The evolution of online streaming platforms in the last few years, accelerated by the successive lockdowns linked to the Covid 19 pandemic, have brought to the forefront the question of theatre’s digital presence. This trend is the subject of many debates and discussions. Can online theatre still be considered theatre? Can it exist without its immediate and tangible physical presence? Can digital media bring new ways of seeing, and even of creating plays, and by doing so broaden and enrich the theatrical experience? The questions surrounding the theatre’s existence in the digital sphere are numerous, and remain open for the public, directors and theatre companies.

Prospero - Extended Theatre brings together ten partners: nine theatres from nine different European countries and one European media partner. The nine European partner theatres are:

• Théâtre de Liège (lead partner – Belgique) supported for this project by Wallonia-Brussels International,
• Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione (Modena – Italia),
• São Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisboa – Portugal),
• Göteborgs Stadsteater (Göteborg – Sverige),
• Hrvatsko narodno kazalište (Zagreb – Hrvatska),
• Teatros del Canal (Comunidad de Madrid – España),
• Schaubühne (Berlin – Deutschland),
• Teatr Powszechny (Warszawa – Polska), and
• Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (Paris – France)

The European partner media is ARTE TV.

This project, which started in 2020 and is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, is based on three axes:

• the production and filming of nine plays – one in each partner theatre -;
• the development of an online streaming platform, available at prospero-theatre.tv ;
• the development of each theatre’s audience, including in the digital sphere.
• The vocation of the Prospero platform is to host and make accessible, for free (during the period of EU funding, until end of 2024) and in the whole European Union, theatre-related content such as: recordings of plays, interviews of artists, and short documentaries on the theatres’ and plays’ backstage. In particular, viewers will be able to watch the recordings – subtitled in nine languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Croatian, Polish and Swedish) – of the nine plays produced in the frame of the Prospero - Extended Theatre project.