V4 Improv Connect 2.0 Begins Its New Journey in Lublin, Poland
Artists from Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Poland come together to develop Stories Without Borders through an intensive creative LAB and public performance at Dreams Republic Festival 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lublin, Poland / Bratislava, Slovakia — August 28th, 2026
This September, eight performers from four Central European countries will come together in Lublin, Poland, for the first LAB and TOUR of V4 Improv Connect 2.0: Stories Without Borders — an international project exploring how improvised theatre can reach audiences across languages and national borders.
From 9–13 September 2026, actors and improvisers from Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Poland will train, rehearse and create a performance together in Lublin.
The programme includes two intensive LAB days led by Polish theatre artist Arkadiusz “Arek” Ziętek, followed by rehearsal and the first public performance of Stories Without Borders on Saturday, 12 September at 18:30 at Akademia Sztuki Nowoczesnej.
The performance will form part of Dreams Republic Festival 2026, an international theatre festival organised by Eastern Theatre / Teatr Wschodni, the Polish partner of V4 Improv Connect 2.0.
Official V4 Improv Connect 2.0 poster
Four countries. One stage. One shared journey.
At the heart of Stories Without Borders is a simple artistic challenge:
How can artists from different countries create improvised theatre that local audiences can fully experience even when performers and audiences do not all share the same language?
International improv often uses English as a common language. While this makes cross-border collaboration possible, it can also unintentionally exclude local audiences who are less comfortable with English.
V4 Improv Connect 2.0 wants to explore another approach.
The project is developing a multilingual, language-barrier-free, story-first improv format in which language remains an important part of the performance, but understanding every spoken word is not necessary to follow the story.
Words will work alongside music, movement, physical storytelling, character, emotion and strong narrative structure.
The aim is not to remove language. It is to make sure language does not become a barrier between the performers and the audience.
The project hopes to create improvisation that can be inclusive, entertaining, theatrically powerful and accessible across language and national borders.
Why 2.0?
V4 Improv Connect first began in 2023, bringing together improv communities from Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland and North Macedonia.
During its first edition, artists travelled between Bratislava, Prague, Lublin, Budapest and Skopje, trained together, created original long-form formats and brought their work into theatres and festivals across the region.
Phase 1 was about building the network, exchanging skills and discovering what artists from these different communities could create together.
V4 Improv Connect 2.0 builds on that foundation but follows a more focused artistic journey.
Instead of developing several unrelated formats, the partners will repeatedly train, test and refine one shared format as it travels from country to country.
The same core artists will continue working together wherever possible, allowing each LAB to build on what came before rather than starting again from zero.
At the end of the project, the resulting format and selected resources will be made publicly available under a Creative Commons CC BY licence, allowing other theatre and improv communities to learn from and adapt the work.
Read about the first V4 Improv Connect here
Lublin: where the experiment begins
The Improv LABs are the creative engine of V4 Improv Connect 2.0.
Each LAB combines training, rehearsal, experimentation and creation. In Lublin, the international ensemble will spend Thursday, 10 September and Friday, 11 September working intensively with external expert Arkadiusz Ziętek.
The confirmed working programme includes morning and afternoon LAB sessions from 10:00–13:00 and 14:30–18:00 on both days.
The ensemble will explore spontaneity, storytelling, acting, physical communication and ways of keeping improvised stories clear and engaging when several languages are present on stage.
Then comes the most important test: putting the developing format in front of a real audience.
On Saturday, 12 September, the company will move into rehearsal and performance mode, bringing together what was discovered during the LAB with sound, movement, stagecraft and live improvisation.
V4 Improv Connect 2.0 presents
STORIES WITHOUT BORDERS
Saturday, 12 September 2026 — 18:30
Akademia Sztuki Nowoczesnej
Lublin, Poland
Part of Dreams Republic Festival 2026
There is no finished script waiting for the performers.
The performance will be created live through the meeting of actors, languages, music, movement, ideas and audience.
And because it is improvised, the version seen in Lublin will never exist in exactly that form again.
