Atelje 212 ( sr-Cyrl, Атеље 212) is a theatre located in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, Serbia.
Established in 1956 on the premises of the ''
Borba'' building in front of 212 chairs, its opening play was the staging of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
's ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
'' directed by
Mira Trailović
Mira Trailović (Serbian language, Serbian Cyrillic: Мира Траиловић; née Milićević; 22 January 1924 – 7 August 1989) was a Serbian dramaturg and one of the most distinguished theatre directors in the history of Serbian and Yugosl ...
.
History
Although the theater's official inauguration took place on 12 November 1956,
various plays had already been staged throughout 1956 by the same group of individuals. The most notable such staging was the summer 1956 semi-clandestine performance of
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
's ''
Waiting for Godot''—a play that had been banned in all Communist countries—in front of some forty people on a ramshackle makeshift stage in painter
Mića Popović
Miodrag "Mića" Popović (23 June 1923 – 23 December 1996) was a Serbian painter, experimental filmmaker and one of the major figures of the Yugoslav Black Wave.
Life and work
Mića Popović was born on 12 June 1923 in Loznica. He finished g ...
's private
atelier
An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...
.
Crveno i crno
/ref> The concealed performance came on the heels of a planned ''Godot'' staging in the Belgrade Drama Theatre
The Belgrade Drama Theatre ( sr-cyr, Београдско драмско позориште; abbr. BDP) is a theatre located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
History
Belgrade Drama Theatre was founded in August 1947, and it was the first cit ...
(BDP)—being prepared by theater director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
Vasilije Popović with Ljuba Tadić
Ljubomir "Ljuba" Tadić ( sr-cyr, Љубомир Љуба Тадић; 31 May 1929 – 28 October 2005) was a Yugoslav actor who enjoyed a reputation as one of the greatest names in the history of former Yugoslav cinema.
Biography
He made his scr ...
, Rade Marković
Radomir "Rade" Marković ( sr-cyr, Радомир Раде Марковић; 14 October 1921 – 10 September 2010) was a Serbian actor. He performed in more than ninety films. He was married to actress Olivera Marković from 1945 until they div ...
, Bata Paskaljević
Mihajlo "Bata" Paskaljević ( sr-cyr, Михајло "Бата" Паскаљевић; 14 January 1923 – 26 January 2004) was a Serbian stage, film, and television actor, permanent member of the Belgrade Drama Theatre since 1950.[ ...]
, Mića Tomić, and among the cast—getting banned one year earlier. After this makeshift performance, the troupe grew into a theater that got its home in the ''Borba'' building later that year. On 17 December 1956, ''Godot'' had a proper premiere at the new location, which was its first performance that was open to the general public in post-World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
.
Right from its inception Atelje 212 became known for its avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
repertoire, staging playwrights such as Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
, Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...
, Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
, Murray Schisgal
Murray Joseph Schisgal (November 25, 1926 – October 1, 2020) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
Life and career
Schisgal was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He was the son of Jewish immigrants, Irene (Sperling), a bank clerk, and Ab ...
, Arthur Kopit
Arthur Lee Kopit (' Koenig; May 10, 1937 – April 2, 2021) was an American playwright. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for '' Indians'' and ''Wings''. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Play for ''Indians'' (1970) an ...
, Jean Genet
Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...
, etc.theater manager
A theater manager, also called a general manager, managing director, or intendant (UK English and German), is the administrator of a theater. They often also have the responsibilities of an artistic director but in any case oversee all administra ...
s were and Bojan Stupica
Miroslava "Mira" Stupica ( sr-cyr, Мирослава Мира Ступица; née Todorović; 17 August 1923 – 19 August 2016) was a Serbian actress best known for her work in the theater, but also had extensive career on television and in fi ...
. Initially, Mira Trailović performed the assistant manager duties before assuming the manager role herself.€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
1 million.
See also
* List of theatres in Serbia
This is a list of professional and semi-professional theaters on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.
List
See also
* Serbian culture
External links
Atlas of Serbian Theatre
{{Europe in topic, List of theatres in , countries_only=yes ...
References
External links
*
Atelje 212
at beograd.rs
{{Authority control
1956 establishments in Yugoslavia
Theatres in Belgrade
Culture in Belgrade
Stari Grad, Belgrade