The grand opening of the 32nd International Festival of Children's Theatres – Subotica tomorrow

On Sunday, September 21, at 7 p. m., the 32nd edition of International Festival of Children's Theatres Subotica will be officially opened at the Subotica Children's Theatre and will run until September 26. At the opening ceremony, this year's Little Prince Awards will be presented to Feng Li and Zdravko Mićanović while the Oton Tomanić Award will be presented to Boris P. Goldovski. The Little Prince Award will also be posthumously awarded to Zoran Đerić - the long-time selector of the festival - who passed away last year and the award will be received by his wife.

Following the opening ceremony, the first play of the festival's competition program (Ballads and Romances, a production by the Polish theater Pinocchio from Łódź) will be staged at 8 p.m. at Jadran stage venue. This play - in which the actors employ various forms and techniques in toying around with text, movement and song - is aimed at both youth and adult audiences.

Over the course of next 5 festival days, audiences will be able to watch 12 more competing performances. The Subotica Children's Theatre will perform a play I Wish to Be Normal, written by Teodora Popova and directed by the Bulgarian director Todor Valov. The Youth Theatre of Novi Sad will perform Little Red Riding Hood under the imaginative helm of director Saša Latinović, following the creative vision of Milica Grbić Komazec. The Pinocchio Puppet Theatre from Belgrade will perform The Miracle, a play based on the R. J. Palacio novel, adapted for stage by Teodora Marković. The Children's Theatre of Republika Srpska will present the Barrel, a play based on an Isidora Sekulić story. The State Puppet Theatre Ruse from Bulgaria will stage Pinocchio (based on the familiar text by Carlo Collodi). Slovenia’s Kuskus Institute will present the play Blup and the Faces of Water. From Slovakia arrives The Cosmos, a stage production of the Odivo Theatre. Viu el teatre – a theatre company from Spain – will present Pintamúsica. Their Unparalleled Majesties’ Grand Royal Tabletop Theatre Company from Switzerland will perform Boxlife. Turkey will be represented by the Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres with an emotional puppet show I Can Fly, Too. Demediado Teatro from Mexico will present the musical Caught Between the Puppets whereas the Colombian Fundación Teatral Madretierra will present its play The Goblin Cries Because of the Beating.

As part of the festival’s programme, the 16th edition of the Research Forum for Children and Youth Theatre Art (curated by Dr. Marijana Prpa Fink) will be taking place at the Subotica City Library, from September 22 to 25. This year’s Forum will focus on researching the topic of Different Approaches to Aesthetics in Theatre for Children and Youth. Total of 28 experts in the field of theatre for children and youth arriving from 15 countries will present their research. The forum is being organized by the Open University Subotica and the Theatre Museum of Vojvodina.

As part of the festival’s accompanying programme, an exhibition honouring Feng Li and Zdravko Mićanović - the recipients of the Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award - will be open for public, as well as an exhibition of puppets at Subotica Children’s Theatre venue.

The programme also includes discussion sessions with the winners of the Little Prince and Oton Tomanić awards and promotional events for the following publications: History of Puppet Theatre in the 15th-21st Century" - an encyclopedia by Boris Goldovski, the magazine Niti i Zbornik (#20-21) and the collection of works Theatre for Children: an Artistic Phenomenon, as well as 2 books by Zoran Đerić: the collection of poems Eberečke, eberdu: pesmezadecu (Eberečke, Eberdu: Poems for Children) and the collection of essays on theatre The Meaning of Drama.

The festival's film programme will be taking place each day from September 22 to 26 at 11:00 at Subotica’s Eurocinema. The programme will feature 5 animated films: Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light, Into the Wonderwoods, Super Elfkins, The Inventor and Niko: Beyond the Northern Lights. Outside the competition, the play A Trip Round the World with a Suitcase Full of Music, produced by the pupils of the local primary school MatkoVuković will be staged on September 24 at 5 p.m. at the National Theatre in Subotica’s Jadran Stage.

Three workshops will be held as part of the festival's accompanying programme: Vintage Voices Stories and Songs by Cliodhna Noonan (who will also perform Trolland - an interactive storytime session- and a master-class for professional theatre workers), Branka Rudman's workshop Using Puppets in a Preschool Environment and Jovan Caran’s workshop An Entire Universe made from Cardboard.

Admission to all programs is free and the full programme is available on the festival website: https://www.lutfestsubotica.net

Traditionally, the International Festival of Children's Theatre - Subotica is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities and the Municipality of Subotica, whereas The Vojvodina Theatre Museum is acting as a partner in the festival's production. The executive producer of the festival is the Open University Subotica.