The thirty-ninth "City of Theatre" festival will open on July 1st with the play "My Theatre" by Atelje 212 from Belgrade, which is an author's project. Boris Liješević. The festival, whose program was recently announced, will last 54 days, and during that time 20 theater performances, 8 concerts, 15 literary evenings and 2 art exhibitions will be presented. The audience will attend performances at famous locations in the Old Town, as well as in the amphitheater of the Stanjevići Monastery above Budva, at the fortress above Mogren Beach, and inside the Slovenska Plaza hotel complex. On this occasion, we spoke with the director of the public institution “Grad Teatar” Milena Lubarda Marojević, whose professional life has been connected to this festival for more than two decades.
In your opinion, what is the significance of this festival for the cultural identity of Budva and Montenegro?
The significance is of course multiple and two-fold. Historically, as well as aesthetically. This festival was created four decades ago and was designed based on similar concepts in the region (Dubrovnik, Ohrid), and these in turn based on even older European examples, the festivals in Avignon and Edinburgh, which were launched practically immediately after World War II, both existing since 1947. All of them were conceived as festivals of the so-called high culture, with an emphasis on performing arts. If we look at today's festival scene in Montenegro, we will see that after the "City of Theater" a whole series of other festivals with a similar concept and duration were founded, that each developed some of its own characteristics, but it can easily be concluded how important that first, for its time a completely avant-garde project, is for the further development of Montenegrin culture. In the other direction, we can follow how Montenegro and Budva as a city influenced their festival. At one point it ceased to be a republican or state priority, that focus moved to other places, and the festival administratively remained tied exclusively to the city. At the same time, the city was changing so quickly and radically that the festival was finding its answers to all of this as it went along. So we went from an ambient concept in which every place could freely become a space for play, from the imperatives of the avant-garde and “high” art, to an open-air festival that finds its scenes wherever possible, and which, in terms of elitism, is too often in a position to be questioned, and even justified. Since “new necessities give rise to new forces”, I think that with a lot of effort, an optimal measure was found in all of this, in which the festival preserved, colloquially speaking, the prestige that was always expected of it, and that this prestige remained both formal and substantive. Because the audience continues to reside both in the city and historical epicenter, and in newly discovered places. The auditoriums are intimate spaces, squares where people talk, or they go on a journey to remote locations that are adapted precisely for that specific artistic event.
How do you reconcile the tastes of the audience, especially in the summer when commercial content is available everywhere? What are your guidelines when making selections?
I have already mentioned the concept of “high” culture. Whenever you design and organize an event, you have an ideal visitor in mind, an imagined person in the audience for whom you are doing all this. In our case, that person is, above all, curious. I honestly think that it is necessary for art to be able to communicate, especially in such endeavors as a two-month art festival in the epicenter of mass events. If something cannot communicate at all, then it is hardly adequate. Of course, not every content can communicate with everyone, but this is precisely our most delicate and most important task. The audience wants and needs to be “drawn” into the event, to experience something that they will carry with them, and that will continue to intrigue them when they leave. “Theatre City” has nurtured a demanding and self-aware audience, whose expectations are layered and which is not easy to delight. That is why this audience, on the other hand, recognizes and loves authentic content, behind which there is knowledge and strong inspiration. More than in other places, it seems to me, it looks forward to what would Chekhov called “new forms.” Somewhere between such expectations and the desire to always go one step further, our selections of theater, literature, music, and visual arts move.
We often ask ourselves how, and whether, a festival should serve tourism, what that border looks like and where it is located. Of course, that question makes a lot of sense, when we know how important tourism is for the entire country. And the answer is that it is precisely these kinds of events that preserve the city, as a destination, but also as a place to live.
The motto of this year's festival is “Truth - the sea - to the sun.” Why is that, does it refer to something specific?
There is a stereotypical expectation of summer festivals, which includes sun, sea, comedy, beautiful pictures and lighter notes. However, for all of this to make sense, for it to reach people's hearts and stay there, for it to do what we need art for - to change the world for the better - it must bring truth. It must deal with topics that touch us, it must communicate with its time in an open and direct way. This can be done through contemporary works, but it can certainly be done through words, notes, pictures and forms that were created at any time in the past. It can be done through comedy, of course, which is probably the most difficult. We witness this whenever we see and hear something that illuminates us, that directly affects us and changes us to some extent. That is that truth. And that is also the essence of art. It must "go out into the sun", because without it, there is no authentic experience.
