Activities

With its annual events taking place during spring and summer, FESTEA cooperates with the Thíasos Cultural Association, hosting and welcoming theatre groups from all over the world. The programme takes place in the main cultural facilities of the city of Coimbra and extends to an itinerary circuit involving schools and cultural spaces across the country. A testament to the permanence of the Graeco-Roman theatrical repertoire, FESTEA has been pivotal in adding value to the Portuguese cultural heritage. Since its inception, the Festival has been held in spaces such as the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha, the ruins of Conimbriga, and many other places of heritage-based interest.

Parallel to its event programming, FESTEA maintains an ongoing project of knowledge construction and transfer centred around classical theatre and its reception. Each festival’s edition has a specific programme of gatherings and scientific meetings that gather renowned experts and creators within the field of Graeco-Roman theatre and its modern recreations. Some of these initiatives resulted in publications such as Hippolytus and Phaedra: on the paths of a myth (edited by José Ribeiro Ferreira, Carlos A. Martins de Jesus, and Claudio Castro Filho), a project conceived during the meeting held at the Machado de Castro National Museum in 2010.