Sterijino pozorje
a b o u t../ m i s s i o n
.

Jovan Sterija Popovic
(1806 - 1856)

As a permanent Festival of domestic drama and domestic theatre having a competitive character, Sterijino pozorje was established in 1956, within the celebration of 150th anniversary of birth and 100th anniversary of death of the great Serbian comedist Jovan Popovic Sterija. The most prominent people of our society, culture and arts took part in defining and establishing the programme and status of Sterijino pozorje. The first Head Committee of Sterijino pozorje, appointed by The Novi Sad City Council on March 29th in 1956, consisted of Josip Vidmar (the chairman), Ivo Andric, Milan Bogdanovic, Branko Gavela, Velibor Gligoric, Dimitar Kjostarov, Mladen Leskovac, Veljko Petrovic, Dusan Popovic, Tomislav Tanhofer, Radomir Radujkov and Milos Hadzic. That was the occasion when the programme goals and tasks were clearly articulated and stated: to promote the art of theatre through the permanence of the festival and to instigate the development of the national dramatic literature and stage performance. In order to reach the set up goals, besides the festival, Sterijino pozorje uses and develops all other work-related forms and actions.
During the course of time, Sterijino pozorje carried out the ideas of its founders and became a highly specialized theatre institution for improvement of the national theatre act and dramatic literature. During the half a century long and continuous work, Sterijino pozorje founded and to a great extent developed a number of activities important for our theatre culture. Thus, it became a significant and reliable instrument in identification and verification of dramatic and stage values, and to quite an extent, the support to a scientific and theoretical concept of theatre and drama. By always treating the theatre phenomenon as an integral unit, Pozorje shaped its programmes into a clear and well-rounded concept of systematic, artistic, expert and scientific work within the realm of drama and theatre. Sterijino pozorje is the immediate creator, organizer and holder of expert and scientific-research activities within the frames of theatrical, documentary and informative sphere. It organizes and carries out the meeting of High Theatre Schools (Pozorje of the young), regular expert and scientific meetings of domestic and foreign theatre experts, theatre critics, playwrights and theatre artists. It organizes and plans the domestic and international exhibitions. It publishes the monograph issues and periodicals on the art of theatre and dramatic literature. It researches, collects, processes, keeps and publishes the theatre documentation. It makes possible the immediate and continual exchange of experiences and learning between our and foreign theatre practice and theory. It coordinates the relations and connections between the domestic and foreign theatre public and promotes the national theatre abroad. Therefore, Sterijino pozorje got its status and respect as being the most significant national theatre institution which enables our theatre and the science of theatre to search and find the strength and opportunity to develop, connect and engage into contemporary world theatre flows.

The work of Sterijino pozorje is carried out through several programme units:
The National Drama Festival
Publishing Centre
International cooperation
Centre for Theatre Documentation
 

Festival. It is held annually, at the end of May in Novi Sad. The repertoire is based on the selection which is conducted by the three-member team of selectors, with the Artistic Director of Sterijino pozorje as its head. The participants of the festival can be the professional theatres and groups from the country and abroad, with plays done according to texts by domestic and foreign authors. A five-member jury decides on Sterija awards given for artistic achievements shown on the festival: best play, best contemporary drama text, dramatization, adaptation, directing, stage design, costumes, stage music and (five awards) acting performance.
– Selection of plays competing for Sterija Awards consists of two parts:
- The best domestic and foreign theatre plays, done according to the texts by domestic authors  (3-5 plays)
- The best plays performed by domestic theatres, done according to the texts by foreign authors (3-5 plays)
The Round Table of Critique Sterija Award belongs to the theatre whose play is voted the best according to the critics. Besides the awards given for best artistic performance, there is also an award for the press theatre reviews and one awarded by the Stage magazine for theatre science. From time to time, according to decisions on behalf of the management, Sterijino pozorje also gives an award for the special credits for the promotion of theatre art and culture. Besides the Sterija awards, many other institutions and organizations award prizes for diverse forms of artistic performance.
– Circles Selection is defined, in respect of topics and/or culture, as an international (regional, European, world) contextualisation of the most interesting and provocative social, cultural and theatrical phenomena offered by our environment. Only foreign plays are allowed to take part in this programme (3-5 plays). Circles award the Best Play Award - The Lap of Honour Award. Domestic plays chosen by the Selection for Sterija Awards which meet the subject and/or cultural criteria of the Circles, which would be pointed out by the selectors’ report, can compete for the Lap of Honour Award.

