Budva also needs a theater

The jubilee, 35th Festival "Grad Teatar" will be held this year between July 10 and August 20 in Budva.

The motto under which the festival will show a total of 45 programs in 40 days is: "Return to life". This was announced by the director of the Public Institution "Grad Teatar" in an interview for "Vijesti". Milena Lubarda Marojević.

According to her, a new festival theater production will be shown during this festival.

"It's the 'Green Choya of Montenegro' in the direction Nikita Milivojevića, an adaptation of the famous novel Mom Kapor according to which he wrote the play Stevan Koprivica. It will be accompanied by three other festival productions from previous years: 'Bloody Wedding', 'Celestina' and 'The Use of Man'. The performance 'Green Choja of Montenegro' will be the 76th theater performance produced by 'Grad Teatar?. In JU 'Grad Teatar', they believe that 76 performances for 35 years is a sufficient recommendation and a reason to insist that Budva is a necessary theater", said Lubarda Marojević.

He emphasizes that 35 years ago, "Grad Teatar" was created as an open-air summer festival, and since then it has become a real production giant, whose projects would make renowned theaters of all places proud.

"The plays created for the festival are premiered in Budva, but then continue their lives on the stages of other theaters, while the Budva audience remains waiting for a year until new events take place. During the three and a half decades of its duration, the 'Grad Teatar' festival has made the people of Budva not only a demanding and educated theater audience, but also that the need for theatrical performances during the winter only increases from year to year. Many children from Budva decided to pursue a career in the theater, and many of them today live and work in other areas, wishing for the opportunity to do their work in their own city. Until now, the festival has shown its performances on Budva squares, beaches, hotel terraces, in busy places and inaccessible areas, in the gates of the monastery, on the island, in the water, and even in the air", emphasized Lubarda Marojević.

He believes that the time has come to start showing them in the theater as well.

"During the last few years, the practice of showing chamber theater performances in Petrovac, in the Memorial House of the Red Commune, was established, which was interrupted by an epidemic in March of last year. In order to find a temporary solution as soon as possible and enable the showing of theatrical performances in Budva, the Municipality of Budva, as part of the investment project for the reconstruction and conversion of the amphitheater in the secondary school "Danilo Kiš" into a multi-purpose sports hall, planned and included in the project the suggestions given by the technical service JU 'Grad Teatar', on the basis of which it will be possible to show a number of theatrical performances in this space", she stressed. Lubarda Marojević reminds that the budget of the Municipality of Budva for 2021 has planned funds for this, and the work is managed by the Secretariat for Investments.

"As we know, the tender for the execution of the planned works is underway. We believe that this will enable JU 'Grad Teatar' to show theater performances for its fellow citizens more regularly during the winter months, and at the same time it could be a space for rehearsals of some future projects. The beginning of the works is planned for the time after the end of the school year, and we all hope that we will see new theater performances in Budva next year. that it can be a useful transition that will partially respond to the enormous need of the people of Budva for theater throughout the year", Lubarda Marojević concluded.