Belgrade, September 10-24, 2022

Two Open Weeks of PLAVO Theatre is an international practical and theoretical program for people interested in working inside a theatrical laboratory through the specific methodology of PLAVO Theatre. Our aim is to share with participants the idea of theatre as a place of communication, a place of self-researching, and a space of open mind where some important things about us and the world that surrounds us could be said.

The program will consist of two main programs, and two workshops, and participants will be able to participate in the whole program or in the workshop of their choice.

The program is open to professional and semi-professional actors, directors, other theatre artists, dancers, as well as theatre and dance students but also all other people who are interested in theatre or self-research with the help of theatrical tools.

The program Two Open Weeks of PLAVO Theatre was created out of the need to bring closer laboratory theatre work to international and Serbian participants and to make the theatrical laboratory a place of intercultural communication, theatrical exchange, and development. The program has been realized in Belgrade since 2004, gathering participants from three continents.

Due to the support of the donors who sustained the program, this year there will be support provided (accommodation and travel costs) for participants coming from the Central European region.

 Program

• September 10, 20:00  Closed session

• September 17, 21:00 SHEOL/שאול a guest performance by Monika Wachowicz and Jaroslaw Fret, Poland, produced by the Grotowski Institute, Poland.

• September 18 – 24, 11:00 – 13:00 Actor’s Training: Energy and Precision, workshop led by Marko Potkonjak and Ranko Trifkovic, PLAVO Theatre actors

• September 19 – 23, 18:00 – 21:00 From Myself towards Theatre – From Theatre towards Myself, workshop led by Nenad Čolić. PLAVO theatre director, and assisted by Marko Potkonjak, PLAVO Theatre actor and musician

• September 24, 20:00 Presentation, PLAVO Theatre

The program will be held in English.

The additional (evening) program is subject to change.

REGISTRATION

Thanks to the support of the donors who sustained the program, we will provide additional support (accommodation and travel costs) for participants coming from Central European countries:

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Serbia. Special support is provided for participants from Ukraine.

Please contact us for information including additional support, fees, registration form, or any practical information. E-mails:

plavopozoriste@gmail.com / plavopozoriste@hotmail.com

Two Open Weeks 2022 Registration form (download link)

Note: The number of participants is limited. There is no specific application deadline. After sending us the registration form and getting a confirmation from us about their participation, interested participants should pay the fee to our bank account in order to book their place.

A project against discrimination of people with disabilities

Podržano od strane 

Plavo Theatre, in cooperation with The Association of Students with Disabilities, with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Republic of Serbia, in the period from September to December, 2020, realized the project “Ritual of inclusion – project against discrimination of people with disabilities”. The project happened as a natural continuation of the cooperation with ASD, which started in 2019, through a six-day workshop in which the participants were students with disabilities and young people without disabilities. The result was a mutual desire to continue this kind of work.

The goals of this project are to contribute to the inclusion and improvement of the quality of life of young people with disabilities, as well as young people in general, to their active participation and greater visibility in the cultural and public life of the community.

The entire project is designed so that the use of contemporary theatre techniques creates conditions for a deeper interaction of young people with disabilities and young people without disabilities, which we believe is very important for an inclusive approach of the whole project. Through this kind of work and thematic framework that derives directly from their life experiences and situations, young people, participants in the project, are enabled to find their personal expression. In this way, not only do young people with disabilities have the opportunity to share, in a creative way, their views, problems, attitudes on important topics in their lives with young people without disabilities, but they also have the opportunity to guide through personal relationships and, in some way to educate young people without disabilities on all relevant matters related to the population of people with disabilities. This is what we can call knowledge transfer, and it is in this type of knowledge transfer that we see the core of an inclusive approach to work.

