Not only Paris is the city of light. It can be other cities as well, because the light of the city is not lighting. The lights are the people who make it and who, with their spirit, attitude towards the city - build the spirit of the place where they live. The actors from Kragujevac who performed the play "City of Light" at the Novi Sad Theatre Festival told us about one such place in Serbia - their city Kragujevac.

Chilean director and actor David Zuazola directed this unusual play, which revealed to us how Kragujevac breathes, how it used to breathe, but also what kind of theatre its actors are capable of creating. The play told us about the many symbols of the city, from potholes and heavy traffic - which is not exclusively specific of Kragujevac, to the phenomenon of the disappearance of the spirit of the city - which we witness in many Serbian cities and the ecological message in the form of the destroyed Lepenica river, to a strong anti-fascist message, embodied in the story of Šumarice.

One of the actresses in the play, Ljubica Radomirović, spoke about Kragujevac as a city of light...

In the play, you spoke very well about the anti-fascist past of Kragujevac and our country in general, the anti-fascist tradition that today we are ashamed of and push under the carpet. Some true values on which generations grew up are being erased and some other "values" are being written. How much does Kragujevac respect its anti-fascist tradition?

I was born in Užice, and the struggle against fascism is in the blood of the Užice people. I was on an excursion in Kragujevac, I was then in Šumarice, but it's different when you live in that city and understand what happened there. The anti-fascist tradition is very much alive and it is a moment of history that must not be forgotten. Because the newer generations are trying to downplay it, we have to tell the children of each new generation about Šumarica and that suffering, especially since today, unfortunately, we are witnessing a genocide that is happening against a nation, and no one is reacting. I think it is very important that we covered this topic in the theatre for children. People forget and need to be reminded. We experience all kinds of things on a daily basis, the news changes so quickly that we don't even remember some of the recent horrors.

The theater is there to warn and remind us of everything around us...

And it has been doing that for 2000 years.

It is a great responsibility to teach and remind children and young people about environmental and various other social topics... Do you ever get tired?

But that is our task, the theatre should not – whether it is for adults, or children - deal with trivial topics and for people to get mere entertainment. Unfortunately, many people go to the theatre to get mere entertainment and think that’s theatre’s only purpose. But the theatre is a well-mannered educational institution and it's absolutely fine to deal with all these topics. Maybe it discourages someone, but until something changes, until people learn that they should throw garbage in the bin, we need to work on it, be persistent.

Here at the festival, we keep talking about how in Serbia a certain age group of young people in one part of their lives has nothing to watch in the theater. Why aren't we interested in creating the taste of those young people?

  We always ask what they are actually interested in, what interests them more, because we wouldn't make plays about Tiktok and Instagram. And then we are always on a seesaw. We opened the Youth Stage about a year ago and, if nothing else, we put on plays based on the mandatory reading material. So, over time we will find out what they would like to watch. Also, they are a little confused, not exactly sure what they would like to see in the theatre.

 What kind of audience are children and young people in Kragujevac? Do you manage to get their attention?

  We have a really well-groomed audience, parents bring their children, and we also have real fans who watch plays up to 15 times. The culture of going to the theatre in Kragujevac is very much present, even though there is a segment of the population that doesn't even know that there is a theatre, whereas those who know - they adore it.

Snežana Miletić

A lot of effort and work was put into the show about the light of the city of Kragujevac "City of Light" by the Theatre for Children and Youth, Kragujevac. The lights of this city are the souls of all its inhabitants. The play is instructive and interesting. It deals with everyday events in the city in an interesting way, through models of important city institutions and buildings, and through light.

It's interesting to see all the small buildings made of cardboard, metal, lights... We liked the scene with the "Zastava" factory the most, because it taught us that we shouldn't pollute nature. We recommend the show to all residents of Kragujevac, as well as residents of other cities. If the play "City of Light" were to be performed in Novi Sad, the lights of the city that we would single out are: the lights of the theatres, the light on the Petrovaradin Fortress, the lanterns in the Danube Park.

