The “Semberija” City Theater in Bijeljina has announced four premieres, with the first under the working title “Singing and Silence” set to be presented to the audience at the beginning of April, dedicated to the famous singer Sofka Nikolić.
With the stage play “Voices of the Theater” directed by Dušan Tuzlančić, the “Semberija” City Theater recently marked four years of existence during which they staged 15 premieres.
Ivan Petrović, the director of the Bijeljina theater, said that this piece, as the subtitle suggests “a play about thirteen plays,” includes segments of all 13 premieres performed on the evening stage by the City Theater since its establishment.
“Successfully combining different theatrical aesthetics and authorial manuscripts, it has taken viewers through a brief history of this theater, humorously and at times sharply and painfully reminding us of the problems of theater and the society that surrounds it,” said Petrović.
According to him, they chose the date of their theater’s day based on the date of the first premiere, “Comedies Hindered in Development” by Milivoje Mlađenović directed by Dušan Tuzlančić, on February 6, 2020.
“Since then to today, we have managed to perform 15 premieres, of which 13 on the evening stage and two for children. Today we have 12 employees and we strive to make our plays and repertoire look as if we are working at full capacity,” said Petrović.
He emphasizes that the desire is for this youngest theater in the Serbian language to have a repertoire that includes domestic and world classics, as well as being open to new creators and ideas.
“Over four years, our theater has seen many collaborators, directed by directors from Serbia, Slovenia, North Macedonia. Our plays have already participated in significant festivals in the region, which is not easy to achieve in just four years of work under very modest conditions,” said artistic director Milivoje Mlađenović.
He mentioned that the Bijeljina theater has successfully realized a co-production with the National Theater of Republika Srpska in the play “Hasanaginica,” in which artists from the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad also performed.
“This proved to be a complete success, and surely there will be more of that in the future. We must set increasingly difficult tasks and more goals for ourselves. Theater is such, it must not reconcile with reality; if you let love and imagination be your guides, then you can easily overcome everyday problems,” Mlađenović emphasized.
Source: RTRS
