CHARACTER MASK WORKSHOP
The goal of the workshop is to familiarize participants with mask and the significance of wearing it on the face. Mask is an extension of the character’s body, and every subtle movement made on stage becomes even more visible with it. In the workshop, participants learn the basic rules of working with masks, stimulate their imagination, develop spatial awareness and pave the way for creating a dramatic character. A very important segment of this workshop is getting to know the basic elements of a dramatic situation and improvisation in relation to a musical stimulus.
DŽENITA IMAMOVIĆ OMEROVIĆ, actress and professor
She was born in 1973 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She graduated from the Pedagogical Academy in Zenica in 1997. In 2001, she graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, in the class of professor Admir Glamočak. Since 2006, she has been working at the Academy of Performing Arts, initially as a teaching associate in the subject of Movement, and then from 2009 as an assistant in the subject of Acting. Today she holds the position of Associate Professor in the subject of Acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
She was a long-time member of the drama ensemble at the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, where she also served as the artistic director for a period. She actively participated in various organizations, including NarkoNe Sarajevo, the Croatian Heritage Foundation in Zagreb, Our Children Zenica, S.O.S. Kinderdorf Sarajevo, the Zenica Spring Festival, SEZAM Zenica, the Zenica Municipal Council, and many others.
Her professional engagements include work in theatre, radio, television and film. She is a recipient of acting awards at the Festival of Bosnian Drama in Zenica.
DANCE WORKSHOP
The dance workshop aims to encourage young creators to improve their coordination and to develop better physical conditioning while overcoming any fear of moving on stage and physical theatre. Having a strong, flexible and fit body will assist young actors in performing their current roles or those they aspire to. Dance contributes to the development of many aspects necessary for the development and successful realization of stage and performing tasks, including mobility, balance, strength, sense of time, rhythm, spatial awareness as well as memory. Learning to dance essentially means developing reflexes, and mastering choreography represents a cognitive challenge. Contemporary dance, which we will explore in this workshop, is a broad concept encompassing a wide range of styles. We will select styles based on the participants’ preferences. The harmony of the group and the individuality of each participant will be treated as equally important factors in the final creation. In this way, we will create a unique performance, choreography to be presented to an audience.
BELMA ČEČO BAKRAČ, choreographer
She was born in Sarajevo in 1978, where she completed gymnasium and music high school, classical ballet department. She learned the techniques of modern ballet expression in Vienna, and perfected her choreography at the Laban Centre in London. She graduated in journalism from the Faculty of Political Sciences, where she also obtained her master’s degree. As a professional ballet dancer, she was engaged in the Sarajevo National Theatre in 1998, where she has been a ballet soloist since 2001. She achieved notable soloist and title roles in numerous ballet plays. She also participated in drama and opera projects of the National Theatre. She also collaborated with Chamber Theatre 55, Youth Theatre Sarajevo, Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, National Theatre Tuzla.
She is the winner of the Ginestra d’Oro Award for her special contribution to the development and preservation of ballet art during the war in besieged Sarajevo (Rome, 2002) and the Award for Best Choreography at the 4th Festival of Bosnian Drama in Zenica (2005) for the play Srebrenica Inferno by Đelo Jusić, Džemaludin Latić and Tanja Oručević.
She collaborated with numerous domestic and foreign conductors, choreographers and directors. She achieved notable guest appearances, positive reviews and collaborations on guest appearances in: USA, Italy, France, Hungary, Great Britain, Turkey, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia…
She served as the Director of the Ballet of the National Theatre Sarajevo from 2015 to 2019.
IMPROV WORKSHOP – THEATRESPORTS OR DIVERSITY IN THE COMMUNITY
At the impro workshop, we will explore the idea of theatresports through the active playing of improv games. Participants will learn the basics of improvisation, including accepting and giving initiatives for stage action without a classical template. The project participants will discover how to form a group where a play space is established through intuitive response, and a dialogue develops in the imaginative space and time of the improv discipline. We will examine how this can affect performing imagination.
Participants will become familiar with the system of improv games or disciplines, which are short five-minute games that solve certain stage tasks and provide a new theatrical experience for everyone. Consistent group work shapes and tests an individual’s stage identity, fosters a love for theatrical creation, and returns them to spontaneity, where personal freedom and creative expression are unleashed.
The stage tasks of theatresports improv games are essentially competitive, culminating in a game between two groups. The improv competition is led by a presenter who selects audience suggestions for improvisations and collects scores given by the audience and judges. However, improv disciplines can also be arranged as variety shows in which the audience actively participates. We will learn several warm-up games and at least ten improv games, some of which can be presented as a ten-minute final format.
MOJCA DIMEC, actress and professor
She was born in 1964 in Slovenia. She is a teacher at the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School, and Performing Arts Grammar School Ljubljana (SVŠGUGL), a school that specialises in dance, theatre, and film. She is teaching the history and theory of drama and theatre and lead an improv workshop. She is also the co-author of improv curricula and manuals, chair the matriculation committee, and lead the professors’ activities. As a mentor and director of annual educational performances, she collaborates with artists from various performance practices, ranging from contemporary dance to video.
