🇪🇸 ESC Volunteering in Spain 🌿 Permaculture and Wild Theatre at a Rural Actors' Space 🎭

Picture eight months on a 16th-century Catalan farmhouse set in 38 hectares of fields, meadows and woodland — halfway between Barcelona and the Pyrenees — where your days are split between building forest gardens and rehearsing open-air theatre. That is life as a volunteer at The Actors Space (L'Espai de l'Actor) near Vic, a long-term European Solidarity Corps project run with Fundació Privada Catalunya Voluntària. It is for people who want to work with the land, live slowly and closely with a small international team, and let creativity and nature meet. At Youth Works Hub we gather ESC opportunities like this in one place, and this is one of the most distinctive long-term projects out there — so here is everything it involves.

About The Actors Space

🏡 The Actors Space sits in a place of outstanding natural beauty near the historic city of Vic, in central Catalonia, in a 16th-century farmhouse surrounded by 38 hectares of fields, meadows and woodland.

🎭 It is a renowned international centre of theatre and film. In the summers it delivers high-quality training for actors, directors and writers; in the winters it runs permaculture projects and theatre-related events.

🌍 For 26 years, artists and students from all over the world — particularly Europe — have come here to train in the performing arts and celebrate creativity, with participants aged from 18 to 70 and from all walks of life on the international summer theatre workshops.

The Mission

🌱 The centre's mission is to contribute deeply to a sustainable and respectful way of living with nature and with each other, and to celebrate meaningful creative events.

🤝 Over recent years, young volunteers have helped create forest gardens and organic vegetable gardens, and the project now aims to develop these further alongside new ecological projects such as tree planting and sustainable irrigation. Volunteers are called to be part of that change.

What You'll Do: Five Hands-On Areas

The work blends ecological landcare with performance. Guided by experts, you take part in five main areas:

🥬 1. Organic Horticulture. You develop skills in planning and organising the vegetable garden and everything around it — preparing beds, seeding, planting, weeding, irrigation, care and harvesting — learning about soil types, vegetable-producing plants and different growing systems, always guided by the Permaculture principles of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. An expert guides you in both practice and theory.

🌳 2. Agroforestry. You maintain and complete the three existing forest gardens (pruning, weeding, mulching, planting and harvesting) and prepare for planting a large number of fruit-bearing trees using syntropic agriculture techniques (design, fencing, soil preparation, tree propagation). You learn permaculture design, water-wise agroforestry, soil and plant science, and tree-nursery techniques under expert guidance.

💧 3. Water Capture and Irrigation. You learn sustainable water management by helping design a system to manage water on the site — capturing rainwater from the nearby mountainside by clearing and creating channels to fill ponds near the orchards.

🎭 4. Theatre Activities. You learn to plan and organise a theatre event: promotion, audience management, and preparing and constructing outdoor performance areas and installations in harmony with the landscape. Those who wish can devise and perform a theatre sketch during the event, guided by The Actors Space teachers.

🐔 5. Chicken Care. You help maintain a chicken coop and raise and care for a small flock — one of the easiest ways to live more sustainably, providing natural fertiliser, pest control, help with composting and fresh free-range eggs.

The Wild Theatre and Outdoor Shows

🌟 The project's Wild Theatre strand involves performing outdoors, using the natural landscape itself as the stage, to inspire young artists to create meaningful art focused on solidarity between humans and nature.

🎬 Volunteers can take part in 3 outdoor shows performed in a town near Barcelona, part of an inclusive project promoted by the local Town Hall — the 15 actors and the many crew members are all volunteers and include individuals with functional diversity. Volunteers can also occasionally help out at BCN Studio, a small theatre in Barcelona offering diverse international theatre arts.

Training and How You'll Be Empowered

📚 Training is continuous and hands-on: permaculture, soil and plant care, agroforestry and sustainable water systems, guided by experienced practitioners, plus simple creative and theatre-based sessions that follow the rhythm of community life.

