De Montfort University to Host Lithuanian Student Performers at World Theatre Congress

Student performers from Lithuania are to take part in the International University Theatre Association's (IUTA) 8th World Congress next week, hosted by De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester for the first time in the UK.

Running from Monday 28 June to Friday 2 July, the Congress is based at DMU's Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts PACE Building and Clephan Building. It is part of the Igniting Ambition Festival 2010 - the third in a five year programme of events across the East Midlands in the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympics Games 2012 in London, UK.

Students from Lithuania's Vilnius Gediminas Technical University's theatre group, ‘Pal?p?', will perform ‘Sappho' at the Y Theatre in Leicester, UK, on Monday (28 June). This is held during DMU's InterNational Youth Theatre Festival, which runs alongside and as part of the IUTA Congress and features a selection of student performances from international young people's theatre groups in a range of locations across the city centre.

Other theatre groups performing hail from Columbia, France, Italy, and Korea, but the Congress also boasts a packed programme of talks, discussions and workshops in various languages, bringing over 100 theatre practitioners and academics from more than 30 countries around the world together in the two University venues.

In addition, on Monday 28 June, playwright, David Edgar, will give a keynote speech introduced by DMU's new Vice-Chancellor, Dominic Shellard.

Rob Brannen, Head of the Department of Performance and Digital Arts within DMU's Faculty of Humanities, said: "We are delighted to be hosting this 8th Theatre World Congress. De Montfort University and the city of Leicester provide excellent venues for this international performance work and I am sure it will be a very exciting week of creative dialogues for this truly global gathering."

The event is part of the Igniting Ambition Festival 2010, a showcase of arts, heritage and media projects taking place across the three UK counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and their three cities during the summer.

It is the third in a five year programme of annual celebrations in the East Midlands in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. It is made possible by funding through Legacy Trust UK, the European Regional Development Fund and the East Midlands Development Agency and support from many partners including Arts Council England. For more information visit: http://2012.emda.org.uk/cultural-olympiad

Legacy Trust UK is an independent charity whose mission is to support a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting activities which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For more information visit: http://www.legacytrustuk.org

For further information about the IUTA 8th World Congress, please visit http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/cepa/international-university-theatre-association/index.jsp

A schedule of the InterNational Youth Theatre Festival (the student performances within the Congress) is available at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/cepa/international-university-theatre-association/iuta-performances.jsp