The Czech Theatre Is This Year’s Focus at the Theatre Festival in Maribor

This year at the 47th Theatre Festival in Maribor, which will run from 16 to 26 October 2012, the focus will be on contemporary Czech theatre, and the Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI) is contributing to this programme. The first step in cooperation is the publication of an anthology of contemporary Czech plays. The publication, which was released in June 2012, contains Slovenian translations of three plays by the contemporary Czech writers Roman Sikora (Zpověď masochisty / Confessions of a Masochist), Lenka Lagronová (Z prachu hvězd / Out of Stardust) and Petr Kolečko (Vejce / Eggs).

The Slovenian public will be introduced to all three plays in staged readings prepared by students of the Theatre, Radio, and Television Academy in Maribor under the direction of Yulie Roschina on 22–24 October 2012. As part of the festival’s international Bridges section a production will take place of Patrik Ouředník’s Europeana directed by Jan Mikulášek and presented at the festival by Reduta theatre from Brno. The performance will be followed by a discussion with the production team, and the staged readings will be followed by discussions with the authors Petr Kolečko and Roman Sikora.

The programme will also include lectures on contemporary Czech theatre and drama, and a screening of a documentary film on the 12th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, organised by the ATI in 2011.

The Theatre Festival in Maribor is the oldest and most prestigious festival in Slovenia and remains true to its role as an event presenting new perspectives, interesting discussions, and unexpected zvraty. Since its founding in 1996 it has been based at the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor, which has its own dramatic history. It gets its name (Festival Borštnikovo srečanje), despite the opinions of others, from Ignacij Borštnik (1858-1919), an actor and director, and the founder of modern Slovenian theatre. In recent years the festival has grown into an international event. It offers international workshops and  is attended by international guests or producers. All the performances are clear signals that the festival is ready for comparison with theatre scenes in Europe and the rest of the world. International publicity is one of the main tasks of the new team. The festival comprises several thematic programmes (a competition and accompanying programme, and three sections called Mosty, Generace and Přehlídka). A jury of theatre arts experts hands out awards for the best production, direction, acting performances, and music and other artistic achievements. The most prestigious award is the Borštnik Ring, the recipient of which is selected by a special jury in recognition of an artist’s lifetime achievement. More on the festival is available from: http://www.borstnikovo.si.