The work resulted in a short inclusive documentary “Ritual of Inclusion”, which enabled greater visibility and accessibility of the project results to the general public. The aim of the film is to bring the life of people with disabilities closer to the general public in Serbia, in an interesting and creative way, in order to educate and change discriminatory attitudes about people with disabilities in a relationship of respect and tolerance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5P9EzUhcs0&t=18s

Belgrade, July 17 – 30, 2016

Program

• Sunday, July 17, 20:00

Concert, by PLAVO Theatre and welcome dinner for the participants of the first week;

• July 18 – 22, 11:00 – 17:00 with one hour break

Dance of Memory, workshop led by Maša Jelić, actress of PLAVO Theatre.

The workshop will be followed by the additional program:

• July 18, 18:00 – 20:00 Video presentation of the relevant video material from the history of contemporary theatre;
• July 19, 20:00 Ema, PLAVO Theatre performance;
• July 20, 18:00 – 21:00 Open Space, practical or theoretical presentation of the individual artistic experience of the participants, lasting up to 20 minutes each;
• (OPTIONAL: participants who wish to present their work should apply in advance.)
• July 21, 18:00 – 20:00 The Seed of Creation, demonstration of the actors’ training by PLAVO Theatre actors;
• July 22, 20:00 Daydream – A Story from Terezin, PLAVO Theatre performance.

 

• July 24, 20:00 Concert, by PLAVO Theatre and welcome dinner for the participants of the second week;

 

• July 25 – 29, 11:00 – 17:00 with one hour break

From Myself towards Theatre, workshop led by Nenad Čolić, PLAVO Theatre director.

The workshop will be followed by the additional program:

• July 25, 18:00 – 20:00 Video presentation of the relevant video material from the history of contemporary theatre;
• July 26, 20:00 Ema, PLAVO Theatre performance;
• July 27, 18:00 – 21:00 Open Space, practical or theoretical presentation of the individual artistic experience of the participants, lasting up to 20 minutes each;
• (OPTIONAL: participants who wish to present their work should apply in advance.)
• July 28, 18:00 – 20:00 The Seed of Creation, demonstration of the actors’ training by PLAVO Theatre actors;
• July 29, 20:00 – 21:00 Open rehearsal of PLAVO Theatre performance;
• July 30, 20:00 I Sing Like a Bird, PLAVO Theatre performance.

 The work will be held in English.

Registration

Registration fees for participants coming from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia:

Workshop ‘Dance of Memory’: 55€

Workshop ‘From Myself towards Theatre’: 65€

Complete program: 100€

Registration fees for participants coming from all other countries:

Workshop ‘Dance of Memory’: 65€

Workshop ‘From Myself towards Theatre’: 75€

Complete program: 120€

Two Open Weeks 2016 Registration form (download)

Note: The number of participants is limited. There is no a specific application deadline. After sending us registration form and getting a confirmation from us about their participation, interested participants should pay the fee to our bank account in order to book their place.

Please contact us for all additional information including registration form, applying for participation in Open Space program or any practical information.

E-mails: plavopozoriste@hotmail.com, plavopozoriste@gmail.com.

---

Two Open Weeks of PLAVO Theatre is an international practical and theoretical program for people interested in work inside of a theatrical laboratory through specific methodology of PLAVO Theatre.

During Two Open Weeks PLAVO Theatre will open the doors of its theatrical laboratory, which will be an opportunity for participants to meet with its work through series of events: theatre workshops, performances, presentations, demonstrations, meetings, video presentations. The program will be divided into two parts, in two workshops, and participants will have the possibility to participate in the whole program or in the workshop by their choice.

Our aim is to share with participants the idea of theatre as a place of communication, a place of self-researching and a space of open mind where some important things about us and the world that surrounds us could be said.

Participants will be introduced into PLAVO Theatre methodology of work developed through years, which relies on laboratory theatre tradition and on human experience. This methodology puts into the background talent and artistic exhibitionism not only of an actor but anyone who works in theatre and instead it puts forth inner, organic life of an individual which becomes a field of research and improvement.

The program is opened for professional and semi-professional actors, directors, other theatre artists, dancers, as well as theatre and dance students and other people who are interested in theatre or self-research using the theatrical tools.