I believe that this truth will manifest itself in many forms at this festival, from a journey through the city and time in the project "Unreal City", through authorial projects, new texts, all the way to new stage readings of established literature. From the exciting exchange of thoughts on Poets' Square, to new musical expressions and forms. We took this motto of this year's festival from the drama Dusan Jovanovic "The Life of Provincial Playboys after World War II", based on which a play directed by Ivan Penović which will premiere on August 10th, precisely in a completely new and alternative space, within the Slovenska plaza hotel complex, because the very content of this comedy takes place in an imaginary summer resort. Knowing the poetics of Dušan Jovanović, in this case as a writer, and Ivan Penović as a director, there is no doubt that many truths will also emerge in this project.
How do you personally experience the festival, more as an artistic challenge or as a managerial responsibility?
I can say that I have been a “fan” of “Theatre City” as a cultural project since childhood, as passionately as one would cheer for a sports club, for example. I remember the different phases of its existence, events and meetings with authors who changed the lives of many of us. I listen carefully to criticism and discuss it with colleagues. All of this is both a challenge and a responsibility, and above all, it is a life commitment.
There is talk of festivals of national importance. Why hasn't the City of Theatre received that status yet?
A new regulation on the conditions and criteria for granting the status of festivals and events of special importance for the culture of Montenegro is in the process of being drafted, which will be more complex and clearer than the previous one. Once this process is completed, I believe that the “City of Theatre” festival will successfully apply for this status.
You are a member of the board of directors of the European Festival Association. What does that mean specifically?
The “City of Theatre” Festival has been a member of this association since 2020, and was invited to it based on the 2018 and 2019 programs, with further festivals and activities of course being monitored. This association has existed for 73 years and its members include practically all the most important art festivals that we know of and with which we would like to compare ourselves, not only from Europe but also from other areas. I admit that I myself was surprised by the speed with which what we do at home has been recognized and respected at that level. It seems to me that within our small cultural systems, most of the time we are so preoccupied with everyday challenges, constantly under the microscope of more or less relevant criteria, constantly in crisis management that has become a way of life, that only when we find ourselves in a larger space, all that great effort comes to the fore. Among the eight of us who have been making up this body since last year, eight countries are represented, in addition to us: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany. Specifically, this position brings not only a much larger space for cooperation and exchange, but also an incomparably greater and higher quality visibility and the opportunity to influence processes. At the moment, the festival and Budva as a city are participating through EFA in two projects, one of which will be implemented in the fall after the festival rush has passed, and the other in May next year. Through the second project, around 250 delegates of the Association, directors and artistic directors of festivals from around the world will gather in Budva, in anticipation of the fortieth festival, in order to hold the annual General Assembly here with a three-day program, which is usually organized every year at a different important cultural address across the European continent. It will be an opportunity for many of our esteemed colleagues to encounter the cultural potential and beauties of Montenegro and Budva for the first time.
Next year will be the 40th anniversary festival. What kind of future do you want for the City of Theatre, what would you like to leave as a legacy?
I believe that for that occasion the festival will manage to provide at least one large space where it will be possible to present some more demanding, monumental programs, which we cannot do now. I also think that we should continue to develop the dramaturgy of less accessible places where the audience enters interactively, guided by a story, as we are currently doing in the project “Unreal City”, which I mention again because it has shown how suitable this form is for the city and the festival, as well as how much the audience in the age of digital interactivity cries out for the real, which they experience through encounters and experiences in real time. I mentioned at the beginning how the city influences the festival, the future of that relationship is certainly in mutual adjustment. Many significant themes and personalities from Budva's heritage and collective memory have marked some of the best festival projects, and I am sure there will be more. On the other hand, there are international projects, such as the ones we will see this year, and which should also definitely be persevered with because they refresh perspectives and bring new inspiration. Anniversaries, especially big ones like this, are always a good chance to make some big steps, both organizationally and creatively, so I believe that we will all work together to make that happen.
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