Hakan Silahsizoglu

I trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. As a cultural operator; I'm a member of The Fence theatre network and the co-coordinator of Turkish committee in Eurodram, Europe's largest drama translation network. I've given talks & classes about theatre in Turkey in various international theatre schools, institutions including NYU. I've been a global fellow at International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA) in 2016, 2017 and 2018. I also attended Producers’ Academy in 2017 which is organised by CIFAS and On the Move. I'm in the selection committee of International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY) in Philly, US.

I've been involved in performing arts both for children and adult audience since 2010 and worked as a producer, tour manager in both national and international level. I'm the founder & director of Atta Festival, Turkey's only international arts festival for babies and children. Atta is an independent multi-disciplinary festival that run around Children's Right's Day, 20 November. First edition of Atta was in 2016 and in the last 3 years, Atta presented artists from Mexico. Spain, France, Netherlands, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden. In it's last edition, from 14 November - 10 December 2018 festival also had performances in Ankara as well as it's home in Istanbul.

Prior to Atta Festival, I've worked extensively for Talimhane Theatre in Istanbul that is the sister theatre of London's Arcola Theatre. Starting from Talimhane, I found myself creating work with 0 funding, literally from scratch, especially in a country like Turkey. Some examples are Dolapdere Youth Theatre, Pippa (produced as part of Europe Now). Through local, international partnerships we have produced many contemporary plays, working with artists in Istanbul and beyond and toured in Turkey. Both as a freelance producer and director of Atta, I see our work like a puzzle that each small piece meant the big picture together.