I Am Not Afraid For The Future Of The Theatre

An Interview with Ms. Zeljka Turcinovic – dramaturg, editor of magazines: Croatian Theatre and Dance Magazine – Kretanja/ Movements, head of Croatian ITI Center, selector of Croatian Theatre Showcase, Zagreb, Croatia

ZELJKA TURCINOVIC (Zagreb, Croatia) graduated from the School for Rhythmics and Dance. She is a member of Studio for Contemporary Dance, the first professional contemporary dance ensemble in Croatia. She has a B.A. degree in Croatian and Comparative Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy and a B.A. degree in Dramaturgy from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts. Following her professional dance career, she worked as a lecturer, dramaturg and choreographer. She was also a Counsellor for Theatre at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia. She worked as editor in chief of the Drama Department of Croatian Radiotelevision. She collaborated as a choreographer and dramaturg with nearly all Croatian theatres. She has been the president of the Croatian ITI Centre since 2001. She is editor in chief of the series Mansions (theatre books) and publisher of Croatian Centre of ITI – Theatre (Kazaliste) Magazine (the theatre magazine published by the Croatian centre of ITI).

Ivanka Apostolova Baskar: Zeljka, you are the head of one of the most active, successful International Theatre Institute centers in Europe and the Balkans—the Croatian ITI Center. What is the key to the success of an ITI center’s work and program in a time of very competitive European and international networks for theater and performing arts?

Zeljka Turcinovic: I think that for the successful leadership of the national centre of ITI, you have to have international programs, which will attract foreign theatre people who will come to your small and unknown country—small/unknown on the world theatre map.

So, we have a special program, a Croatian theatre showcase for theatre people from abroad.

Also, we have an International Drama Colony intended for playwrights. It is a residential program where we work on the text with professional actors and directors. The results are the translation of the play, a stage reading after one week working, and the possibility that the play would be staged in the professional theatre in Croatia. It is a kind of workshop where we research how a literary text turns into a theatrical one.

IAB:  In your opinion, what makes the ITI network one of the oldest networks for theatre and performing arts – formed in 1948 and symbolically supported by UNESCO – too cumbersome, and with lost attempts at regular and unhindered network collaboration, exchanges, and co-productions?

ZT: As you know, there are more than 90 national ITI centres on the paper, but most of them do not have any program to collaborate. These are only registered centres or “one-man show“ centres. We can’t expect that the office of the International Theatre Institute, based in Paris or Shanghai, will organize the whole network for collaboration.

That is why ITI World Congresses exist, where we can meet each other and get to know each other, and we agree about collaborations and co-productions. Of course, if you have an idea of a program and financial support. Before, ITI Committees were very useful and fruitful for cooperation among the centres. Today, they exist only from congress to congress without any vision or program. What a pity!

IAB: What is the meaning of regional and international networking? Is there a better chance of avoiding corruption and clan formations for international cooperation?

ZT: Regional networking is when we collaborate among ourselves. If our region is Balkan, Croatian ITI cooperates with North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Slovenia.

International cooperation applies to the whole world. However, the initiative of the collaboration has to be between two sides. And specifically, based on a theatre, playwrights, theatre books, and magazines – exchanges and collaborations.  I do not see any corruption here in a regional context.

IAB: You are the director of one of the most consistent showcases in the Balkans, the Croatian Theatre Showcase (new edition follows on 14-18 May 2025) where we have the opportunity to see the best of the latest dramatic and post-dramatic productions from theatres and stages in Zagreb, Rijeka …  Outstanding acting performances, impeccable directing by Croatian and foreign-guest directors working with Croatian ensembles? What is the purpose and feedback of theatrical showcases that lack the festival element – awards?

ZT: As I said before, Croatia is quite an unknown country on the world`s theatre map.

So, the showcase is a way for foreign selectors, translators, artistic directors, and other theatre people to get to know Croatian theatre, playwrights, and plays. The purpose and feedback are numerous. The plays are translated into many languages and performed on stages in many countries, especially in the Spanish-speaking area and in Poland, where we have our promoters – translators who offer the translations to the theatres very successfully. A lot of performances went touring after our showcase. Also, theatre critics write reviews after the showcase in theatre magazines, on TV, and on the radio. We keep accurate records of the results of our showcases. I just want to say that this year we mark 20 years of the Croatian Theatre Showcase.

