About Seagull

Youth Theater, Novi Sad, Serbia

About the Seagull, inspired by The Seagull by A. P. Chekhov

director and documentary material editor: Boris Liješević

music: Aleksandar Kostić

dramaturg: Branko Dimitrijević

assistant directors: Dušan Mamuila, Mia Knežević, Momčilo Miljković

cast: Dejan Šarković, Dragan Zorić, Ervin Hadžimurtezić, Ivan Đurić, Jelica Gligorin, Marija Mitrović, Neda Danilović, Saša Latinović, Saša Stojković, Slavica Vučetić, Slobodan Ninković, Vera  Hrćan Ostojić, Zoran Andrejin

duration: 80 min

age group: 15+

About the production

It is well known that this is the first of four great Chekhov novels depicting the tendencies and the futility, adding symbolism to the lyrics, which is visible from the title and the allusions to Hamlet, as well as the irony (he himself call this work a comedy) in the description of “successful mediocrities”, Trigorin and Arkadina.

Boris Liješević took this drama as a starting point to, among other things, deal with the actors’ tendencies and frustrations. Beside acting parts of the Chekhov work, actors of the Novi Sad Youth Theater also speak of personal experiences and emotions. The result is a completely new view, experience and actualization of the classical novel.

 About the theater

The Youth Theater was founded in 1931 as the Puppetry Theater, within the Novi Sad Hawk Society. The Theater emerged from the Hawk section of puppeteers, established a year before, in 1930, greatly assisted by the Hawk headmasters, Dr. Vladimir Belajčić and Dr. Ignjat Pavlas.

Dr. Lazar Dragić, later the first director of the Puppet Theater, was first sent to a puppetry course in Ljubljana. The first big movable theater stage, the first 11 puppets, and the first production to be presented came from Ljubljana. The first production, prepared with great zeal, The Prince of the Underground was presented on the set mounted at the Matica Sprska building, in the practice room of the Hawk Society.

The Puppet Theater got its own auditorium in 1936, after the construction of the “King Alexander I” Memorial Hall, a great and modern building built upon a project of an esteemed architect Đorđe Tabaković. The auditorium had 166 seating places, and a new stage was also built.

During World War II the Theater did not work and suffered great damage – all puppets, scenery, and costumes were either stolen or destroyed.

Under a new name, the Vojvodina Puppet Theater started working after the war, but with great difficulties. Help came from Žarko Vasiljević, then manager of the Vojvodina National Theater. The name was changed to Municipal Puppet Theater, then Puppet Theater, and finally in 1968 the Theater got the name it holds today.

The Youth Theater is the first puppet theater in Serbia and Vojvodina.

The night stage, later the drama stage, started in 1991. Since then, two stages are active in the Youth Theater: Stage for children and the Drama stage, and productions are played in the Big and the Small hall.

In nearly eight decades, over 300 titles, with over 20,000 productions were presented, and seen by almost 3 million viewers.

The Youth Theater received many awards and prizes, on national, both Vojvodina and state level, and international fairs and competitions.

www.pozoristemladih.co.rs

Festival Program 2012