Online and offline hate speech, divisive public opinions, and conflicts in society are rising. Decisions are being made about our lives and yet, where is the voice of young generations in all of this? They are the voices of the future, that will mostly be theirs and yet they have little or no say about it.

Glej Theatre (Slovenia), Het Stichting Theaterschip (Netherlands) and NDM Ateliér (Czech Republic) have been active for many years in the field of working with youth in theatre, mostly focusing on producing youth performances and developing inclusive methodologies of working with them in theatre. With Future = NOW! A Youth Manifesto, a project co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe Culture programme, we will work together with the young generation to form a cross section of art and activism about topics that are in the centre of their future concerns. We want to redefine forums of the 21st century through the help of artivism and performance arts practices, engage the audience in site specific action and start discussion through the help of participatory practices.

The project Future = NOW! urges all of us to really connect, not only on a local and national level, but also transnationally and cross-sectorally. Project is focusing on gender, environmental crisis and self-care. Throughout the project we will build youthmanifestos that will be based on thorough research, local manifestos presentations, local conferences and festivals, as well as international co-productions, development of online methodologies and digital guidebooks and film to share our knowledge after the end of the project.

In short: this is a FuN way to tackle today’s most vibrant social issues of the future. With the young, by the young, for the young.