Lublin Stories Without Borders playbill
Meet the Lublin ensemble
The project brings together artists with very different backgrounds, experiences and approaches to performance.
Slovakia — ISAC / Funnylicious Theater
Project creator and artistic lead Hon Chong, a Malaysian-born actor, director, improviser and founder of Funnylicious Theater in Bratislava, is joined by Juraj Benčík, an experienced Slovak actor, director and theatre educator with a background that includes drama, puppetry, mime and physical theatre.
Czechia — ČNID / Joke Division
Michal Beneš is drawn to character-led storytelling and the unpredictable magic of building characters live on stage. Veronika Opatrná, a Prague-based designer and improviser, sees improv as a space for joyful, accepting human connection and shared moments of spontaneity.
Poland — Eastern Theatre / Teatr Wschodni
Paulína Prokopiuk is a Polish actress, theatre director, improviser and paramedic, as well as Vice President of Eastern Theatre in Lublin. She also participated in the first V4 Improv Connect. She is joined by Adriana Pulley, a U.S.-born actor and writer based in Lublin with a passion for culturally rich, diverse and internationally rooted stories.
Hungary — Itt és Most Társulat
Artistic Director Veronika Bán-Horváth works as an actor, director and trainer and has more than ten years of experience with theatrical and applied improvisation. A returning participant from Phase 1, she is joined by Hungarian actor and Itt és Most performer Luca Pelsőczy.
Leading the Lublin LAB is Arkadiusz “Arek” Ziętek, a Lublin-based actor, director and acting teacher who has worked with improvisation since 2007. His approach has been strongly influenced by his collaboration with Keith Johnstone, while improvisation remains one part of his wider work in acting, storytelling and theatre education.
Local coordination is led by Łukasz “Luk” Wojtowicz, President of Eastern Theatre and the Lublin host for V4 Improv Connect 2.0.
Part of Dreams Republic Festival 2026
The Lublin LAB and TOUR take place within Dreams Republic Festival 2026, an international theatre festival organised by Eastern Theatre / Teatr Wschodni.
During the same week, the festival brings together artists through performances, workshops, study visits, discussions, film and music, creating a wider international theatre environment around the V4 Improv Connect residency.
For Stories Without Borders, this setting is especially fitting.
The project is not simply asking how improv can work across different languages. It is also asking:
What can improvisational theatre learn from the wider world of theatre to become richer, more expressive and more accessible?
V4 Improv Connect 2.0 wants to help improvisation continue growing as a full-fledged theatrical art form — one capable of being funny, moving, experimental, culturally relevant and welcoming to audiences who might not normally consider an improv show to be for them.
What happens after Lublin?
Lublin is the first stop in this new shared journey.
The discoveries made there will travel with the ensemble to Budapest, Hungary, where the project continues on 30–31 October 2026.
Friday, 30 October: LAB, training and rehearsal.
Saturday, 31 October: final LAB development and rehearsal, followed by the next public TOUR performance in Budapest.
The format will not simply be repeated from city to city.
It will continue to evolve.
Further LABs, performances and community outreach will follow in Bratislava and Prague in 2027, with each country contributing something new to the developing format.
About V4 Improv Connect 2.0
V4 Improv Connect 2.0: Stories Without Borders runs from 2 March 2026 to 31 May 2027 and connects improvisational theatre communities in Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Poland through creative LABs, artist exchange, touring performances, external expert training and community outreach.
The project is created and led by Hon Chong / International Society for Arts and Culture (ISAC)/ Funnylicious Theater, in partnership with:
ČNID / Joke Division — Czechia
Itt és Most Társulat — Hungary
Eastern Theatre / Teatr Wschodni — Poland
ISAC / Funnylicious Theater — Slovakia
Media enquiries
Hon Chong
Project Creator & Artistic Lead
V4 Improv Connect 2.0
ISAC – International Society for Arts and Culture / Funnylicious Theater
Email: hello@isac-eu.org
Tel.: +421 918 895 948
Supported by the International Visegrad Fund
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
