Mladinsko Theatre

Mladinsko Theatre is one of two municipal theatres in Ljubljana and is considered to be a laboratory for actors, directors, choreographers and musicians to research and develop, risk and create. Mladinsko Theatre recent première is a stage adaptation of Anthony Burgess' cult novel A Clockwork Orange [Peklenska pomaranča], directed by the theatre director Matjaž Pograjc.

History

Mladinsko Theatre was established in 1955 as the first professional theatre for children and youth in Slovenia. Although Mladinsko Theatre's productions of the first decade aimed at younger audiences with the stagings of adaptations of classical as well as domestic youth literature, the theatre's first director Balbina Battelino Baranovič succeeded to professionalise the theatre's activities and present them to the wider audience. In the 1980s Mladinsko Theatre initiated a unique interdisciplinary stage research and its productions (Missa in A Minor [Maša v a molu] (1980), Victims of the Bang Bang Fashion [Žrtve mode bum-bum] (1975), The Class Enemy [Razredni sovražnik] (1982), Romeo and Juliet - Comments [Romeo in Julija - komentarji] (1983), The Persians [Peržani] (1981), Anna [Ana] (1984), etc.) were widely acclaimed during the 1980s for their political engagement as well as for their innovative approach to mis-en-scene. The performance Victims of the Bang Bang Fashion, directed by Dušan Jovanović, who was the artistic director of Mladinsko Theatre in the 1980s, put Mladinsko Theatre on the international map of experimental theatres. However, the complete aesthetic break was brought about with the performance Missa in A Minor, directed by Ljubiša Ristić, who staged an original montage of Danilo Kis's text A Tomb for Boris Davidovich and the fragments from political texts of Lenin, Trotsky, Proudhon, Bakunin, etc., thus departing from the traditional relation between the literary text and theatre. This gesture that constituted a new understanding of theatre proved to be decisive for the general orientation of Mladinsko Theatre in the future. By the end of the 1980s, Mladinsko Theatre production took on a turn from making subversive, director-oriented theatre to making theatre by deconstructing modernist theatre traditions, the transition that was most notably epitomised by Vito Taufer's dramatisation of Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland [Alica v čudežni deželi] (1986), which combined the apparently incompatible: childlike sensibility and daredevil theatre experimentation. The production of the 1990s was marked by spectacle and intimacy, the aesthetic radicality approached the post-modernist theatre of images, while Mladinsko Theatre continued to work with stage directors whose dialogue with dramatic texts and personal poetics was inventive and avant-garde. The last turn in Mladinsko Theatre production was introduced by the youngest generation of directors at the turn of the century, who again brought to the focus the dramatic text. In its productions, Mladinsko Theatre continues to thematise the universal paradoxes of civilisation, its programme being founded in problematisations of new times and spaces. In 2008, the European Commission awarded Mladinsko Theatre the title European Ambassador of Culture.

In 2006 Mladinsko Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary, publishing an illustrated book about its history, entitled Has the Future Already Arrived? [Ali je prihodnost že prišla].

Programme

Mladinsko Theatre prepares around five new productions each year, some of them in co-operation with guest directors and in co-production with independent producers. Mladinsko's productions include adaptations of classical and contemporary texts (from Shakespeare's The Tempest [Vihar] (2008) to Sarah Kane's Blasted [Razdejani] (2008)) as well as authorial projects. In 2008-9 season, the performance Eda - the Story of Brothers Rusjan [Eda - zgodba bratov Rusjan], the project by Neda Rusjan Bric about the life of Edvard Rusjan, the self-educated pioneer of Slovenian aviation, and his less known brother Josip, who helped Edvard construct the plane in which the first flight in a self-made plane in the Balkans was performed, was awarded at the Slovene Festival of Chamber Theatre (SKUP) for special artistic achievement.

The season of 2009-10 is entitled 'Art, Eros, Hope' and will present six premières: a project by the uncompromising Croatian director Oliver Frljić and five texts (two of them commissioned by Mladinsko Theatre) that have not yet been staged in Slovenia. Vito Taufer is presenting his twenty-first direction in Mladinsko Theatre, namely Crave [Sla] by Sarah Kane, Ivan Peternelj's project is inspired by the novel Amado Mio by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vinko Möderndorfer is directing a new play Šumi by Peter Božič, which presents socially marginalised characters in the now demolished café in Ljubljana which used to be the meeting place of artists and philosophers, and Ivica Buljan will present his adaptation of Marina Tsvetaeva's Vampire [Vampir].

Since 2008 the Mladinsko Theatre runs its own festival called Mladinsko Festival, which presents beside Mladinsko Theatre's productions also selected performances from abroad.

International cooperation

Mladinsko Theatre regularly makes guest performances at international festivals worldwide (Nancy, Hamburg, Belgrade, London, Moscow, Essen, Cardiff, Lisbon, Madrid, Bogoa, New York) and also hosts selected performances from other countries. Its most acclaimed recent performances included Alice in Wonderland, Drama Observatorium Zenith, Scheherazade, Roberto Zucco, Miss Juliet, Silence Silence Silence, Othello, Che Guevara, Queen Margot, Fragile! and The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Venues

The Mladinsko Theatre incorporates two venues - the Upper Hall (Zgornja dvorana) and the Lower Hall (Spodnja dvorana)

Upper Hall (Zgornja dvorana)

Type of venue: Multipurpose hall; main use: theatre, puppetry, film, music; seating: 275 seats total; proscenium opening: 8m W x 4.4m H; performing area: 9m W x 12m D x 4.4m H flat wooden stage floor, suitable for dance; forestage: 2m D; wing spaces: 2m W SR, 2m W SL; soft hangings: black house curtain, black tabs, legs and borders; lighting: Euro system lighting desk, 500-1000W beamers; sound: Euro system mixer, power amplifiers and loudspeakers; stage equipment: 35mm projection equipment, cinema screen, technical staff available; backstage: dressing rooms for 40 persons total; climate control: air-conditioning; availability: available for hire

Lower Hall (Spodnja dvorana)

Type of venue: Multipurpose hall (non-conventional space); main use: theatre, puppetry, film, music; seating: 200 seats total; performing area: 8m W x 25m D x 3.15-4.47m H, flat stage floor suitable for dance; wing spaces: 2m W SR, 2m W SL; soft hangings: black house curtain, black tabs, legs and borders; lighting: Euro system lighting desk, 500-1000W beamers; sound: Euro system mixer, power amplifiers and loudspeakers; stage equipment: 35mm projection equipment, cinema screen, technical staff available; backstage: dressing rooms for 20 persons total; climate control: air-conditioning; availability: available for hire

External links

Mladinsko Theatre website

Mladinsko Theatre

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