Formal opening of the ninth edition of the International Theatre Festival "SLAVIJA 2010" 9 March, at 20:00
Festival Jury: RAŠKO JOVANOVIĆ, president, Serbia ELEONORA MAKAROVA, Russia BLAGOJE STEFANOVSKI, Macedonia	Festival otvara glumac MIHAJLO JANKETIC

“SLAVIJA 2010” – THE NINTH FESTIVITY OF ACTING
The Slavija Festival is organized for the ninth time, on the slopes of Vracar, to the delight and pleasure of both spectators and actors. Thus, already for the ninth time, the meaning of the Latin word festivus – festive, from which the word festival derived, is confrmed in an appropriate way. Because everybody who watched any of about one hundred performances presented at the Slavija Festival so far, was lit up with joy of acting that was presented on the stage of the Slavija Theatre, which is small by size, but incredibly large by the spirit that has been radiating from it. And, indeed, in the last eight years, the Festival was marked by many great acting achievements, based on the recognized literary values, from Sophocles to the vanguard dramatists. It might be useful to mention that this festivity of acting gathered artists from all over the world –in the frst and second festival editions the participants were mainly from our region, i.e. from the area of the former Yugoslavia, whereas in the following years the area was expanded to include the theatres from Hungary, Israel, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, England, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania and other countries, to reach even
Japan! If we add that the festival spectators could see the performances of the dramas written by Jovan Sterija Popović, Branislav Nušić, Borislav Stanković, Ljubomir Simović, Dušan Kovačević, Danilo Kiš, Ronald Harwood, Martin McDonagh, S. Berkoff, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gogol, Anton Chekov, Alexander Ostrovsky, Maxim Gorki, August Strindberg, Alfred Jarri, Yaroslav
Hashek, Eugen Ionesco, Bulat Okudzhava, Patricia Barbuiani, Edward Albee, Dumitru Solomon, Willy Russell, David Harrower, Nikolay Kolyada, Goran Stefanovski, Ljubiša Georgijevski, and many others. Every year, the supporting programme was organized, which enabled the audience to meet the actors, such as Rade Šerbedžija, Petar Kralj, Radko Polič, Mihailo Janketić, Dragica Tomas, Petar Banićević, Svetlana Bojković, Mira Banjac, Meto Jovanovski, Ivan Bekjarev and others. Every year, in March, the Slavija Festival offers interesting performances and programmes. The best production is awarded by the sculpture of Don Quixote, by Nikola Kolja Milunović, as a symbolic incentive to the ensembles – winners to persist in their noble endeavours to conquer the impossible.

For the ninth time, in 2010, the festival torches will be lit at the Slavija
Theatre, to mark the beginning of the festival, the only one in our country that is not organized by state institutions, though it is occasionally supported by them with symbolic sums, but which has been created and has existed as the confrmation of the need of the true theatre lovers to enjoy authentic theatrical experiences. In the diffcult times of the so called transition, this festival is the necessity, which its regular spectators do not want to miss. This year, too,
we are positive that they will equally enjoy watching the performances of the dramas written by Turgenev and Bulgakov, then the encounters with the motives of Witkievicz and Eduardo de Philippo, and with the works of David Ives and Yasmina Reza. The presence of our playwrights, such as Branislav Nušic or Ljubomir Simović, will embellish the programme of this-year edition of the Slavija Festival, the international theatrical event, which is focused on the art of the actor, and which has successfully avoided the traps of various
trendy post-drama premises for years, and we can only welcome that. For the ninth time the festivity of acting is going to begin in our town, and bring joy to everybody who appreciates and loves theatre.
Prof. Raško Jovanović