Sara Ilić and Stefan Zorić, young critics of the Novi Sad Theatre Festival

The character of a clown in the theater has neither a future nor a past, it exists only here and now, and its mission is to make the audience laugh. The clown (Georgi Spasov), author of the play "Clown and his children" by Zheni Pashova and Petar Pashov, produced by "Atelier 313" from Sofia, also has helpers in making him laugh - his puppet children (they are animated, behind the screen, by Rozika Spasova). The play is made up of gags, "Mickey Mousing", overcoming obstacles in the style of slapstick comedy. The clown turned the language barrier into his advantage, so there were frequent jokes about misunderstandings and asking for translation help from the youngest audience. All in all, skillful, not over-the-top, but entertaining.

AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS:

"It was fun and I'm very pleased that I understood the Bulgarian language." (age 8)

"I laughed several times." (age 7)

"I really liked the Ballerina Nina puppet." (age 4)

"I liked the puppets and how colorful everything was." (age 5)

Hristo The Elephant - an equilibrist, with a charming clown and his troupe, which consisted of muscles, ballerinas, ducks and some other puppets, greatly entertained the youngest audience of the Novi Sad Theater Festival. Their parents and all the guests of the Festival enjoyed the play, too. Well done to the skilled and charming Bulgarian puppeteers Rozika and Georgi Spasov who enticed scores of smiles and applause throughout the show with their inspired play.

For the theater in general, responsibility towards the audience is important, and what kind of responsibility do you need to have when you are an actor for children, a puppeteer?

Georgi Spasov: An actor must absolutely and constantly be aware of that responsibility. My teacher used to say – to play for children should be done the same way as for adults, only with more responsibly and even better.

Today, it is very difficult for the theater to be more imaginative than the sensations offered to children by phones, the Internet and various other gadgets. How can theater deal with that?

G S: I don't think that mobile phones and all modern technology can displace the theater from our lives. I would quote a playwright who says that even if there were two people left on earth, one would make theater and the other would watch.

Today we saw two big children in you two. How to protect that child in a grown man in a time that is not kind to anyone?

G S: I think it is individual. Some people keep the child inside them, some don't. In any case, our profession, and the fact that we work for children, helps us to maintain and keep the child in us.

You played in Bulgarian and there were fears whether the children would understand a lot of the text you spoke, but the enchanting play overcame the language barrier. Were you afraid of what it would look like?

G S: There was a language barrier, but it is always a question of desire and will to overcome it, both on the part of the actors and the audience. The more the actors give and find a way to convey and perform better, the more that barrier disappears. This mutual will is important.

Is it harder to be visible or invisible on stage? You, Rozika, were invisible during the whole performance, and yet, your performance thrilled the audience.

Rozika Spasova: Well, it is more difficult to be invisible, because the actor has contact with the audience, and the invisible one does not. I can't see the audience, but I have to make contact with the children. The puppeteer does not have direct contact with the audience, but through the puppet and it is the reverse process, because through the puppet they cannot receive the feeling and energy that the audience gives to the puppet, and everything is therefore much more complicated than when the actor feels it live.

When you got the idea for this play, did you write a script, a text, make a construction of how everything would look, or did you build this clown story piece by piece?

Rozika Spasova: We didn't have any script, just the idea to work with the famous Bulgarian director, unfortunately the late Peter Pashov, to build a story, and then we included other collaborators in the story, with whom we created the play together. Little by little, what we see today was formed.

The author's project of director Vanja Jovanović and playwright Matej Sudarić "Velvet Revolution" produced by the Osijek Cultural Center was performed at the Novi Sad Youth Theatre (May 11) at the Third International Festival of Professional Theatres for Children and Youth - Novi Sad Theatre Festival (May 8-15 2024) and it arrived at the festival under the aura of good "vibrations".