In 1997, she co-founded ŠILA – the school improv league, and in 1993, together with the Ana Monro Theatre, the Impro League. Until 2000, she actively participated in the theatre as an actress. In 1996, she started working as a high school Slovene teacher and began to combine both fields, teaching and improv theatre art.
She is particularly interested in the collective entry of students on stage and teaching through active artistic experiences that ensure the open development of personal identity.
PUPPETRY WORKSHOP
Can hands become puppets? Can knees play the guitar, and can the stomach sing? Through this workshop, participants will gain knowledge of simple animation of body parts, directing stage energy to a body part, developing imagination and creativity through the personification of body parts, engaging in non-verbal and verbal puppetry expression, and understanding the meaning of puppet as a stage metaphor. Through various motor exercises, exercises for imagination and creativity, and warm-ups for voice and body, participants will liberate themselves and become aware of their primary stage instruments: body and voice. They will then create short etudes on various topics. They will learn how to breathe life into a particular body part, give it a specific character and act with the puppet in simpler etudes. They will be able to connect learned animation elements into a simple whole, organize and combine different body parts according to the theme they wish to explore, and react through character to various given situations.
JOSIPA ORŠOLIĆ, actress and puppeteer
She was born in 1995 in Mannheim, Germany. Originally from Tolisa, a village near Orašje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She currently lives in Zagreb, Croatia. She completed her undergraduate studies in theatre arts, majoring in acting and puppetry, at Art Academy in Osijek. She completed her graduate studies in the same field at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek and in 2019, she became a master of arts or a professional actor-puppeteer. Currently, she performs in plays at the City Theatre of Joza Ivakić in Vinkovci, in puppet play at the Požega City Theatre, in street plays at the Eighth Day Theatre from the city of Poznań in Poland, at the &TD Theatre in Zagreb, and in the The Seekers Theatre Company also in Zagreb. Together with a colleague, she founded an artistic organization, the IGLU Theatre, which primarily operates in Slavonia and Bosnian Posavina. She is a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association (HZSU) and the The Croatian Association of Drama Artists (HDDU).
MUSICAL THEATRE WORKSHOP
If you are a fan of musicals, this workshop will introduce you to the world of musical theatre in a fun and educational way. We will recreate several scenes from the iconic musical Footloose, which represents a revolution in this form. It is known for its high-energy choreography and catchy melodies. Through dance, acting, and singing, participants will have the opportunity to showcase their creativity through both team and individual work, explore themselves, gain new knowledge and learn how to apply these skills to other areas of life.
IRMA MULIĆ, music artist
She was born in 1988 in Bijelo Polje, Montenegro. She graduated from the Sarajevo Music Academy, where she earned a Bachelor of Music Arts degree. She is the head of the Department of Performing Arts of the first educational and production platform for musical theatre in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the Institute for Music, Theatre, and Multimedia where she engages in teaching pedagogy (piano and singing) to children and young people. She has also taught at the Ilidža Music School in Sarajevo, Mali Mozart music school, ABC Educational Centre (2012-2013), as well as the International School Bloom – Montessori accreditation in Sarajevo. Since 2008, she has been actively involved as a performer in various forms of musical theatre, performing in theatres throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Her experience in theatre includes leading roles in musicals such as Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Annie, Flashdance and Oliver.
Workshop for teachers, leaders of drama clubs in high schools and drama pedagogues
CREATION OF A DOCUMENTARY PLAY – youth for youth; case study of the play “Utopia”
The goal of this workshop is to codify and systematize the experience of creating the documentary play “Utopia” with students of the upper grades of elementary school and early grades of high school (ages 12-16) and transfer the acquired knowledge and experience to practitioners in the education system.
The workshop includes the presentation of the designed concept, the selection of specific tasks for all candidates, and the method of selection that was created in collaboration with a drama pedagogue and a child psychologist.
After the presentation, the participants of the workshop will be given a practical part in which the basics of creating a group are set – within this part of the workshop, the participants will have the opportunity to independently go through the system of work and pedagogical approach that we applied in preparing “Utopia” – a concrete process of communication with potential candidates, as well as defining criteria for selecting potential participants.
The second part of the workshop will enable participants to have a concrete insight into all the potentials and uncertainties of such processes. Part of the participants involved in the work on “Utopia” will join this segment of the workshop and present their experiences of the process and personal insights. Following this, a Q&A session will be held, with the aim that, in the final phase of the workshop, each participant creates their own process for preparing work with a group of young people.
Finally, the participants of the workshop would have a presentation of the designed projects created on the basis of all the given parameters.
IVAN BALETIĆ, director
Ivan Baletić is a graduate director and a Phd student at the University of Arts in Belgrade, specializing in Polymedia art. He has focused his professional development on working with children and young people, as well as staging theatre productions that primarily utilize contemporary technology. He has directed plays in theatres in Belgrade (Little Theatre “Duško Radović”, “Belgrade Drama Theatre, Boško Buha Theatre, Pan Theatre, independent productions in open spaces and in the Belgrade Youth Centre) and in Germany (Hildesheim). He is engaged in 2D and 3D animation, video and multimedia installations that have been exhibited at events such as the “Museum Night” and the “Salon of Architecture”. He is the author of the workshops for young people within long-term international projects (IETM network, Shadow Pandemic project).
