The 31st International Festival of Children's Theatres Subotica: opening ceremony tomorrow

On Sunday, September 22 at 7:00 p.m. the 31st edition of the International Festival of Children's Theatres Subotica will have its grand opening. The festival itself will take place from September 22 to 27. The opening event will see this year’s Little Prince award presented to Luka Kecman and Jaroslaw Antoniuk, as well as Oton Tomanić Award to Ewa Tomaszewska.

The Festival’s first competing play - Virtual Puppetry: The Gold Diggers, produced by Zwickau Puppet Theatre from Germany - will be performed at 11:00 a.m. at the Deže Kostolanji Theatre. The second competing play – The Kuthi by the Estonian Tricktrek Theatre is scheduled for performance upon festival’s opening ceremony, at 8:00 p.m. at Jadran stage.

During the remainder of the festival, the audience will be presented with 11 more plays. Five showcased plays will be arriving from the neighboring countries and the region: A Sugar-Made Fairy-Tale (Virovitica Theatre from Croatia; written/directed by Sara Lustig), Ferdo, a Giant Bird (Maribor Puppet Theatre from Slovenia; written by Andreja Peklar and directed by Katja Povša), The Green Mountain (NGO Youth Theatre from Montenegro; written by Mila Mašović Nikolić and directed by Branko Ilić), A Dress-Up Adventure (Gobi Dance Company from Hungary; written/directed by Rita Gobi) and Little Red Riding Hood (Children’s Theatre of Republika Srpska from Banja Luka; adapted from the fairy-tale by Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault and directed by Ljudmila Fedorova).

Czech Republic’s Divadla Kladno Theatre will perform The Prehistoric Men (written and directed by Jiří Šponar). The Compagnie La neige sur les cils from France will perform the play Don’t Wait for Me (written and directed by Vera Rozanova). La Sonrisa del Lagarto Theatre from Spain will perform Simona the Monkey (written and directed by Marli Santana). Turkish shadow theatre Cengiz Ozek will perform The Magic Tree (written and directed by Cengiz Ozek).

Hosted by Marijana Prpa-Fink, Ph.D., the 15th Forum for the Research of Theatre Art for Children and Youth will take place at Subotica Public Library between September 23 and 26, as part of the Festival program. A total of 27 participants from 14 countries of 4 continents will take part in the research discussions which will be dedicated to the topics of Movement, Listening and a Changing Perception of Children and Youth Theatre this year. The forum is being organized by Open University Subotica and The Museum of Theatre from Novi Sad.

As part of the Festival’s additional program, 4 exhibitions will be open to visitors: the exhibition of festival posters designed by the students of Belgrade’s Faculty of Applied Arts, the exhibition honoring the winners of 2024 Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award, the exhibition of puppets from the Puppet Theatre of Niš and - already open to public - Erika Janović’s The Magic Stage.

The festival will also host promotional events for following print publications: A Doll from Kindergarten to School Group: a Puppetry Handbook and a Collection of Plays by Branka Rudman, 65 Years of Puppet Theatre of Niš, Magic Stone and Other Fairy-Tales by Davor Dragojević, issue #18-19 of Threads magazine and Vol. 14 of The Theatre for Children: an Artistic Phenomenon anthology.

Additional festival events will include discussion sessions with the award recipients, as well as 4 workshops: Jovan Caran’s An Entire Universe made from Cardboard, Erika Janović’s creative workshop on puppet-making, Cliodhna Noonan's Folklore for the earliest age and Silver Tree workshop performance. Branka Rudman, Ph.D., along with the residents and mentors of The Cradle foster-home, will perform the play Hedgehog’s House, created during an online-workshop.

The festival’s film screenings will take place each day from September 23 to 27 at Subotica Eurocinema. The program will include: French feature film The Last Jaguar, Belgian animated film The Inseparables, Danish animated film Panda bear in Africa, Norwegian feature film Dancing Queen and Czech animated film Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light.

Admission to all festival events is free of charge. The detailed program is available online at: https://www.lutfestsubotica.net/

The International Festival of Children's Theatres Subotica was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Department for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities of Vojvodina and the Municipality of Subotica.