Actors of the National Theater have warned that the mention of firing young members of the drama ensemble and the claims that they were hired through connections and because they are “blockers,” made by the president of the Theater’s Management Board, Dragoslav Bokan, represent a conflict with the previous administration and within SNS factions that is being carried out at the expense of the actors.
The National Theater was closed on October 3 at the proposal of the Ministry of Culture for safety reasons, following an inspection by the Ministry of the Interior which identified irregularities in fire protection. Neither the actors nor the audience know whether the theater will reopen within the planned timeframe, nor what has been done in the meantime regarding the implementation of fire safety measures.
The management, that is, the president of the Theater’s Management Board, Dragoslav Bokan, has not commented on that issue, but has spoken about the younger members of the ensemble, claiming that they were hired through connections and because they are “blockers.”
Actor Aleksandar Srećković Kubura told N1 that Bokan, in trying to defend his decisions regarding the National Theater, attempted to create an image that the drama ensemble includes people who were brought in through connections, without any qualifications, and because they are “blockers.”
“He uses an extremely—pardon me, sir—unbelievably stupid vocabulary. The group of young people that has recently joined has raised the quality of performances and the ensemble to an immeasurable level. This is clearly a conflict with the previous administration that is taking place at our expense. We do not want to accept being collateral damage in someone’s private conflicts—whether at the level of the previous administration or the previous Ministry of Culture,” emphasized Srećković.
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Actress Nada Šargin said that the young colleagues were admitted to the ensemble in a fair manner, proving themselves over several seasons by performing a large number of roles.
She added that some of them had received serious awards and had been recognized by the audience, colleagues, and the professional public.
“For them, and for the freelancers as well, among whom is Vanja Miličić, who has been a leading actress for more than a decade, it is not nice to mention such people who have proven themselves and continue to do so, and to say that they came here through who knows what means,” said Šargin.
She emphasized that the young colleagues, together with the older ones, keep the repertoire alive and perform in a large number of plays, and that without them, the repertoire would not exist.
Kubura added that the president of the Management Board, Dragoslav Bokan, does not know this because, before being appointed to that position, he had not entered the National Theater for 20 years, and even then, the actor noted, it was for private reasons.
Speaking about the conflict within SNS factions that is taking place through the National Theater, actor Aleksandar Vučković said that the Ministry of Culture had been aware of the deficiencies in the fire protection system since January of this year, when the previous director, actor Svetislav Bule Goncić, informed the Ministry about it and requested funds to solve the problem. Since the Ministry said that there was no money, the theater allocated its own funds for fire protection, but the Ministry did not grant approval to correct the irregularities.
“The new management came in, was aware of all those irregularities, and on September 12 the Ministry of the Interior once again sent an inspection which pointed them out but did not propose closing the theater. The Ministry of Culture proposed it, and the management closed the theater. And we are hostages of two or more SNS factions,” Vučković pointed out, noting that the theater now lives in a vacuum from which it does not know how to escape.
His colleague Srećković added with Bergman’s words that if you cannot get to know a country, you should visit its national theater, because there you will see how the country functions.
“This theater, during the previous SNS administration, had good cooperation with the management, very good seasons, and excellent performances. We do not have a political stance or a problem with who brings in the management, but with whom they bring into the management,” emphasized Kubura, reports N1.
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Source: Nova.rs, Foto: Radule Perisic / ATAImages