Although the state provides them with all legitimate rights from the age of eighteen, today’s youth are in their thirties, still not willing (or ready) to take responsibility (even those up to the age of 35 are considered young, although young people once sat on the throne at the age of 23, some even at the age of 17, while some wrote their most important literary works before their twenties). On the eve of the defense of his graduate thesis on the topic of the French Revolution, history student Duško Radić (Vedran Dakić) decides to spend the evening in peace, after which he will enter the "adult world", but his girlfriend Mila (Mateja Tustanovski), brother Neno (Nikola Radoš) and friend Jan (Matko Trnačić) with his girlfriend Ana Flegar (Sara Moser) conclude that they must be with him because he has been behaving strangely for the past month. The evening passes in mutual teasing because no one respects the other's worldview, so each of the characters is clearly profiled: Ana annoys everyone around her with her forced "environmental" care, especially her compliant boyfriend Jan, the brothers Duško and Neno accuse each other of various family situations , and Mila tries to achieve a happy relationship with Duško. No one is overly satisfied or assumes what the future will bring, but Duško (whom they describe as soft, gentle, velvety) leads the way in this apprehension. Moving from the seating set to the raised podium with the piano (Mario Tomašević), the actors move in a closed space in which realistic scenes alternate with illusion, where, thanks to the light (Anđela Kusić), it is always completely clear when the participants are talking to each other and when they are singing along to the piano. (music by Ljudevit Laušin, piano played by Tustanovski) represents Duško's idea that his friends are mocking him (the audience and actors are placed on the stage, which ensures a more intimate transmission of the message). The first part of the play consists of these more or less humorous "fights", while in the second part Duško turns to his own fears of the future (surrounded by defensive jute bags) and going out "into the world" (the room is obviously a kind of protection, defense, security) in which we recognize the "Peter Pan syndrome" - the fear of assuming responsibility in accordance with age. Although Duško uses the concept of revolution, he knows that he is weak, unprepared, immature, powerless - in short, "velvety" (oxymoron). The transition from the situation in which the friends are chatting to the situation in which we follow Duško's inner questioning is dramaturgically unclear since there is no reason for this reversal. If this "internal" presentation is supposed to show the search for the causes of fear (I can hardly believe that people on the threshold of their thirties are so immature) and possible salvation, I would expect a metaphorical approach and not the level of proclamation. And all of that presented in camouflage coats (M. Tomašević).

Since I always write through a personal lens, I wonder to what extent the generation gap between me and the characters is an obstacle in recognizing their problems, and how much of it is due to the author's team trying too hard with this: we all had and still have various fears, but at least we try to find a cause for them; whereas, it seems to me that in this play, only the surface has been "scratched" without really investigating what it is all truly about?! What makes this play interesting (and very good) are the actors: especially Vedran Dakić, whose acting energy is a real locomotive. In his acting, everything is dosed and in its place: movement, grimace, sarcastic comment. Despite the role of a "background player" (compared to the energetic Ana in Sara Moser's interpretation), Matko Trnačić coped exceptionally well in the duality of Jan: he would be happy to express himself, but he would not want to insult ayone. The characters of Mila (Tustanovski) and Neno (Radoš) are on that line, but in a smaller contrast, so they all together form a well-balanced cast.

Olga Vujović

The author is a theater critic from Croatia. She writes for www.kritikaz.com and on the portals wish.hr, fama.com.hr, virovitica.net. She is a member of the Croatian Society of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists.

Vedran Dakić plays Duško Radić in Osijek's "Velvet Revolution", which we saw on the fourth night of the festival. For that role, he received the award for the best leading actor in a drama at the Croatian Drama Theater Awards. Before becoming an actor, Dakić studied agro-economics, as he admitted in one of his previous interviews, he doesn't even know why. Fortunately, from that detour, he returned to what he is dedicated to today - acting.

The play "Velvet Revolution" is the author's project of Vanja Jovanović and Matej Sudarić. It begins as a relaxed gathering of five young people before Duško Radić's graduation thesis defense, which will officially represent the end of one and the beginning of a different life for him. Radić's fears before the inevitable entry into adult life are the theme of this play, and they are actually the fears we all face when we find ourselves at a turning point. Actor Vedran Dakić spoke about those milestones and revolutions, but also evolutions, after the performance...

Your character is trying some revolutions, he is fighting at least against imaginary enemies, he is still brave, before some serious revolution eats him. With your own little revolution, have you ever managed to dig into some system?

Yes, I remember one that ended in victory. We were supposed to play this play at a festival where different stages were involved, and we got the stage where it was not possible to have adequate light as our play needs because for some scenes the atmosphere is built with specific light. Light plays a big role, and I don't believe that the play would have been successful if it hadn't been so accurately represented by the light. And at that festival, we received a light with which it was not possible to do it, for some strange reasons, but we also knew why it was done, why they gave us only three spotlights. I didn't want to back down, I insisted that we play on our stage and nowhere else, and it was a small victory, which meant a lot to me.

