Nowadays, in Europe, we have tools, opportunities, and mechanisms to base our creations on a shared knowledge that enriches every part involved in the process and allows us to use our diversity as a community to grow our cultural ecosystems. However, our societies have been increasingly affected in recent years by echo chambers, polarization, and disinformation, which drastically reduce our critical thinking and our capacity to collaborate despite our differences.

Theatre creation requires collectivity and enables us to imagine new worlds together, putting our own reality into perspective. Taking this into consideration, we aimed to bring together individuals from a wide range of European countries to rethink ourselves, showcase our strengths as a collective of diverse nations, and review distinct methodologies, thoughts, and processes.

‘Theatrical train-ing’ seeks to connect these countries through an itinerant research residency. A group composed of four performing arts creatives will travel along a designated train route, acting as catalysts as they move through preselected destinations. We expect that the exchange of ideas and processes will be carried by the Travel team between stops, enriching not only their own experiences but also those of the participants involved in the process. This enrichment will not come solely from the isolated knowledge and experience of the Travel team but also from the cross-contamination of ideas and the development of work-in-progress concepts throughout the journey. Additionally, we have given agency to local institutions to be involved in designing activities from the early stages of the project, as we aim to focus the project's impact on the destination countries.

With this project, we seek to contribute to strengthening our European identity while deepening our understanding of both our differences and similarities.