🗳️ The team aims to involve volunteers actively in the conception and execution of every activity, creating a democratic environment where everyone contributes ideas — empowering young people to build healthy ways of living with each other and with nature.

🎭 Drawn to the creative, community side of ESC? This one has a similar spirit: ESC Volunteering in Culture with Social Impact in 🇪🇸 Spain → https://youthworkshub.org/22087

Accommodation, Food and Getting Around

🛏️ The project hosts 4 volunteers for the full 8 months, each with their own private bedroom. There is a communal kitchen, a small study/library/internet area, and three bathrooms, plus a large 160 m² studio where the theatre workshops run.

🥗 A vegetable garden feeds straight into the kitchen, along with fruit trees (plums, figs, walnuts, apples), and the team is committed to healthy, fresh, mostly home-grown food. Household routines and cleaning run on a shared rota agreed together, and food preferences are discussed at the Welcome Session and built into the weekly shopping list.

☀️ The house has solar panels, and a Health and Safety manual is provided on arrival. The setting is deeply rural: there is no public transport, so the group drives together for shopping.

🚗 Because of the remote location, a driving licence is a must, and it is ideal to arrive with your own car. Bikes can be used locally, but the hilly, sometimes steep terrain makes them less convenient.

Who They're Looking For

The project is looking for 4 creative young people aged 18–30 who love nature, love theatre, and enjoy both teamwork and autonomy — people who appreciate the quiet, silence and stillness of the countryside and do not need constant city stimulation. Specifically, applicants should be:

🗣️ Comfortable with communicative spoken English.

⚡ Proactive and open to learn.

💪 Open to physical, outdoor work across the seasons.

🎭 Interested in taking part in theatre activities.

🚗 Ideally holding a driving licence and willing to arrive with their own car; acting experience is a relevant plus.

Who Can Apply (Eligible Countries)

🌍 The project is open to residents of: 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇭🇷 Croatia, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇨🇿 Czechia, 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇪🇪 Estonia, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇭🇺 Hungary, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇱🇻 Latvia, 🇱🇹 Lithuania, 🇲🇹 Malta, 🇲🇪 Montenegro, 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇸🇰 Slovakia, 🇸🇮 Slovenia, 🇪🇸 Spain and 🇸🇪 Sweden.

How to Apply

📝 Read the infopack carefully and apply through the project's online application form — the organisers use only this form for participant selection.

✍️ A project-specific motivation letter is mandatory: applications without a motivation letter written specifically for this project will not be considered.

✍️ Since the motivation letter decides it here, get it right: How to Write a Motivation Letter for ESC and Erasmus+ Projects → https://youthworkshub.org/esc-motivation-letter

Frequently Asked Questions

❓ How long is the project? 8 months, from 15 October 2026 to 30 June 2027.

❓ How old do I need to be? 18–30.

❓ Do I need a car? A driving licence is a must given the remote, transport-free setting, and arriving with your own car is ideal.

❓ Do I need theatre experience? No — but you should be interested in taking part in theatre activities, and acting experience is a plus.

❓ What's the one thing I can't skip in my application? A motivation letter written specifically for this project — without it you won't be considered.

❓ Is it funded? Yes — as an ESC project, accommodation, food, insurance, a travel contribution and monthly pocket money are covered to the programme's standard, so it is not a pay-to-participate scheme.

🌿 Love the permaculture and off-grid living side? This one is a natural match: ESC Volunteering in Ecovillage Life, Permaculture and Solidarity in 🇮🇹 Italy → https://youthworkshub.org/21530

Deadline

⏳ 20 September 2026, 12:00.

With only 4 places over 8 months and a mandatory tailored motivation letter, this one rewards applying early and putting real thought into why this specific project fits you. Youth Works Hub gathers long-term ESC volunteering like this so you can find the right fit and apply before the deadline.