How many times a day do you succeed in those small victories?

Sometimes more, sometimes less. Every day something happens at rehearsal and it makes me stronger.

Revolutions lurk in each of us, as do fears. However, fears are easier to feel, more than courage. We are somehow elementally less brave for courage. People put up with incredibly senseless and wrong things. Why is it easier to suffer than to be brave, and when have we stopped being brave, when has convenience become more important to us than ethics?

I think it is precisely convenience that has led to the collapse of courage. I became aware of this at the moment when I realized that I could fall into it myself, looking at other colleagues and people in general. At some point, they obviously came to terms with a certain concept and state of affairs, they had enough, or they got tired, or they simply didn't care anymore. People very easily agree to something that is below their level. And I realized that the moment I noticed that I was starting to accept it myself. I got scared and snapped out of it. I said no, no and no. A distinction must be made, because otherwise you drown in it. You have a salary, you work a little, you buy this, you buy that and you think, that's it. But it isn't. Beyond that, there is something better and more important. It makes me sad when I see how bitter and unhappy these people are, they always have something to complain about. Acting is a special profession. It is actually a calling and it should only be pursued by those who feel that calling within themselves, because everything else is pointless. I can't imagine that someone went to the academy for five years, was locked in a black room for 12 hours, played this and that, and didn't like it, so that's incomprehensible to me. Commodity really catches people. I admit that I am also afraid of something like that happening to me.

In the Croatian theater, there were directors who knew how to start a revolution on stage because they worked on important and painful topics in ways that had not been seen before. Like Frljić, for example. Are there such creative revolutionaries today? Are there theaters where there are not 15 premieres and no performances, but those where the repertoire is planned?

There is something like that in all theaters, such material, but it is very important that the head of the theater is an educated person, a theater-educated person, and it is very important how he creates the team. It is important that they are also educated people, honest in their intentions and ideas, that they know why they do something and why they work with certain people.

 And how can that be influenced, how can you as an actor influence that?

I would very much like to say that I can. But... I tried and I think that the only way to have an impact is with projects like the "Velvet Revolution". In Osijek, for example, no auditions for actors have taken place in the last ten years. So is that normal?! Who prevents us from auditioning? I understand, theaters have ensembles, and I'm in an ensemble, ok. Ensembles do co-productions and that's where new energy happens and that's great. And all that stands, but at the end of the day, why aren't auditions organized anymore. But no, it's our practice, we do three premieres, or five, these people do, when you ask what we're doing - the answer is it doesn't matter, don't worry, and you know you have to worry. You are like an actor on some kind of moving factory line waiting to do something mechanically and that's it. When you look at it, it looks like you're doing some work like people who work from 7 to 3, and an actor is not that - an actor doesn’t have set working hours. You are an actor all day, every day of the year, both on holidays and on Sundays. In addition, it is very important to know that an actor is not only what people see on stage, we learn the text at home, and where are the rehearsals... Acting work does not last only while the actor is on stage... And that's why education would be very important there.

Do you have ethics as a subject at the Academy? Is the something about work ethics?

We don't have that, but at our Academy Stanislavsky is the main subject, and he has an ethics of acting, which I think is very good and if people adhere to it - what theaters we would have! We go through all that during schooling, but it gets lost afterwards. Our academy is really good: either you learn or you leave. And you really learn everything, except how to deal with theater directors, management and colleagues, and all that awaits you beyond the stage and acting. When a young actor comes to the theater, they have no idea what they will encounter. They find themselves on unfamiliar ground, because at the Academy they were always protected, they had someone to rely on, someone would always tell them if something was wrong, if it wasn't good, what needs to be fixed... If they make a mistake, it's not the end of the world... That's why I think that there should be a course at the academies that would introduce acting students to that story, where they would be told what awaits them when they start a professional acting life. For example, we've been to a lot of festivals and this is the second round table we've been to. We didn't expect it to be like this, talkative, open. There, it's a sort of school, and it says a lot about the festival.

 Snežana Miletić

Photo: Milana MIlovanov

Does "Every recipient has the right to choose."? Can the system collapse from the inside and can the revolution deny the thesis that man is a trauma in himself? The Osijek play Velvet Revolution, which was performed on the fourth night of the festival, spoke about all of this. The story, directed by Vanja Jovanović, is also a saga about fears, lack of identity, but also the need to be loved...