Pozorje of the young. On the one hand, these are the meetings of young theatre creators, students and teachers of theatre academies and faculties, aimed at mutual connecting and exchange, introducing the up-to-date theatre trends in the country and abroad, practical and theoretical theatre study; and on the other hand, they serve to demonstrate the work achieved within the process of teaching and exams. The whole event is supplemented by theatre workshops which differ in subjects and are yet connected to pedagogy and acting education, dramaturges, stage designers and producers.

Speaker’s platforms and exhibitions. A very wide range of topics is discussed on speaker’s platforms, starting from the social aspect of theatre, theatre art and culture, to particularly expert, scientific and artistic ones. Exhibitions tend to present some of the important names in dramatic literature, theatre art and culture, particular periods in the history of theatre and drama in a special and striking way. They also tend to introduce the public to some theatre issues, problems or achievements. Because of its nature and importance, a special place belongs to the Tri-Annual Exhibition of Theatre Poster and graphic design. It is a unique manifestation of this kind. Every three years it displays the graphic achievements within the art of theatre posters, programmes and other graphic material which make the visual identity of a theatre play or a theatre itself. Sterijino pozorje also awards a prize for the best accomplishments within this category.

International cooperation. Besides all standard forms of international cooperation which is accomplished through different institutional and non-institutional relations between our own and world theatre public, Pozorje established some special programmes within this field of work: International Tri-Annual Exhibition “Theatre in Photographic Art” shows the creations of artistic photographers inspired by theatre and the act of theatre; International Tri-Annual Exhibition “Theatre Scenography and Costume Design” demonstrates the achievements of most important domestic and world stage and costume designers and makes it possible to keep up with the latest trends within this field of creation; International Tri-Annual Exhibition of Theatre Books and Periodicals which is the unique manifestation of this kind in the world and whose task is to collect and display the worldwide theatre books and periodicals thus making it possible to view the world production of theatre literature. International Symposium of Theatre Critics and Scholars is a permanent institution within the international cooperation of Sterijino pozorje (under the sponsorship of the International Association of Theatre Critics- AICT / IATC); its primary task is to discuss the experiences and learning of the world theatre theory and practice.

Publishing. Publishing programme is planned so that, on the one hand it instigates and promotes dramatic literature and theatre science through books as an efficient means of cultured communication and permanent cultural asset; and on the other hand, it promotes the domestic drama and literature worldwide. Pozorje issues monograph and series of publications on problems in theatre art, culture and dramatic literature. Among the monograph publications, the important place belongs to editions of Dramatic texts, Contemporary drama and Theatrologia yugoslavica. Among the series of publications the important place belongs to a documentary-informative publication called Almanac of Тheatres of Serbia, as well as to a magazine for theatre art called Scena (Stage), which is issued in Serbian and English.

Centre for theatre documentation. Systematically investigates, collects, processes, keeps and publishes the theatre documentation, documentary material and data. It is the owner of unique and rich collection of theatre documentation (the collection of archives, theatre programmes, posters, photographs, drama works in manuscript, audio and video recordings), as well as the data banks about theatre and drama. Almanac of Theatres of Serbia is published annually, as a result of a part of the research and analytical processing of data and documents. Together with researching, collecting and processing the data about theatre documentation, the Centre also provides the service of scientific and research work, as well as information on theatre and drama institutions to organizations and individuals from country and abroad.
Copyright: Sterijino pozorje 1998-2007