The eighth edition of the International Festival of Theater Schools “ClassFest” will involve 16 theater schools from 13 countries. The event starts on April 30 and will continue until May 5. The plays will be presented at a number of theaters in Chisinau, IPN reports.

The Festival’s director Svetlana Tartau told a news conference that the event is designed to develop intercultural dialogue and the exchange of experience between theater schools and to encourage young players, offering them the possibility of presenting their best productions. Access to the plays will be free.

Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research Andrei Chistol said the festival “ClassFest” is a cultural exchange platform and the best mobility project on the youth theater dimension. The event will include masterclasses for young actors that will be given by renowned actors and stage managers from a number of states.

Rector of the Academy of Music, Theater and Plastic Arts Victoria Melnic said this is an awaited festival and the fact that it reached its eighth edition confirms this. It is an event that brings a breath of fresh air in the theatrical world. It presents the culture of theaters both from the East and from the West.

The festival will bring together theater schools from Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. The plays are based on works by Eugene Ionesco, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Brandon Thomas, Vasili Sigarev and Maxim Gorki. They focus on politics, conjugal relations, family crises, war, violence, terror, love and other issues.