Naj, naj, naj festival 2015
15th INTERNATIONAL NAJ, NAJ, NAJ FESTIVAL
City theatre Zar ptica Zagreb organizes 15th International Naj,naj,naj festival from March 27th till April 1st, 2015.
The festival was founded in 2001 with the idea to present the very best productions of professional theatres for children in Croatia to the young Zagreb audience during the spring holidays.
The specialty of the festival is that all performances are for free, enabling the children to spend their spring holidays enjoying the very best theaters can offer. This way they fall in love with the theater on a life-long basis.
The best evidence for the success of „Naj,naj,naj“ festivals so far is the fact that it became international in 2007. The festival competition is enriched by different views on theater art for children which every visiting theatre from Europe and the world shares as something specific with the rest of the participants.An amazing number of visitors- more than 6000 of them; the joy both the viewers and the visiting performers feel- ensured “The Naj,naj,naj festival” a renowned status in Croatia and wider region.
The festival is a competition of non-puppet perfomaneces, where an expert jury, composed of eminent theatrical critics, selects and awards the best performances in ten categories with the sculpture of the Golden Žar ptica (Firebird).
Selector’s Foreword
The Magic of the Theatre
For the official programme of the 15th International Naj, naj, naj Festival (The very best among the best) from 27 March to 1 April 2015 I selected five international and ten Croatian performances.
This year I saw eighty four shows from all over the world and chose five naj, naj, naj international performances which are prominent for their outstanding esthetic level, amazing performance and scenic magic.
The Ljubljana Puppet Theatre from Slovenia will bring out their attractive performance of Emil and the Detectives, based on Erich Kästner’s famous text, directed by Ajda Valcl and performed by a dynamic ensemble of actors. Jiří Srnec’s Black Light Theatre Srnec from Prague, Czech Republic, will show a magical compound of the best Czech theatrical virtuoso tradition and contemporary approach based on the shadow and figures play. Cantieri teatrali Koreja from Lecce, Italy will amaze the Zagreb audience with their performance of Plastic gardens, directed by Salvatore Tramacere and performed by young actors in an attractive blend of circus and performing scenes and beautiful stage images. Magic Bubbles by Yael Bat Enosh Theater, Israel will prove a real sensation for the Croatian audience with a performance completely woven of ˝soap bubbles˝; bubbles showing the possibility of neverending play. The audience will be able to experience the magic of a diverse, new, unknown and exotic world watching the performance of The secret of Kalat castle by the Khonya theater company from Teheran, Iran.
The Croatian competition was really tough – I selected ten performances produced by both institutional and independent Croatian theatres for children. All chosen performances are founded on a compound of brilliant texts and interpretation of the highest quality with predominantly youthful acting energy and lucid direction.
The City theatre Žar ptica (Fire bird), the host and organizer of the Naj, naj, naj festival, led by the successful manager, outstanding dramatic artist, Marija Sekelez, for the past fifteen years, presents Waitapu, based on the novel of the renowned Croatian author Joža Horvat, directed by Saša Broz, performed by the excellent ensemble of Žar ptica, as a poetic scenic fairy tale about Oceania and a world yearned for: Waitapu – about favourite questions and answers children like posing and listening to.
The choir and drama group of the Association of persons with cerebral palsy Srce (Heart) from Split presents the text by the actor Slavko Sobin, member of the ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre from Split, Heart on Stage – musical, directed by the author himself; a sparkling emotional romance-detective scenic story abounding with music, songs and happiness about two families, about sons and daughters, about two worlds turning into one thanks to the power of the heart.
Mala scena, Zagreb realizes its non-verbal performance Why me?, a collaboration and co-production with the Danish theatre Passepartout and the Swedish theatre Landskrona Teater, as an author project of the Danish author and director Jacques S. Matthiessen, performed by three young Croatian actors: the basis being the story of the three musketeers – fencers, told through mime and pantomime, even through sports, so to speak, founded on a mixture of absurdity and entertainment.
The POUVG (Public Open University Velika Gorica) – City Theatre Scene Gorica presents the text by Kristina Gavran, a young prized Croatian dramatic author, The Boy who was looking for a Dragon, directed by Damir Mađarić, performed by a young team of actors. The story evolves around the destiny of a lonely boy who confides in paper dragons, finding friendship in the performance thanks to the scenic magic of the theatre-box, symbolizing both home and family, soul and theatre.
The City Puppet theatre from Split joins the Naj, naj, naj festival 2015 with an author project of the dramatist and director Olja Lozica, Darmalands, performed by a three-member acting team. A power cut enables the meeting and friendship of a boy and girl, vast possibilites of understanding the world and life outside the reality of the Internet and learning the real face of the neighbour. Darkness becomes a challenge to imagination and the light of life.
The theatre Prijatelj (Friend) from Zagreb presents the performance of The Story of Dullsons (or why you should study), based on the text by actor Hrvoje Zalar who is both director and actor of the show, together with the young actress, Anja Đurinović. Eugène Ionesco’s The Lesson could be placed somewhere in the background of this text, alongside with the readjustment of a school class, leading to constructivity, motivation for learning and friendship between student and teacher, and the transformation from laziness of ignorance to the joy of acquiring knowledge.
The City theatre Trešnja from Zagreb presents the well-known fairy tale Cinderella after Charles Perrault’s text, directed by Jakov Sedlar and performed by the ensemble of that theatre and young actors who knock on the doors of professional theatres as an entertaining, music- and dance-like scenic story about the victory of goodness, justice and love, full of permanent alternations of new, diverse events.
The Zagreb Youth Theatre in co-production with the Academy of Dramatic Art presents the performance of My Genie, an author project of the French playwright and director Pascal Rambert, performed by young actors. The performance is founded on imagining the tent as the mother’s womb, a person who lulls children to sleep as a constant friend and the world of painting as the world of projected imagination. The pair child – the child’s good genie lead the audience through a world of travelling dreams.
The theatre Kerekesh from Varaždin presents the text by actor Ljubomir Kerekeš Grimmix, based on a synthesis of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, directed by Ljubomir Kerekeš and performed by prized young actors. The audience will see what happens when characters/persons from various fairy tales meet on the stage and what goes on when a big fairy-tale-like book becomes a scenic magnet abounding with positive creative acting energy which attracts children to enter the world of the theatre as a world of an endless, great, entertaining and funny, merry and happy fairy tale.
The theatre Smješko (Smiley) from Zagreb, managed by the producer and actress Mirta Zečević, presents the text by actor and professor Hrvoje Zalar: My Family and a Hedgehog, directed by actress Ivana Boban, member of the ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, again performed by young actors. Both the text and the performance compile strong feelings in a scenic story shown from the perspective of a girl who experienced the destiny of her own family and her own new family, by becoming a happy person.
It is with pleasure and professional luck that I can recommend the company of these outstanding fifteen performances to both the little and the adult audience of the Naj, naj, naj festival at its 15 th birthday. Enjoy the magic of the theatre!
Mira Muhoberac,
Dramaturge and theatrologist,
Selector of this year’s Naj, naj, naj festival