Considering that the age of the early teenage years is mostly neglected in the repertoire policies of the Balkan countries, in this case Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia, it was the impetus for the regional platform "Od malih nog(u)" to start a research concerning the needs of the theater audience aged 11 years and older, said the playwright Tijana Grumić at the round table "From a young age: Theater for 11+: themes, forms, multimedia", which was held in Kotor, on the ninth day of the Kotor Children's Theater Festival.
"The aim and intention of this research is to create a manual for artists", explained Grumić, who moderated the round table, gave the opening speech, and also represented this platform.
A psychologist also attended the interview Marija Backovic, director Sonja Petrović and playwright Ana Pletikosa in front of the "Od malih nog(u)" platform, as well as the producer Jelena Odalović, a playwright Milana Matejić, actor and screenwriter Dejan Đonović and actors Danilo Brakocevic i Toni Leakovic.
The participants of the round table agreed that theaters in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia lack pedagogues in their staff structure, as well as that it is necessary to work on connecting the work of theaters with educational institutions - kindergartens and schools.
The conversation also went in the direction of finding the reasons why theaters for children and young people in the region do not function in a high-quality manner.
"The very causes of the problems affecting the lack of plays for children and young people, the disinterest of the audience of that age in the theater, as well as the non-respect of the specified age for watching plays among the spectators, were also discussed. The discussion was focused on examples of good and bad practice first in the mentioned three countries, where the participants of the round table have the most experience in work, but also throughout Europe", the announcement states.
A large part of the conversation also related to the topic of determining the age for which a certain play is recommended, i.e. whether theaters, after entering the process of creating a play, decide for which age it is intended, or whether they determine the age for which the play will be intended at the very beginning, and then in according to that production plan, they start working on the play.
Bonus video:
