
Today we talk about elPetit de Sabadell and the COFAE conferences. This end of November, we present to you the new section Sa Xerxa es mou of our website, where we will keep you informed about the activities we carry out from within the association. We will explain how we carry out tasks to weave connections with other entities, find synergies, and educate ourselves to ultimately provide the island audience with the best version of Sa Xerxa!
This month, we have made two outings to promote our organization and, at the same time, discover other projects and their operations to improve the association day by day. Therefore, the first outing from the island has been to elPetit de Sabadell. Our co-artistic director, Àngela Jaume, has traveled to Catalonia to attend the festival for early childhood held from November 16 to 19. Àngela describes the experience as «very positive» since it allows for international contacts and, above all, understanding how countries produce their shows and approach childhood in such diverse ways. Each society has a very different way of doing things from the one next to it, and international festivals like elPetit help discover all these perspectives and possibilities. Entities that organize childhood and youth festivals in very interesting countries, such as Lithuania, Ireland, Chile, have attended. In this meeting, Àngela has taken advantage of attending talks and training sessions always with the same intention: to know new realities to nourish and enrich the theatrical proposals of Sa Xerxa. For example, elPetit de Sabadell has served to introduce her to international or state companies that might participate in the FIET of 2024 and to discover new children’s and youth festivals that will be visited later on. In short, the meeting has opened the door to connections between entities, getting to know the circuit better, and building a Xerxa (network).


On November 27 and 28, Aina Quintana, coordinator and manager of Sa Xerxa, attended the reflection sessions of COFAE (Coordinator of Performing Arts Fairs) and the second assembly of the year for the same entity. The first day has primarily focused on the celebration of this second annual meeting of COFAE, in the format of a general assembly. The topics discussed revolved around the approval of the minutes of the previous assembly, the development of 2023 for the different fairs in the country, or new management proposals for the upcoming year. In addition, the occasion has allowed for a meeting with programmers from rural areas of the peninsula, with whom the peculiarities of these environments, far from large urban centers, or how to attract programmers from other geographical areas, have been analyzed. Finally, on the evening of November 27, representatives from DGARTES (General Directorate for the Arts) of the Ministry of Culture of Portugal attended the COFAE sessions to showcase the performing arts of a neighboring country. The next day has focused on a set of dynamics among entities that organize theater fairs to share peculiarities, ways of working, work management, theatrical productions, team organization… In short, the November sessions of COFAE have focused on taking a pause to think and rethink the current fair system, try to improve it for 2024, and find working formulas that help the development of all entities, especially Sa Xerxa de Teatre Infantil i Juvenil de les Illes Balears.
