As part of the 63^rd International Theater Festival MESS, the Festival’s Management Office presents a new program – Dramadžiluk. The idea is to present the recent works of playwrights from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ex-Yugoslav region through stage readings. The aim is to create a platform for promoting and networking of playwrights as well as all the other theater workers.

“The MESS Festival, apart from its regular program, has also  developed the Memory Module, Mini MESS and MESS Library programs, and our intention is to establish a new program that will promote drama texts and become a distinguished segment of Sarajevo’s theater life in the years to follow”, said Nihad Kreševljaković, the director of the International Theater Festival MESS.

 At the Chamber Theater 55, from 2^nd to 6^th October, lovers of theater plays will have an opportunity to attend stage readings of recently published plays from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia.  “I am happy that MESS is once again at the Chamber Theater this year. The connection between MESS and the Chamber Theater is self-explanatory and it’s only natural that we should support and develop the theater scene since we want to offer the best content to our audience. As former university students, we are aware of the importance of MESS as it shaped and pointed us in the direction in which we wanted to go as artists” said Senad Alihodžić, the director of the Chamber Theater 55.   

 “It was back in 2012 that Nihad and I first talked about the idea of launching this project. Now, eleven years later, we managed to implement it. The idea was launched with the aim to gather and present playwrights and their works, as a way to help theater professionals to find materials and, alongside the stage readings, to attempt to engage ourselves in publishing”, said Almir Imširević, the author of the concept and selector of the “Dramadžiluk” program.  

 This year’s Dramadžiluk will feature the stage readings of four plays – Darkness on the Edge of Town by Dario Bevanda (Bosnia and Herzegovina), The Conspirators by Igor Štiks and Vladimir Arsenijević (Serbia); the program will feature another play from Serbia, namely The Glass Neck by Biljana Srbljanović and the play The Last Balkan Vampire by Macedonian playwright Dejan Dukovski. Apart from stage readings, an online platform for storing all the plays signed up for Dramadžiluk will be created, which will be useful for theater workers and artists for further networking.

 “Sanja Kulenović, the designer of the poster, wanted to create a blend of tradition, modernity and typography. It is words and emotions that playwrights mostly focus on.  Hence, we are here talking about a poster that focuses on the written word”, said Hana Bajrović – Čardaković, Dramadžiluk’s executive producer.

On the final day of the Dramadžiluk program, on 6^th October at 11.00 a.m., there will be a round table discussion titled “Why Write Plays”, with the participation of Almir Bašović, Almir Imširević, Vedrana Božinović, Janko Ljumović, Dragan Komadina and Boris Liješević.

The admission to all Dramadžiluk programs is free. The program will take place from 2^nd to 5^th October starting from 12.00 a.m. in the Gabrijel Gallery, at the Chamber Theater 55.