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The second Autumn Theatre Festival of the director Emir Kusturica will take place in Mećavnik on 27 and 28 October. The saying of our famous author Matija Bećković, “As if We were Living in the Meantime,” will be the slogan of this year’s festival, which reflects the founder’s idea that Mećavnik should become synonymous with energy and experiences intertwining between young and accomplished artists. Four student pieces will be presented in the competitive part of the Autumn Theatre Festival. The Faculty of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts Synergy from Bijeljina will perform “Brothers” by Mikhail Durnenkov, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts from Belgrade will perform Ethan Coen’s “Almost a Drama”, the Academy of Arts from Novi Sad will perform “Six Characters in Search of an Author” by Luigi Pirandello, while the Academy of Arts from Belgrade will perform Anton Chekhov’s “Seagull”. Zvezdara Teatar will be a special guest and will officially open the Autumn Theatre Festival by performing Dušan Kovačević’s “A Love’s Hypnosis”. Sharing experience and knowledge through discussions with students in master workshops will also feature as a segment of this festival. In this way, young artists will have a chance to speak to our accomplished artists, Dušan Kovačević and Snežana Trišić. In two festival days, the audience will see four student performances, two drama classics and two contemporary plays. The festival selector, prize-winning director Milan Nešković’s idea was to choose the performances that would best fit together to make a whole in terms of the problems that young authors decided to explore in their respective theatrical acts. The perception of the present time is a motif that stands out naturally in many student plays, be they drama classics or contemporary pieces. “Looking into problems has nearly always reflected the time in which we live but from the perspective of young people, to whom the Autumn Theatre Festival is dedicated,” said the festival selector and director Milan Nešković and added, “I have chosen four plays. Two drama classics and two contemporary pieces. One classic and contemporary piece each from the East and from the West. This very diversity of dramatic structures helps to best present the unity of the creative idea linking all these young artists, most of whom do not even know each other. That is encouraging. What may be frightening is the pessimism that all young people display about the future of the present time despite all the humour in all the plays. Therefore, the witty but utterly seriously examining saying of our poet Matija Bećković springs to mind as the slogan for this year’s festival and sublimation of everything that these wonderful young people feel. We still need a full evening performance to look into a problem, while Matija only needs a sentence.” NIS has been the general sponsor of the Autumn Theatre Festival for the second year in a row. Supporting projects in the fields of culture, science and education, with a particular emphasis on developing young talents, is one of NIS’s strategic objectives fulfilled under the slogan “Future at Work”.
