Milica Radulović was born in Niš in 1979. She holds a PhD in Didactic and Methodological Sciences, specializing in the Serbian language. She has served as Director of the Niš Puppet Theatre since 2018. In this role, she has contributed to the theatre’s distinctive dramatic and puppetry expression, while representing the Niš Puppet Theatre at numerous national and international festivals, gaining valuable insight into the latest trends in contemporary theatre. During her tenure, the Niš Puppet Theatre has received numerous awards from professional juries. She is also the initiator and founder of the International Festival of Theatre for Children and Young People “Smile of Niš.” She has published the book White Dream, as well as the novels Teach Me to Love, A Prayer for Two, and The Idle Moon, all of which have received an excellent response from readers. She has also published an English-language edition of White Dream. She is a member of the Society of Writers and Literary Translators of Niš and the Sedmica Writers’ Association in Frankfurt am Main.

Erika Hughes is a theatre director, dramaturg, and scholar of youth performance and socially engaged theatre. She is currently Professor of Performance & Society and Associate Dean of Research for Camberwell, Chelsea, and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts at the University of the Arts London. Her work as a director has been seen in Germany, South Korea, Kenya, Pakistan, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, Austria, and Canada. She has collaborated with the UK government’s official environmental advisory board to create community engaged performances about the environment, sustainability and climate change, and she has contributed to the ongoing UN Plastics Treaty negotiations through the creation of performances in Nairobi, Kenya; Ottawa, Canada; and Busan, South Korea. Her current work with the UK government seeks to transform performance into environmental policy. Her written scholarship has been published in numerous journals and she has co-edited a special issue of Youth Theatre Journal on intergenerational performance. She is also the author of Holocaust Memory and Youth Performance, which was published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama. This book offers the first book-length critical analysis of youth-focused plays and performances about the Holocaust.

Gunnar Horn holds academic degrees in French, Norwegian and Theatre. He studied theatre in Montpellier and in Paris, France, and has extensive experience as a playwright, actor and storyteller. His artistic career includes work with Abrakadabrateatret from 1980 to 1985, a touring theatre for young audiences, and Fortellerfabrikken (The Storytelling Factory), mainly working with myths, fairytales and adaptations of classical dramas for children from 1993 to 2015. Alongside his artistic work, he has written several books on drama, theatre and education, including Drama og bevegelseslek (Drama and movement, 1989), Teater for barn (Theatre for Young Audiences, 1993), Lek, dans og teater (Play, Dance and Theatre, 1993), Alene med publikum (Alone with the Audience, 2005) and Drama og samfunn (Drama and Society, 2010). In 2024, he was co-editor of Theatre Mediation Handbook, summing up a large-scale EU project. At the University of Agder, Gunnar Horn has taught Drama and Theatre at both bachelor’s and master’s level for many years, in Norway as well as internationally. He has developed courses and national study programmes in various fields related to Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). He was Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Agder (UiA) for 9 years and Head of The Centre for Teaching and Learning at UiA for 7 years. He has been a Board member of ASSITEJ Norway for many years and a member of the organizing committee of ASSITEJ International in Tromsø, Norway in 1999.

Our festival is dedicated, above all, to children. The most exciting stories were told about them, the most beautiful songs were written about them, the most interesting plays were created for them. Children see all the content that you set in front of them in their own way - unencumbered, honest and emotional. That is why their judgment about art is special and very important for everyone who deals with art. With great pleasure and excitement, we have established Young Jury at our Festival, which will award the best play in the Competition Program. This way, primary and secondary school students who show an affinity for the theater are given the opportunity to be an active part of the Festival program and to share their experience of the performances. This year’s Joung Jury consists of students from Matko Vuković Primary School: Nikolina Špoljarić (6-3), Lana Takač (6-3) and Jakov Ivanković Radaković (6-4), as well as students from Ivan Goran Kovačić Primary School: Maša Ivković (5-3) and Nika Šuić (7-3).