PLATFORM shift+

PLATFORM shift+ was a successful large scale cooperation project funded by the European Commission under their European Culture Funding Stream Creative Europe. It consisted of eleven partners from nine countries – ten theatres and a university. The artistic network PLATFORM shift+ was created to meet the new challenges of producing theatre for young people in the digital age. The partners had identified the urgent need to engage with digital technology in order to understand their target audience. PLATFORM shift+ concept was born out of the project PLATFORM 11+, where extensive research into the reality of young people was at the centre of the work. The reality of today’s young people is including the digital world. Adolescents of today are digital natives who move naturally between real and virtual worlds. They look for artistic products that reflect the world they live in. It influences their behavior in the ways they communicate and how they expect to contribute to the world. Digital natives expect an active, co-operative role in the creation and delivery of artistic products. They want to be treated as co-creators and advisors. PLATFORM shift+ partners agreed that the traditional model of theatre – a few people producing a show for passive recipients – no longer matches the spirit of the times in TYA.