About us and our association Teatro Fabrica

TEATRO FABRICA is a non-profit organisation created to carry out cultural projects. Its primary focus is theatre, but it is not limited to it. What would the Stage be without either Literature or Music, without either Artistic Direction or Sets, without either Costumes or Dances, without Posters?

TEATRO FABRICA's ambition is to gather the necessary funding and to technically support, outside traditional commercial channels, innovative projects with real creative value as well as projects allowing restoration and renewal of the sometimes-forgotten genius of those who have gone before us, or even projects which, through universal values, strengthen the links between cultures. We believe in the power of ideas and the Arts to strengthen civil society.

The idea germinated in the spring of 2020, when the entire planet was confined and, almost everywhere, the world of Culture suffered more than others from the measures taken to roll back the COVID-19 pandemic. Closed rooms, rehearsals prohibited, travel made impossible, filming, shooting or fittings postponed to unknown dates… To survive, Theatre had to reinvent itself.

Knowing that in Latvia performances for fewer than fifty spectators was authorised, Maria de Valukhoff, Artistic Director of TEATRO FABRICA and a highly regarded stage director, had the idea of renewing a theatrical style dating from the Russian avant-garde at the beginning of the twentieth century: the Theatre at the dacha, launched by Liubov Blok, the wife of Alexander Blok, around Saint Petersburg and especially in nearby Finland, where censorship was not rife. This association of actors, painters, writers, singers, and musicians led by Meyerhold launched the style, which in a few summer seasons became the laboratory of theatre, pantomime, comedy, and many other scenic forms, always associated with two key concepts: creative freedom and quality. In July and August 2020, Maria formed and welcomed her troupe to the family summer house in Jurmala and staged Pushkin's "Dame of Spades". To that quickly sold out. The production was also a highly regarded success, with excellent media coverage, so much so that the Dailes Theatre — Riga's largest — invited Maria and her troupe to present the show in September. A sign of the times and of symbolic value for TEATRO FABRICA in its mission of bringing peoples together through culture. Didn’t Rihards Lepers, one of the leading Latvian actors — who does not read Cyrillic — learn his lines by transcription?

Our ambition for stage theatre art is to turn this first success into a succession of seasons, open to all who share our values and who want to join us on this journey.

TEATRO FABRICA Registered under the laws of the Republic of Latvia under number 40008303760, and as such subject to public financial declarations according to the Associations and Foundations Law: https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/81050