What you will do for this world and how you will do it, actually says the most about each of us. Will our personal ethics win over mentality and adopted and rooted social constructs - is a dilemma that remains even after this play, because it seems that every revolution, at some point, must devour its children...

After the play, the actors and the author's team had a long talk with the audience. Although Vanja Jovanović (director and text) and Matej Sudarić (text) are signed as authors, the authors of the text are actually all the actors collectively, because they contributed to the creation of the text with their personal stories. They pointed out that, as mostly freelancers, they are extremely satisfied with the cooperation with KC Osijek, the play production house.

It is the work process they created in that small cultural space that is one of the ways to change some cultural and theater habits and practices. They mentioned that, after many years in Osijek, there was an audition organized for this play again.

The audition system was singled out as a good and necessary practice by the actress Sara Moser. When asked what kind of revolution actors would start in the theater if they really had the opportunity to freely choose, Moser said that it would be the abolition of ensembles and the introduction of the phenomenon of auditions, as an equal training ground for all. Such an approach would provide, not only an opportunity to work for upcoming young people, but would certainly raise the quality of theater work in general.

Actor Vedran Dakić added that in this sense, it would be important that the places where the theaters are managed have professional people, educated and versed in creating repertoires. Today, however, they are created by the personal tastes of people who mostly choose ruling politicians, Vanja Jovanović added. The young team from Osijek was of the opinion that all of this was leading to the collapse of the theater.

The producer of the festival, Sava Stefanović, objected to this, saying that he thinks that no politics can destroy the theater, if it is well, professionally and ethically set up. The theater can be destroyed only by its actors, the people who create it, added Stefanović, and they can destroy it from within, by unprofessional and unethical actions.

Due to all the detours in life and theater, the young artists emphasized that in the context of everything that their play deals with, it is important for them to preserve their microworlds and to remain human within them.

They talked about their, not at all enviable, position as a freelancer, about fees that are not really a motivation for work. It has been heard that, when it comes to fees, there is no price list by which those who hire theater artists are governed, and among artists there is more of a law of silence, and that men are always better paid than women. As a curiosity, they discovered that everyone on this project was paid equally.

Actress Sara Moser mentioned that it is very important that projects like the "Velvet Revolution" take place outside of Zagreb, where there are dozens of cultural events and where the culture of viewing, including theater, is much richer.

In the year it celebrates its fiftieth birthday, the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad accredited a two-year master's degree program - Puppetry. Academy of Arts Dean Siniša Bokan and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs Vesna Ždrnja spoke at the promotion of these studies, as well as the two professors who will give lectures, PhD Saša Latinović and Ivana Mijić Nemet. They presented the subjects and the teaching content as well as the methods of its implementation.

It is interesting, among other things, that part of the classes will also be held in the Youth Theatre, and on that occasion the Dean and Acting Director of the Youth Theatre Aleksandar Ćurčić, shaking hands, expressed their mutual satisfaction with the future cooperation, which could result in good performances.

The Dean Bokan mentioned that the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad is the only one in the region that has permanent practice in all departments, while Vesna Ždrnja expressed her great satisfaction that the subject Children's Literature is part of these studies, especially since here, very few people deal with children's literature in such a way. She pointed out that at all subjects at the Academy will have very innovative approaches, including stage movement, where they will be joined by Andjelko Beroš, who was educated in Barcelona. One of the lecturers in Puppetry program will be Youth Theatre actor Slobodan Ninković, who, along with Saša Latinović, is one of the most distinguished puppeteers in the country. Ms Ždrnja explained that the program is set wide and very complex, so they hope that our young actors could seriously fall in love with puppetry and that these studies grow into undergraduate studies as well.

At the end of the promotion, Acting Director of the Youth Theatre Aleksandar Ćurčić presented the Academy with several books from the theatre library, as well as 10 books by Livija Kroflin, which were previously promoted within the framework of the Novi Sad Theatre Festival.

