The works of Kristina Kegljen, Katja Gorečan and Tijana Grumić were the most convincing among the texts submitted to the competition of the international theater project Shadows of the Pandemic: Hidden Voices.
The jury selected their works Under skirts (Under the wing), Activists and The world deserves place of the world (The world deserves the end of the world).
The competition was announced in October last year by the Zagreb Youth Theatre, the Festival Borštnikovo srečnje and the Belgrade Drama Theatre. The expert jury was choosing from 68 texts, but one of the submitted works met the criteria, so the jury did not take it into account.
The project is considered question of violence against women during the closure of public life due to the pandemic covid-19, and the competition was intended exclusively for female authors. “The large number of received drama texts shows the importance of the subject matter as well as the small number of public calls for performance texts at the regional level,” the jury pointed out.
“The topic of violence against women (regardless of the specific framework of the pandemic covid-19) is after ungrateful on the one hand, as it can quickly slip into stereotyping and literalism. Extreme complexity situations dictates the presentation of the position of the victim, without presenting her as passive and exploited, as well as the presentation of the position of the bully, which is not trivialized, and that the text after the other side is also bypassed by the often limiting adjective ‘female’,” she also wrote.
The incoming texts are set in different worlds, from hyperrealistic everyday, poetically imagined spaces, through manifestos to science fiction. “Despite the fact that only three texts were selected, we sincerely hope to see the titles read in the repertoires of theaters, stages and auditoriums,” the jury added. They were putting it together Vilma Štritof, Rok Andres, Biljana Srbljanović, Tanja Šljivar, Tomislav Zajec, Selma Spahic and Ivana Vuković.
Each of the selected texts will be awarded in the amount of 4,000 euros. In addition, they will be translated into English and published on the project website Shadows of the Pandemic: Hidden Voices, which will be followed by the premiere performance of the award-winning texts in the form of an omnibus, directed by director Selma Spahić. The performances will be hosted in Zagreb, Belgrade and Maribor.
Source: Rtvslo
