The theatre project DIGITAL NATIVES will explore the balance between the digital and the analogue in today’s extreme state of digitisation. Reaching out to those who have been most affected by technology, the digital natives, five European theatres will work with amateur teenage actors on the play “Concord Floral” about teenage relationships, the power of perception, and technology. They will reflect on the biggest issues surrounding digitisation in the form of digital experiments: cyber bullying and its both digital and physical destructive consequences will be the theme for the Volkstheater Wien in Austria; in France at the Comédie de Reims they will work on the suffering brought about by digital communication; the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj in Romania will focus on positive and negative aspects of digital connectedness, while the Schauspiel Köln in Germany will connect internet-free generations with the generation that only knows the internet, and the National Theatre of Northern Greece will tackle daily challenges posed by a digital world in weekly workshops.
DIGITAL NATIVES wants to confront the digital with the analogue by bringing teens to the physical world of theatre where they analyse the ways society deals with digitisation through creating digital experiments. Parallel to that, the teens will produce digital content and use digital tools to communicate with their peers around Europe. This approach will highlight the constructive aspects of our digitised lifestyles to reflect on its destructive side. On another level, by implementing a strategically digital form of collaboration, the partners will carry out a new business model in the cultural field, reflecting the focus of the project itself. Carrying out the artistic cooperation as well as the logistical implementation digitally will be highly relevant to future working methods in international theatre collaboration.