When the curtain rises, magic happens: FDA celebrates 55 years of theater and encounters

For more than half a century, the magic of theater through the Amateur Drama Festival in Bijelo Polje has represented a permanent pillar of Montenegrin culture and a space for sincere human encounters, said the journalist and publicist. Vanja KovačevićHe said this at the Bijelo Polje Cultural Center, ceremonially opening the 55th Festival of Dramatic Amateurs (FDA) of Montenegro. Before the opening of the festival, an exhibition of paintings was opened in the gallery of the Cultural Center. Goran Ćetković, and then the musical “Under the Seam” by the Drama Studio of the “Risto Ratković” Elementary School was performed, which is the winner of the Drama Festival. This is the first musical in the history of Bijelo Polje to win numerous awards. Text for the play by the Drama Studio of the “Risto Ratković” Elementary School directed by Jelena Vujicic i Mersihe Puzovic, the students wrote Ognjen Korac, Isidora Pesic, Dasa Drobnjak i Ejda Spahic, who also act in the play. The play through the character Kruele Devic from the popular "101 Dalmatians" talks about how much violence is present in schools.

Connecting the primal passion for acting with ancient mythology, Kovačević said that acting is nothing more than a kind of rebellion against our own nature, an attempt to use it to be everything we are not and cannot be: fire, breath, earth, air and dust. "However, this ancient Chinese tale would remain at the level of fascination if it were not in direct collusion with acting, the most enduring, and therefore probably the most fascinating of all arts. Because theater exists only as long as an actor is on stage. The moment the lights go out and the curtain falls, theater ceases to exist. But it is certainly possible to leave a mark in it. This is what plays and roles that have not been performed for a long time, but which are still talked about today, speak about. This is what posters, playbills, programs, tickets say, and ultimately events such as this one in Bijelo Polje speak about," said Kovačević. For more than half a century, the Amateur Drama Festival has represented a meeting between actor and spectator face to face, eye to eye, and, crucially, heart to heart. “And it is precisely this last element, this opportunity to approach each other with an open heart, to look at each other with wide-open eyes and thoughts, that makes the Amateur Drama Festival important, and more importantly, necessary. That is why we should do everything we can to preserve it, to improve it, to make it, as was the case in the past, an event worthy of respect. That we all say with all our hearts that we belong to that festival, that it is an inseparable part of us, and we are its part,” said Kovačević, adding that without the festival and culture, society becomes just “an empty bell that rings.”

Life emerges from every canvas

Opening the 50th exhibition of paintings "Tree of Life" by one of the most important contemporary Montenegrin artists, Goran Ćetković, the director of the Public Institution "Ratković's Poetry Evenings" Kemal Music In his speech, he underlined the parallel between the author's work and world literature. He pointed out that this artistic cycle immediately reminded him of the brilliant novel "Big Breasts and Wide Thighs" by the Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yen, which celebrates women, childbirth and human life.

"Goran's canvases pay a powerful tribute to women, conception, eroticism and the beauty of Montenegrin women, while simultaneously calling for the formation of numerous families. Life emerges from every canvas you see here. The colors, motifs and painterly mastery are alive here. The paintings on these canvases seem to be trying to jump out of the frames and tell us a story about the stature of Montenegrins, about the importance of living and experiencing," emphasized Music, adding that this exhibition represents the true joy of understanding the world and art.