Some good news

Monday, 5 January 2015

Theatre guests on 49th edition of Festival

Yes, we do have some good news. In form of responses of our guests - renowned theatre professionals, critics, producers. Read them through!

The programme was very impressive, gave a wide panorama of the Slovenian theatre and helped me stay in pace with its latest developments. I’m particularly impressed by Dead Man Coming for His Mistress and its being part of a trend in Eastern/Central European theatre of today. Angel of Oblivion and Our Town are also very impressive productions, which made me feel professionally very enriched.

The organization was fully professional.

Kalina Stefanova, Theatre critic, Professor of Theatre; National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Bulgaria

At Borštnikovo, I got to see theatre productions of high quality in terms of the ensemble performance, stage direction and musicality. Also, I appreciated the effort to present a variety of different formats and aesthetics. Still, there is a strong focus on literature-based theatre. From my personal perspective, I would suggest inviting more progressive and also experimental productions in the future that involve and challenge the audience on a different level and that maybe even deal with current social and political issues more direct manner. A greater variety of theatrical formats can be achieved by considering state/institutional as well as independent theatre productions for the festival selection.  

Maria Rößler, Festspiele / "Foreign Affairs" Festival, Germany

As every year, we saw a well-balanced and high quality programme, the organization was excellent in every respect and the atmosphere throughout the whole showcase very pleasant. Even though not part of the showcase, I would really like to mention the excellent and very interesting accompanying programme, such as panel discussions and symposia (e.g. Theatre of Resistance), the involvement of other cultural institutions in Maribor and the importance given to further education and development by showing students’ productions and organizing events like "Instant drama”.

Lydia Nagel, Drama Panorama/ translator, Germany

From my perspective as an artist the main benefit was getting a good insight into contemporary Slovenian theatre due to the fact that the program was very extensive. As a playwright I’ve noticed a tendency towards a predominately director’s theatre, similar to the situation in Croatia. The result of this is a lack of strong texts and roles for actors that in my opinion is something to be aware of.

The organization of Showcase program was extremely well conducted. The vicinity of the hotel to the venues, the fact that almost all of the participants are in the same hotel and thus are in constant contact, presence of students throughout the whole festival, polite and professional staff of the festival – are just some of numerous pluses that in the end led to an excellent festival atmosphere and exchange of ideas and thoughts.  

Nina Mitrović, Playwright, Croatia