After years of experience in theatre pedagogy, our program Two Open Weeks of PLAVO Theatre was created out of the need to bring closer our educational work to international participants and to make theatrical laboratory a place of intercultural communication, theatrical exchange and development. The program has been realized every summer in Belgrade since 2004 gathering participants from three continents. From one year to another, the program has been developed and enriched parallel with growth and development of PLAVO Theatre.

---

Dance of Memory

workshop, led by Maša Jelić, actress of PLAVO Theatre

The workshop consists of introducing of participants into basic principles of actor’s work in laboratory theatre:

• body and voice training – overcoming of individual mental and physical barriers;
• work on the actor’s aware scenic presence and leadership – building of the intention and initiative, releasing, activating and leading one’s own energy;
• work with music, song, text, prop and musical instrument;
• work on actor’s improvisations and creation of actor’s materials, which thematic frame will be defined in the course of the workshop through focusing of the personal reason;
• team building exercises.

It is important for participants to know well by hart:

• a text from a favorite part from a favorite book or their own text (5 – 10 sentences long) in their native language or in English;
• a traditional song from the participant’s country. The work will be held every day from Monday, July 18, to Friday, July 22, from 11:00 – 17:00 with one hour lunch break. Every evening the additional program will be organized in the form of video presentations, demonstrations of work, performances.
• Participants should have a notebook and wear comfortable working clothes. 

---

From Myself towards Theatre

workshop, led by Nenad Čolić, director of PLAVO Theatre

Participants will be introduced into ideological principles of work through series of exercises aimed at exploring of the meeting point between theatre and ritual, discovering theatre as a personal space and space of human experience, researching of individual archetypes as precondition for creation. The work aims to reveal possibilities for deeper levels of communication in theatre, emphasising free individual existence inside of specific conditions of theatre as a collective space, by discovering ecstatic capacities of human being and overcoming of personal obstructions, such are fears, shame or prejudices, which burden human communication even in everyday life.

It is important for participants to know well by hart:

• a text from a favorite part from a favorite book, or their own text
• (5 – 10 sentences long) in their native language or in English;

• a traditional song from the participant’s country.Note: participants attending both workshops can use the same text and song for both workshops.

Participants should have a notebook and wear comfortable working clothes.

The work will be held every day from Monday, July 27, to Friday, July 31, from 11:00 – 18:00 with one hour lunch break. Every evening the additional program will be organized in the form of video presentations, demonstrations of work, performances.

---

Performances

 Ema 

Scenario and directing: Nenad Čolić

Performing: Maša Jelić

Scenery and costume design: Ivana Čolić

Executive manager: Dubravka Vujinović

‘The performance is inspired by a short story by F.M. Dostoevsky ’A Gentle Creature’, in which the question of human freedom is revealed through the destiny of a miserable woman, who committed suicide by throwing herself out of a window while holding an icon in her hands. Dostoevsky read about the actual event taking place in the newspapers and from that moment on he was haunted by the question: why did a young woman need to do this? My favorite texts from letters of Marina Tsvetaeva are also used in the performance. Those letters were addressed to her female friends. A voice of an apostate and an eccentric of her time speaks out from those letters. We can recognize in them the inner life of a woman and a suffering, uncompromisingly exposed to the eyes of people. Russian songs that are connected to one period of my childhood, which I spent in Moscow, are also utilized as a part of the performance. There are also a traditional Bosnian ‘sevdah’ song, a Mexican traditional song and one of my favorite songs by Janis Joplin.’

Maša Jelić

 

 Daydream

A Story from Terezin

Scenario and directing: Nenad Čolić

With: Maša Jelić, Dejan Stojković, Jelena Martinović, Marko Potkonjak, Ranko Trifković

Scenery and costume: Ivana Čolić

Executive manager: Dubravka Vujinović

Text: Fragments from: the lecture on trial to Eichmann and ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’, Hannah Arendt; ‘The Karamazov Brothers’, F.M. Dostoyevsky

