Launch of the DoSEL project

At today’s kick off event, we officially launched the international project Drama of Smaller European Languages (DoSEL).

The project is conducted at the Prešeren Theatre Kranj as part of the Creative Europe programme, supported by the European Union. Through this initiative, we aim to increase the international recognition and accessibility of dramatic works originally written in smaller European languages and to encourage their more frequent staging.

In his opening remarks, Janez Černe, Vice-Mayor of the Municipality of Kranj, emphasised the importance of promoting the development of playwriting in Slovenia, as well as fostering collaboration and dialogue internationally. Kim Komljanec, advisor to the Minister of Culture of Slovenia, stated: ”At the Ministry of Culture, we are proud that the Prešeren Theatre, as the lead partner, succeeded with the DoSEL project application for the Creative Europe programme. Contemporary playwriting is a window into culture. The dramatic word and theatrical expression are completely unique to each language and culture. Through contemporary texts and their theatrical realisation, audiences have the opportunity to learn about the issues that are crucial for a particular culture at a given moment in time. The project is titled Drama of Smaller European Languages, but the size of a language is not determined by the number of its speakers, but by the depth of thoughts and ideas expressed in it.”

Rok Bozovičar, Acting Director of the Prešeren Theatre Kranj, said at the launch of the DoSEL project: ”At a time when global dynamics control the channels of communication and dilute the richness of diversity, when smaller languages and cultures tend to turn inward out of a sense of vulnerability, the Drama of Smaller European Languages project stands as an ambitious gesture of collaboration, forging lasting forms of artistic dialogue beyond Europe’s dominant cultural centres. Our project’s intercultural exchange is a great wealth that we will dramatise through various activities, promoting our creative potential internationally. Good drama has a home in Slovenia, as well as in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Malta, Croatia, Estonia, and Spain. As Umberto Eco wrote, and as we will repeat many times until October 2026 when the DoSEL project concludes: The language of Europe is translation.”

The DoSEL project was conceived two years ago as part of the international cooperation of The Week of Slovenian Drama (WSD) festival, with support from the international European Theatre Convention network. This year, upon our successful application, we received European funding from the Creative Europe programme for a two-year project, which represents the realisation and upgrading of the festival’s long-standing efforts to expand the international presence of Slovenian drama and to expand Slovenian drama beyond national borders.

The DoSEL project will be implemented through collaboration with esteemed European cultural organisations: the National Agency for the Performing Arts from Malta, the Arriaga Antzokia Theatre and Sala Beckett from Spain, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the Estonian Theatre Agency, the National Theatre of Kosovo, the Ivan Vazov National Theatre from Bulgaria, and the Prešeren Theatre Kranj. 

Project activities will include translation of plays at translation workshops and artistic residencies, showcasing performances in smaller European languages at two theatre platforms (as part of the international programme of the 55th Week of Slovenian Drama in March 2025 in Kranj, Slovenia, a presentation at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Croatia in fall 2025, followed by the International Theatre Platform in Valletta, Malta, in April 2026), training and experimental research on contemporary European drama, as well as presentations of plays and playwrights at various international meetings and festivals. More than 200 playwrights, translators, and other artists and cultural workers will participate in the project.

By the end of the project, we will publish a collection of 24 first translations of plays written in Slovenian, Maltese, Catalan, Basque, Croatian, Estonian, Bulgarian and Albanian into a major European language (German, French, or English) and one other, smaller European language. These plays will also become part of a collection of contemporary European drama, compiled and curated with the support of the European Theatre Convention network.

We hope that the DoSEL project, which will run until the end of October 2026, is only the beginning of a long-term international cooperation to promote dramatic writing in smaller European languages.