"CareStories" is a local and European project between Italy, Poland and Greece that aims to create a network of “cultural walks” addressed to people (especially elderly living in internal area) that have been living long periods of stress, isolation and fear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Project leader is Social Community Theatre Centre | Teatro Popolare Europeo, partners are Omma Studio (Gr) and Brama Theatre (Pl). The idea was to create a connection between 3 different territories of Europe, to create a shared map of natural and cultural walks told by the local inhabitants. The final output, a shared map with walks infos and local stories, will be the dissemination material to engage other inhabitants experiencing isolation throughout the active participations of those people already involved in the artistic process.
Omma Studio theater chose the activities of the project’s research and accomplishment, to take place in the village of Pompia (municipality of Faistos, in Heraklion, Crete). The help of the Cultural Centre of Pompia was significant, that’s why our theater gives special thanks to Yva Koumantaki, (chairwoman of the Cultural Centre), Zambia Ntelidaki and Eleutheria Polioudaki, to Mr George Foustanakis (president of the Community of Pompia) and to all the participants that shared their stories, recipes and memories with us.

DREAMS ,TRACES, TRAVELLINGS, CONTAINERS is a European Theatre Project supported by the Creative Europe Fund of which the ValmisaTheater is the leader tells the power of dreams, the strength to self-determine which has always pushed women men to leave to be reborn.
In the theatrical imagery, the container is a kaleidoscope that hosts dreams of the women and men of yesterday and today. Containers - typical travel carriers - will be scenic space and by moving they will give life to a 45-day Theater Festival in 5 European countries (Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain) project partners and will end in Brussels.
The project inspired by the United Nations 2030 agenda on economic and environmental sustainability intends to honor and reaffirm a founding principle of the European Union of free movement of men and goods. (Article 45)

LEADER:
Valmisa theatre (ITALY)
PARTNERS:
• Nordisk Teater Laboratorium (DENMARK)
• Omma studio (GREECE)
• Fundacja b’cause (POLAND)
• TNT - Centro de Arte y produccionesTeatrales SLS (SPAIN)

THE MEANING OF THE PROJECT
 The project tells the positive stories of realization in a country other than that of birth, it develops from a collection of ancient and contemporary stories. Narrating the potential for realization beyond the difficulties of the contingent, it is to pay homage to the human capacity to transform difficulties into opportunities for rebirth. Our project aims to make a creative analysis of the circularity of the anthropological history of human flows and trace the routes of dreams that have always moved women and men looking for a happy change. Investigating the energy arising from dreams is also a way to understand how to reactivate our creativity, and hope for a possible future to be realized. Dreams belong to every person; illuminating them generates empathy, reducing fears dictated by prejudice, by the comparison with someone we believe to be different, who has the same dreams and the same aspirations: it reduces the human distance with the one we call only a migrant. We want to put that energy that accompanies the desire for Change at the center of the scene, so strong that it pushes us out of our small comfort zone, strenuously defended, on a large scale, by forms of nationalism. Theater has always put man at the center. There is theater so that man can look at himself from the outside and understand himself! In the current serious pandemic, isolation, distance and fear of the future emerge, it is a great opportunity to develop an international cultural project that enhances perspectives of self-determination. 

PROJECT SRESULTS
Multilingual Dream Archive: the site will continue to be updated even after the end of the project
Performances: n. 5 Performances (1 for each partner and 1 collective) will continue to be represented by the theater companies participating as partners in the project within the same national theater circuits and theater festivals already operating in individual national / international territories
Free dramaturgies: they will remain available to other companies in order to maximize the dissemination of the project
E book: An e book will be created that can be downloaded for free from the site with the stories of the protagonists of the elaborate dramaturgies
Video: A video will be made to tell about the experience and the Festival.
Transmedial storytelling: A narrative form that, moving through different types of media, helps to integrate the user experience.

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