At the 58th Maribor Theatre Festival, Janez Škof and Branko Šturbej, members of our resident ensemble, won the Borštnik Award for Acting:

– Janez Škof for his role in Francis, produced by the Ptuj City Theatre, and for the role of Robin in The Children, produced by the Slovenian National Theatre Drama Ljubljana.

– Branko Šturbej for his role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, produced by Mini Teater and the Ptuj City Theatre

The jury, composed of Matej Bogataj, Senka Bulić, Ajda Rooss, Johannes Nölting, and Peter Petkovšek, awarded the Borštnik Award for the rounded approach to the treatment of the material to the production of Wives in Dough, an original project based on Slovenian folk songs, directed by Živa Bizovičar.

Wives in Dough also received the award of the Association of Slovenian Theatre Critics and Researchers for the best production in 2022. As the jury stated, “Wives in Dough is principally a production driven by the brilliant collective chemistry of the four actresses (Nataša Keser, Ivana Percan Kodarin, Barbara Žefran, Zvezdana Mlakar) and the precision of the director (Živa Bizovičar). As representatives of their ancestral roots, the performers embody situations from folk traditions with a very contemporary spell, blending with them exuberantly, but at the same time constantly commenting on them from an analytical perspective. The actresses, as complex bearers of the individual seasons, shine in their individual – both acting and singing – expressions, which are constantly embedded in the community, and thus manage to create an exquisitely interconnected onstage universe. Not only is Wives in Dough an eloquent, witty and precisely articulated production that playfully and imaginatively invents a fresh performativity of folk origin; it is, above all, an event that voices the extraordinary potential of the intergenerational encounter of women creators, and the astonishing fluidity of the collective dynamic. Most importantly, it can be understood as an important performative gesture that both illuminates and empowers the idea of (women’s) overlooked historical perspectives as well as their acting potentials.”

Our heartiest congratulations to all the winners.