The First International Theatre Festival for Children and Youth will take place in Bogotá from the 7th to the 22nd of July, 2007 and will gather theatre companies from Colombia and the rest of the world interested in artistic innovation and quality. Mexico will be the guest of honour and Japan, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, and Switzerland will also be present. It is estimated that at least 105 performances will take place, with 1,300 artists from 35 companies presenting to approximately 500,000 spectators. The genres covered will be acting, music, circus, clown, gesture theatre, and puppeteering. Theatre halls and alternate spaces throughout the city will open their venues to artists, teachers and parents, children and adolescents. In parallel to the artistic presentations, workshops will take place on theatre direction, theatre pedagogy, and gesture theatre; academic seminars on art’s role in education, social responsibility through culture, and theatre as a learning tool, as well as exhibitions of photographs and objects. The First Prize for Children and Youth Theatre for new theatrical pieces will be given as part of the Festival. The main objectives of the Festival are to encourage cultural citizenship and to integrate public and private actions that strengthen artistic expressions by working specifically on the introduction and education of new generations to aesthetic expression. For more information (in Spanish) visit www.producciones702.com, or write to [email protected]