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January 27, 2009
Iceland‘s biggest theater festival held in East-Iceland this spring
Thirteen young actor‘s groups in East-Iceland are now preparing to stage three new Icelandic plays. The staging is part of „Thjódleikur“ – a young people‘s theater festival in East Iceland, which is a co-operative venture between the National Theatre of Iceland and the Fljótsdalur Municipality Cultural Centre. Tómas Már Sigurdsson, Director of Alcoa in Iceland, presented the venture‘s leaders with a grant of 21,300US$ from the Alcoa Foundation at a ceremony in the Alcoa Fjardaál smelter in Reydarfjördur this afternoon.
Almost two hundred youngsters in thirteen theater groups from all over East-Iceland participate in Thjódleikur and are now rehearsing new plays by Bjarni Jónsson, Sigtryggur Magnason and Thórdís Elva Thorvaldsdóttir Bachmann, which were written with this venture in mind. Each group will perform in its home community, and the harvest festival will be held in the town of Egilsstadir on the 25th and 26th of April, where all the groups come together and perform. This will be the largest theater festival ever held in Iceland. The group leaders have for the past few weeks obtained the assistance and professional councel of the National Theatre‘s specialists and artists. Courses have been offered in The National Theatre in Reykjavík and in Höfn, one of the larger towns in East Iceland, with much popularity.
Tómas Már Sigurdsson, Director of Alcoa in Iceland, said on the occasion: „A thriving cultural life is the prerequisite for habitation everywhere in Iceland, no less than thriving industries. With the current changes in Iceland‘s economy, the Alcoa Foundation decided that the projects supported must involve wide-ranging participation and also that as many people as possible would reap the rewards. Therefore, it is extremely pleasing to see how many young people partake in this exciting venture.“
Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir, Director of the National Theater, said: „Under the present circumstances, the importance of this kind of an initiative is huge, as it is founded on solidarity and the creative imagination. The multiplier effect of the Thjódleikur project will be immense and the National Theater sincerely hopes that all the individuals involved will enjoy a long-term benefit from the experience and that it will be a motivation for other constructive efforts.“
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