This way and that way, it can, and it can't, and always some stumbling block. And there is always one to be, but also not to be, and why not be when you can be. And most importantly, why can't people fly? Why? On the third evening of the Festival, however, one person flew, in the play "I Sisyphus" by the Puppet Laboratory from Sofia.

Directed by Veselka Kuncheva, we watched a philosophical reflection on human meaninglessness. In fact, of constant repetition. Because no matter which way a person goes, they come to the same place. Even when they try to escape: up - down - left - right - spiral or whatever, they are always met by something the same and predictable.

All of us Sisyphus, artistically devoted, were played by Stefan Dodurov, otherwise a drama actor who, as he admits, found this to be quite an interesting theatrical experience. His playing was eclectic, but also very witty, at times even shockingly witty. After the play, he talked about Sisyphus and everything around him...

How long have you been playing this show and how does it feel when you play Sisyphus?

I am the third actor to play in this monodrama, which has been on stage for 11 or 12 years. I have been playing since 2019. Veselka Kuncheva was auditioning, she wanted to recreate the performance with three different puppets, and as I am a drama artist, it was very difficult for me to decide if I could take on the responsibility of doing such serious work. I succeeded, and in every performance, I always have to succeed, because it's always a little difficult. You should always push a little, give something more.

How is it for an actor, or a human being in general, when he recognizes Sisyphus in himself? You had to find at least a few of them for this occasion...

Sisyphus lives in each of us. Every person has a need to go somewhere, to take a step higher, to outline some goal that they would have to reach, to expand, or even break some boundaries, to go beyond them. The point of this piece is that life, despite all the difficulties and sufferings, is worth living. And it's better to do it with a smile. The point of persistence, and of living in general, is not the goal, but the effort to do something. And while you push, you laugh at fate. That's the point. It seems to me that in this sense this piece is cleverly and wisely constructed, between me and me, between the demons in the play. It is both a story about the physical and the metaphysical.

During the creative process, did you manage to answer the question that can be heard in the play itself - why can't people fly?

Because a human being is just that. They want to fly, but they can only fly in their dreams. In fact, because they can't fly, people do ingenious things. We humans, despite our limitations, can do great things. That's why the gods love us.

And what can puppets do that humans can't?

The answer continues to the previous one... Humans have limitations, and puppets have even more. We give them life, and imagine that they are alive. Through them, to ourselves, we tell some stories about a better life. That's how we try to make people better. We try to convince them that everything can be better. Puppets help us tell better stories.

Why are people today less and less able to tell stories, they are lagging in it, and this is very visible in art, theater, and even in life... In Serbian theater it is a serious problem... Maybe it is better in Bulgaria?

I see it myself. The problem is that we constantly want to say something new, to invent some new sensation, and there is nothing new. We need to tell old stories in new ways, to breathe new life into old, archetypal stories. So that those small - big stories become a part of the new time, of our life. We Bulgarians have an expression that we should not discover hot water (reinvent the wheel)...

There is the same proverb in Serbian, but we still keep doing it...

  And the Bulgarians too. We need to return to classical values, to remind ourselves of them, but to talk about them in ways that belong to this time. Today, we often look at things that are apparently shiny, they have something on top, some topping, they also have some spices, but there is nothing inside. It's filled with emptiness. It is difficult, of course, to say something new, and have it come from basic stories. There is a catch. The cubism invented by Picasso came from tradition, after all. Making something like that is difficult and rare.

In that context, is it more important to have an idea or to be brave?

Both. People who say new things, the so-called avant-garde, they are, as the French word says, in the front lines and see something that others do not. They discover something that, if it connects with people, opens up new worlds. Being smart and brave enough to do it is not easy at all. That's why we have to be persistent, to constantly work on it, not to give up and not to judge people when they make a mistake, when they fail, because it's really hard.

As an artist, are you scared of today's world? Terrible stories are happening in it - even as we speak.

How could I not be... Of course I am. I think we live in a time of cowards. Scared people are afraid, and a weak person is a dangerous person. I am glad that now there are no conflicts in the Balkans like there were before and I hope that we have learned a lesson. I'm grateful for that and I think about it all the time, because we're really in a bit of a tailspin here. History doesn't repeat itself here, it rewinds...

 Snežana Miletić

 Portret umetnika: Milana Milovanov

Fotografija iz predstave: Aleksander Bogdan Tompson