1995, 20th of March. Vien?bas House (House of Unity), (at that time - the home of Daugavpils Theatre). Big Hall. The first day of the festival Homo Novus. Getting acquainted.

The process of getting acquainted started already a week before the 20th of March - in Daugavpils Theatre basement young stage designers together with girls -critics were painting the huge faces of Homo novus. These were hung as lanterns in Daugavpils desolate streets and but the fir-trees in the park were repainted and transformed into a birch grove.

The most essential gain of Homo novus was the fact that young people of a similar age and with similar inclinations (study of theatre) met and got acquainted.

Now I have come to avery clear understanding - Daugavpils Theatre and theyoung people in it THERE AND THEN had no future. The right decision was made -to leave all of us together. We had this feeling - maybe sometime it will happen..

1999 is already ending. And we still have not received permanent state support and criteria for laboratory-type quests in theatres, experiments, studies, development of theatre language, international projects, festivals.

October 1999. The third Homo novus festival. Riga.

Getting acquainted. Despite of the size of the city and numerous venues for Homo novus events, the festival will offer numerous possibilities to the foreign guests of the festival, participants and professionals of Latvian theatre, audiences, and interested people to meet and to get acquainted. All the programs that run parallel to the theatre performances have been devised with this aim in mind- to create the maximum of possibilities to meet for discussions after performances, to have informal talks and to plan future projects of cooperation. Amplitude - from serious discussion about financing of theatre to exciting games of billiard. From participation in a conversation about the way a young or famous director feels to shared breakfast coffee in Parlaments in Dome Square or an evening grog at Šarls.

Impressions. One festival week can substitute for the reading of reviews and journals, trying to catch up with the most important Latvian theatre productions of the last two years. Its is also a possibility to compare it with the approach, visions, acting, directing of Estonian, Lithuanian, Albanian, Russian and Finnish theatres. What is Lithuanian theatre director Oskar Korhunov thinking of the Latvian - Viesturs Kairišs. What are the views of Finnish actresses on Albanian actors? What sense does criticism make - in the opinion of a Russian scholar? Come and ask.

Changes. Does the Latvian theatre scene need them? If yes - what should be chenged and how should it be changed? Homo novus and the team of JTI ask what are the tendencies in theatre, in Latvia and abroad, also by organizing discussions on issues of cultural policy. The seminar, several days long, on the criteria of financing theatres in the Baltic states (organized jointly by JRT in cooperation with Intercult from Sweden and JTI); discusses on the role of NGO's in culture; assessment of the role of international theatre festivals - this is the way Homo novus "section on cultural policy" looks like.

What should the system and principles of theatre organisation be organization of theatre life be, in order not make international cooperation projects, exploration of theatre language, festivals, young people, upstarts or homo novus redundant? So that they woun't be only suffered for a while, but allowed to stay.