This year's Grad Theater, the 27th in a row, will have one co-production, and the novelty is that the program is signed by the festival directorate composed of employees of that public institution. The municipality allocated 300 thousand euros for this year's Grad Theater.
This was confirmed in an interview with "Vijesti" by the director of JU Grad Theater, Merin Smailagić, who announced that the festival, like last year, will open on June 15 and close on August 1.
"This means that this year we would have 47 festival days and nights, and according to the current estimate, around 50 programs. After the successful cooperation with the "Multimedia Group" due to the expiration of the contract, this year we are also working on the selection of the drama program independently. What we know at the moment is that we are planning a new co-production that is being negotiated, a certain number of guest performances and genre diversity of the art, music and literary program. The employees of JU Grad Teatar are heavily involved in these tasks, so I hope that the results of that work this time too will satisfy the high criteria that we are guided by within the institution, as well as the criteria and expectations of the professional public, the media and the audience," said Smailagić. .
The editorship of the program is signed by the Festival Directorate, which in addition to him consists of Milena Lubarda-Marojević, Boris Mišković, Elizabeta Bogojević, Dušan Knežević, Svetlana Ivanović.
Smailagic said that the program is still being prepared, and that concrete programs cannot be discussed yet.
"When it comes to the theater segment, a co-production is planned, which will once again confirm the dominance of this festival in the country and recognition in the region with its quality and innovation, as well as numerous guest performances by regional theater houses that fit into the concept of the festival. its beginning: the research of the modern theater of the region and Europe, with the constant updating of the cultural heritage through its reading, presentation and evaluation in a new context. In addition, visitors to the Grad Theater will have the opportunity to see some of the earlier more than successful performances from the rich production activity of the festival. Genre diversity will be a feature of other festival programs as well. The artistic, musical and literary production of these areas is being carefully monitored, and I hope that the preliminary program of these program segments will be presented to the public in the near future," he said.
During the selection, care will also be taken to mark this year's significant jubilee, the 200th anniversary of Njegoš's birth, the director of the Grad Theater pointed out.
"I can say that some inter-festival and international collaborations are also planned, but these are elements that have distinguished the program of the Grad Theater until now. As far as financial investments in the festival are concerned, we have to admit that there is no quality program without, first of all, stable and then sufficient finances. The city theater is often given high budgets, sometimes superficially. However, if you look at the budgets of festivals in the region, which can match the quality and number of programs of the Grad Teatar festival, you will see that our budget is significantly smaller. In addition, the percentage distribution of money from the determined budget at the local level indicates that the largest amount goes precisely to the implementation of the program. This year, the founding Assembly of the Municipality of Budva allocated 300.000 euros for the realization of festival services, and I hope that this year we will also succeed in realizing everything planned without impairing the quality that the professional public and the public, based on the previous 26 years, expect from the City this year as well theater", emphasized Smailagić.
Condensed program
Smailagić also said that JU Grad Theater operates intensively even outside the festival season, and that the most important thing is always forgotten whenever the activities of Grad Theater are discussed.
"First of all, it is the fact that the basic activity of the institution is the organization of the summer festival, which every year with the number of programs, and I will say, the number of quality programs, defines not only the cultural life of Budva but also of Montenegro. Because if you look, every year during the festival from 50 to 60 different programs, carefully selected in accordance with the ongoing production of theater, visual, musical and literary arts. Each period of the year has its own phases of work. Beyond the festival season, the entire production of the region is monitored, negotiations are carried out on the possibility of realizing projects and selection. In addition to the mandatory administrative tasks of the institution, evaluation of what was done in the previous year and all other creative tasks related to the realization of the following festival, the fact is that intensive work is also done during the winter, and the results of what has been done can be seen right at the festival. If such a rich program The city of theaters, were distributed throughout the year, with a simple calculation we would arrive at the fact that the cultural life of Budva would be very dynamic due to the fact that we would have four or five programs per month," said Smailagić.
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