Zeljka Turcinovic. Credit: Croatian ITI Center

IAB: As a dramaturg and cultural manager, how do you observe, and read the production years in the theatre in Croatia – from year to year – and what do you notice, in what direction is contemporary theatre production developing, opening, or stagnating?

ZT: Croatian theatre has a rich production in the theatre institutions (mainstream), but I would say that the independent scene is also very vivid. Contemporary theatre is based on documentary theatre, the author`s projects, and a lot of research and experimental theatre. Performances are also a very popular genre as the mix of theatre, dance, and music.

IAB: Within the framework of the Croatian ITI Center, you have been organizing the International Drama Colony in Groznjan, Istria for many years, with an excellent program from which many talented playwrights and theater directors from the region, Europe, and the world have emerged. You predominantly approach bilateral intersections and collaborations, and everything in the process is hands-on – directly practical with visible results.  What is the essence of a drama colony?

ZT: As I said before, it is a program for playwrights, and we try to reciprocate with the partners. The International Drama Colony has existed since 1999, and the model is similar to the American Eugene O’Neill Center in Connecticut. We translate foreign plays, and we do stage readings with professional actors and directors. The playwright-author has to be part of the Colony because we are talking about the process of how a literary dramatic text transitions into a theatrical one. After the end of each International Drama Colony, Croatian ITI offers the translated play to various professional Croatian theatres.

IAB: As a dramaturg, objectively and subjectively, what are the key Croatian names of contemporary–current dramaturgy in Croatia, which deserve to be translated, published, publicly read, and staged on theatrical stages at home and in the world? What are some of the themes that are being dealt with in domestic drama and dramaturgy in Croatia? And if we extract them, can we make and assemble some kind of authentic review—culturally and anthropologically—of the dramatic capacity at the local level in terms of international conditions, trends, and currents?

ZT: Croatian contemporary drama deals with the problem of dysfunctional families, a young generation that has no perspective for a normal life, corruption and hypocrisy of society, and some other topics. The most important thing for translation and staging in the world is the play/the stage work to have a universal meaning. The translation has to be perfect and in the language of the country where we want to stage the play. It is good if you have an agent who promotes the translation in the country where a play will be staged. In our case, the agent is the translator. We have very good experience with Spain and South America, Poland, Russia, Turkey …

IAB: Through your publishing and translation strategies, you have managed to break through and stage, playwrights from Croatia on the stages of theaters in Poland, Spain, Argentina, and other countries in South America. What attitude and approach are we talking about?

ZT: We have very good relations with the translators. Together, we choose the play because they live in those countries, they know the theatre people there, and they have the opportunity to offer a translation of the play to the theatre. Also, they send the translations to competitions, and all of us – translator, playwright, and publisher have benefited from it.

IAB: From your perspective of many years of experience, what are the conditions and phenomena for the so-called golden age of dramatic creation, achievement, impact, and social impact?

ZT: I think that the phenomena of dramatic creation and theatre will always have all kinds of impact; because we are talking about the art that evokes empathy and nourishes our spiritual and intellectual personality. In my opinion, if the theatre has a firm topic, story, and emotion, the audience and actors will always create and react like in the Golden Age. I am not afraid for the future of the theatre.

Zeljka Turcinovic. Credit: Croatian ITI Center

IAB: In this hectic modern age of a lot of change and a lot of uncertainty, dirty wars, illusions of escapism and copycat syndromes coming with the tools of AI technology, what do you foresee for drama academies, theaters, for theatre makers at home? What are they transforming towards?

ZT: History teaches us that after the two world wars, there was a need to go to the theatre. People needed entertainment, relief, and spirituality. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, artists were the first to build bridges of cooperation. Escapism was the topic of many playwrights in Croatia after the war in the 90s, but the theatre was vivid and authentic. The theatre in Croatia was searching for new forms and dramatic styles of writing. The result was the Documentary theatre of Bobo Jelcic. The independent scene became, and is, very interesting and vital in my country. So, instead of a conclusion, wars and any kind of crisis can not stop the theatre illusions.

IAB: Thank you very much, dear Zeljka Turcinovic.

Zagreb/Skopje, 2025