European theatre festival staged in Birmingham
More than 60 performers from across Europe are travelling to Birmingham for a new theatre and dance festival.
Four 30-minute shows will be staged each night at AE Harris Factory during the Birmingham European Theatre Festival 2010.
Other entertainment, including live music, will follow and there are free daytime theatre and dance workshops.
Among the shows to be performed during the festival will be one featuring a made-up language.
The festival will run between Wednesday and Saturday.
A group of young people from Birmingham will come together to take part in BE Next - the festivalʼs youth theatre company.
They will attend workshops every day and on the final night they will perform a short piece of theatre on the main festival stage.
Many of the artists at BE Festival have toured internationally and companies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece and Austria are among those attending.
One of the shows will be awarded the festival prize by a jury of arts professionals and the winning company will return to Birmingham to present its show at mac in BE Festival 2011ʼs opening ceremony.
The event has been put together by Birmingham-born Mike Tweddle together with Miguel Oyarzun and Isla Aguilar, both from Spain.
The festival is being presented with support from Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council, Stan's Cafe, mac, ACT Festival Bilbao and Birmingham School of Acting.