Youth Theatre started with the implementation of the ‘Automatisms of Modern Human – Audience Activation’ project that consists of educational workshops intended for audience, preparation of a professional theatre play and discussions with audience after the play. The project is implemented under the patronage of the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation, as one of the projects financed within the ‘Audience in Focus’ open call.
This workshop, first of the series of workshops entitled ‘From Audience to Stage’, intended for citizens of Novi Sad 30 to 50 years of age, was held on 13 October. The following workshops will be held in the Youth Theatre every Saturday, until 1 December.
The idea of this project was created in order to change the habitual process of work of the theatre and to enable more active participation of already passive audience in programmes of Youth Theatre, as well as the space for dialogue and critical thinking. In most cases, when we talk about making the contemporary drama text for the stage, the topic and problems concerning the play are not introduced to the audience in advance, and the audience is ‘forced’ to meet it for the first time during the performance. This is where the relationship between theatre and audience mostly ends. The goal of the project is to examine how audience, when it is previously informed about the topic and creative process of the play, affect perception of the play, as well as to give audience the chance to express their attitude towards initiated topics and gain their own perception of the play. Having in mind that the main representatives of the ‘Seven Days’ drama by Tena Štivičić are people 30 to 50 years of age, workshops are intended for this age group in order to gain their perception of the play and characters, their experiences and attitude towards topics covered in the text.
The end results of the project are in accordance with the concept of the ‘Audience in Focus’ programme since the aim of the project is to inform audience about creative process of the theatre, as well as greater interest of audience in the repertoire of Youth Theatre.
