The Process

From the first conversations to the final performance.

Third Space is built step by step. Before we rehearsed a single scene, we listened to stories, searched archives, and talked with people from across the island. Those stories became the material for the performance, shaped through workshops, training and months of collective creation.

Listen · Share · Create · Present

PHASE 1

Creative Research

& Concept Development

The process began with listening. Through interviews, archival research and dialogue sessions, we explored how colonisation has shaped identity, memory, cultural heritage and coexistence in Cyprus, gathering perspectives and lived experiences.

The creative team then turned this material into the building blocks of the performance: script, dramaturgy, choreography, characters and artistic direction. At the same time, the project opened to the public, with our Instagram page and this website documenting the process as it unfolds.

PHASE 2

Community Engagement

& Capacity Building

We then opened the process to the wider artistic community. Free workshops introduced participants to the project’s themes and methods, and brought together artists from different backgrounds to create, play and learn from one another. Together, we explored physical theatre, contact improvisation, acrobatics, mask work and rhythm.

Community Building Activity, Rustem
Fundamentals of Mask Theatre, Rustem
Acrobatics, outdoors

PHASE 3

Artistic Creation

& Production

Eleven selected artists are now working alongside the creative team in an intensive period of training and collective creation. Together they are building the performance from the ground up through rehearsals, mask and costume making, set design, choreography, dramaturgy and mentorship.

Along the way, participants receive specialised training in acrobatics, movement and physical theatre. Just as important are the relationships formed across communities: the trust that grows when people create something together.

Trainers

Marco Cepeda Cortés (Chile): physical and mask theatre
Nicholas (Greece): acrobatics
Bekir Şimşek (Cyprus): movement and choreography

Meet the Artists

PHASE 4

Public Presentation

& Documentary

The project culminates on 22nd November 2026 at the Home for Cooperation in the buffer zone in Nicosia. The evening opens with a screening of a short documentary tracing the research, interviews and creative journey behind the project.

Afterwards, the ensemble presents an original contemporary circus performance created through the collective process. Drawing on themes of common ancestry, belonging, separation, resilience, hope and coexistence, it brings together mask theatre, drum ritual, dance, aerial arts, hair hanging, clowning and juggling.

Performance details

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Moments from rehearsals, workshops and conversations along the way.

Behind the Scenes