are different professionals: playwrights, choreographs, directors, anthropologists involved in each of the projects.
In 2019 Jan Wilem van den Bosch (directors, UK), Emma Battesti (director, expert of improvisation theatre, FR), Dmitrij Petrenko (director, LV), Edgars Niklasons (director and playwright, LV), Sandija Santa (playwright, LV), Luke Welch (playwright, UK), Jānis Putniņš (choreographer, LV), Eva Kronberga (choreographer, LV) and others are working within the project.