Music: spiritual and secular Jewish songs, “Träumerei”, R. Schumann

‘An actress of PLAVO theatre had in her family experience of encounter with consequences of suffering of the Jews. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. This left a mark in her childhood memories which she wanted to translate into the actor’s language. This was an initial impulse for working process which lasted more than a year and which soon included other theatre members. The result was a performance Daydream – A Story from Terezin, an attempt to sensitize Jewish question through a different relation of Jews to Christ and with a different outcome. It’s a fictional story from Terezin concentration camp, well known by detaining of prominent members of the Jewish community. We placed Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, Jesus Christ and Barabbas, as some of the most famous Jewish representatives in that imaginary story and made a scenic-musical piece based on spiritual and secular Jewish songs. Working on this performance was a kind of our debt to humanity, in which history full of tragedies there is one so incomprehensible place such as the Holocaust.’

Nenad Čolić

 

I Sing Like a Bird

Scenario and directing: Nenad Čolić

Actors: Jelena Martinović, Marko Potkonjak, Maša Jelić, Dejan Stojković

Scenery and costume design: Ivana Čolić

Executive manager: Dubravka Vujinović

Instructor of classical Indian dance: Violeta Purhmajer (Venurati)

Music: Traditional spiritual music of ancient India – Bhajan; W. A. Mozart: Symphony No. 40; Prince: ‘Te Amo Corazon’;

Dances: Classical Indian dances: Bharata-natyam, Rajasthan;

Text: H. Hesse – ‘Steppenwolf’, ‘Essays’, ‘Pilgrimage’; I. Heilbut – ‘Mission of Hermann Hesse in Our Time’.

‘…I Sing Like a Bird is an adventure of a group of artists who do not leave their ground but go on a pilgrimage following the footsteps of Herman Hesse and so arrive to the magic theatre where everything is possible, under condition that you previously leave your problematic personality in the cloakroom. It is possible to erase the boundaries between culture and spirituality, it is possible for joy to oppose to the centuries of fighting, it is possible for emancipation to develop, in spite of xenophobia and possessiveness.

I Sing Like a Bird is a process of meditation within which we tried to influence the cliché of our mental and body system that has been shaped by coordinates of European tradition. Following the traces of our writer we also set off towards the East. We learned and acquired basic knowledge in the field of Indian traditional and spiritual music and Indian classical dances Bharata-natyam and Rajasthan. For us, it was an important acting and human experience. It helped us enter a different civilization space where we encountered many principles and laws we had known little about up to then. It all enriched our lives very much and changed our attitude towards the theatre work…’

Nenad Čolić

---

Some impressions of participants of the program in previous years:

Ana, actress, Croatia

The most important lesson I learnt was that the obstacle is always mental one – body is always more endurable that we think.

Joanna, actress, Poland

I was day after day more and more fascinated and involved with the work. I started to little understand how important it is for me searching myself through theatre and asking myself why I’m doing it…

Irena, student, Serbia

What I learnt… Many things, but I think I couldn’t express them by words right now.

I remembered myself. Something like that. I remembered myself who was forgotten for a long time, myself who I thought that I lost long time ago.

 Josipa, dancer, Croatia … People from Plavo theatre succeeded to motivate me to try to overcome some of my performing habits and limitations… I have never worked with songs, resonators and isolations of the movements the way we did it in the workshop…

 Jana, dancer, Czech Republic

… One of the most important things I have learned about art was to see that … you have to be ready for changing and re-evaluating for all the time. It doesn’t mean to be confused, it means to be open for things around you as well as things inside of yourself…

 Simon, actor and musician, Germany

…Towards the end of the workshop From Myself towards Theatre I thought – and still think, without exaggerating – that it was one of the rare workshops that really made sense to me… We were not taught a lot of exercises, but touched one simple thing out of different perspectives which is the phenomena of a highly elevated attention necessary to work, or what director calls ‘trance-like intention’. We were encouraged to touch every day a kind of limit, a very personal one, and to do one step further.

Leonardo, actor, Italy

… Looking behind at the work in Belgrade, I perceive today that what I have been taking part was something characterised by a constant fresh and positive intensity, an embrace of strong energies…

---