In May Lowdown published ‘A Traveller’s Guide to the 2011 ASSITEJ World Congress’, providing Lowdown subscribers with practical information for those considering whether to attend this major world youth arts event in Sweden and Denmark. Now Congress Advisory Board Member Tony Mack goes behind the scenes, to give a sense of the experience Congress delegates will have in 2011.

The Opening Night event is the official start of the 2011 ASSITEJ World Congress, and will be hosted at the Malmö Opera and Music Theatre in the southern Swedish city of Malmö. Walking through the large foyer, with its marble staircases and expansive open areas, it’s hard to conceive of this beautiful venue as a product of the ‘30s and ‘40s (it was built between 1933-1944 by architect Sigurd Lewerentz) – it has a far more contemporary aesthetic.

It is a fitting venue for the start of a Congress. Here Ingmar Bergmann created some of the great productions of Sweden’s ‘golden age’ of theatre from 1952 to 1959 while it was known as the Malmö Municipal (or City) Theatre. Its 1,500 seat theatre has the shape of an amphitheatre and can, by the use of ingenious sliding partitions, be divided into much smaller seating configurations.

It’s late April and there’s just over a year to go before the Congress. I’m visiting Congress venues in Malmö, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark with my fellow Congress Advisory Board members Lenora Inez Brown (USA), Kim Woo Ok (Korea), Vicky Ireland (UK) and ASSITEJ…