Podgorica City Theater opens the building tonight, premiere for the public in September

After almost a decade since the cornerstone was laid, the Podgorica City Theater will officially open its new building tonight.

Director Sandra Vujović says that the doors will be opened to the audience at the beginning of the new theater season, when the first premiere will be performed on the new stage.

The new building of the City Theater will be officially opened tonight at 20 p.m., symbolically on the Statehood Day of Montenegro, marking the completion of work on the facility, the construction of which took almost ten years.

Vujović pointed out in Boje jutra on Television Vijest that the intention was to open the building to the public only at the beginning of the new theater season.

"Tonight we are announcing the completion of the work on the building. We wanted to open the doors to the public with the premiere at the beginning of the new season, in September, and thus mark the beginning of the work of the City Theater in the new space," said Vujović.

He points out that the new building will bring significantly better working conditions for actors and all employees, who have been creating for decades without their own stage.

"A completely new stage in the development of the City Theater is beginning. Generations of artists have worked without adequate conditions, but that has not stopped them from creating iconic performances. Now we are finally getting a space that meets the needs of a modern theater," said Vujović.

The new building has a large and small stage, as well as supporting spaces that, according to Vujović, will enable higher quality work and better repertoire planning.

"For the first time, we can plan the repertoire in the long term and perform a larger number of plays. Until now, we have shared space with the Cultural and Information Center (KIC) 'Budo Tomović', which is why both institutions had to make numerous compromises in program planning," said the director.

He adds that from the fall, the audience will have the opportunity to watch performances of the City Theater much more often.

Speaking about the fact that the City Theater is only getting its own building after 75 years of existence, Vujović believes that this problem should have been solved much earlier.

"For decades, the City Theater was the only children's theater in Montenegro, and later the only institution that continuously nurtures the stage for the youngest. It is precisely in children's plays that the future theater audience is created, and that is why I believe that this issue should have been resolved much earlier," she pointed out.

Although the building will be officially opened tonight, the complete relocation will not be completed immediately.

"Moving in will take the next month and a half and will take place in stages. It is not easy to move the entire theater infrastructure. We have a lot of responsibilities ahead of us so that we can be fully prepared to welcome the audience in September," said Vujović.

She added that employees had used the new large stage for the first time in recent days during preparations for tonight's ceremony.

"Everything is working great and the excitement among colleagues is immense. We stepped onto our big stage for the first time and it was a special moment for all of us," said Vujović.

Vujović says that the new building will also be accompanied by certain changes in repertoire policy.

She reminded that the City Theater, in addition to the children's drama, puppet and evening scenes, has also formed a new Index scene, intended for young authors and artists at the beginning of their careers.