Written by: Ante Peričić Photos: Tomislav Marić
Snježana Abramović Milković has been one of the most prominent personalities of Croatian culture for a while now. Her decades-long career has been marked by dancing, choreography, production, and direction, while in recent years she has acted as director of the Zagreb Youth Theatre, one of our most important theatres. Ups and downs, sweet memories and bittersweet lessons – there are plenty different aspects to our interviewee’s career, all linked by a common denominator: the love for all things theatre.
Snježana Abramović Milković, who is also the founder and curator of the Dance and Non-Verbal Theatre Festival San Vincenti, is in the middle of her third term as head of the Zagreb Youth Theatre, and she told us what this theatre in Teslina Street has in store for the remainder of the season.
– We started off the season with the play Twelfth Night, or What You Will, based on the eponymous play by Shakespeare, directed by Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna and staged in co-production with the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. Jarzyna also wrote the text for the play together with Roman Pawlowski. After that, in December, the audience was treated to the premiere of the play for young people titled Euphoria, Ksenija Zec’s authorial venture. In addition to that, we are working on staging certain original works by Hungarian directors Arpad Schilling and Borut Šeparović, while Selma Spahić will direct Shadow Pandemic, our co-production project subsidised by Creative Europe, which we’ll put into action when the Borštnikovo srečanje Maribor Theatre Festival and the Belgrade Drama Theatre give Selma the green light to say “Action!”.
Since the beginning of September, we have made guest appearances in Prague, Skopje, and Belgrade, and we are planning to do more international tours… So that’s the news. We’ve got a lot of plans and projects to look forward to, and in addition, our current repertoire counts as many as fourteen excellent plays, ranging from Black Mother Earth, Eichmann in Jerusalem, I Am Who I’m Not, It’s Fine as Long as We Die in Due Order, all the way to The Brothers Karamazov, The Cherry Orchard, and My Husband – says Abramović Milković, adding that this season the Zagreb Youth Theatre decided to turn to original works and distinct directorial personalities and manuscripts:
– Original projects step out of the comfort zone of drama scripts, but it is this very risk that makes room for fresh authorial aesthetics. Giving a chance to authors and directors who deal directly with current social issues is part of our concept, which turns the theatre into a place for questioning and discussing our reality and current events, such as the growing gap between different groups in society, the debt bondage that restrains the majority of citizens, corruption, the pressing need for developing civic awareness, and learning to take responsibility for past traumas with which we’re dealing way too inefficiently – she says.
The Zagreb Youth Theatre has recently welcomed two new members to the ensemble, Toma Medvešek and Iva Kraljević, and the director perceives this reinvigoration of the ensemble as a perfectly natural process, emphasising how wonderful it is to see new and talented actors become part of the Zagreb Youth Theatre family.
– Every generation should be represented in the ensemble cast because the texts are not written exclusively for young people. It’ s wonderful to see motivated young people who bring new energy to the team, at the same time being very respectful to their older colleagues and receptive to their words of wisdom – she tells us.
We further inquire her to tell us what she thinks, generally speaking, about permanent ensembles and their future prospects.
– I doubt that the model of permanent ensembles will be abandoned, and that Croatian theatres will be organised according to the Italian and Spanish model, which also prevails in most French theatres, where casting calls are held for every single play. One thing’s for sure: each model has its pros and cons. I think that the bigger problem we’re facing is the mismatch between our education system and the actual demand for actors and actresses; there are far too many acting schools and colleges in comparison to the production capacity of institutions, as well as of the independent scene. My heart aches when I see actors with a degree scraping by as waiters…
Last October was one of the most difficult periods in the life of our interviewee so far. Despite the fact that her theatre was celebrating its 75th anniversary at the time, which should have been a joyous occasion, Snježana Abramović Milković had just lost her mother. How does one come to terms with such a devastating loss, and is it even possible to rejoice in professional achievements while one’s private life is falling apart?
– We all go through rough patches in our lives, and the most difficult are marked precisely by the departures of our loved ones. And, as much as we are aware of illness and old age that remind us of the transience of life, we have difficulty accepting it. Losing a loved one comes with reminiscing, pondering our attachment to other people, and dealing with our own mortality. My private life, quite naturally, holds a much stronger influence on my feelings because it’s intricately connected to my very existence, but it is the professional triumphs, such as successful plays, guest appearances, and co-productions, that help me feel fulfilled. Namely, the reason why I have worked in the performing arts for many years is precisely so that I can deal with my own emotional states, fears, loves, happy moments, and the meaning of life in the most beautiful way imaginable—through creation on stage.
Abramović Milković finished elementary school in Šibenik, after which she graduated from high school and then college in Zagreb. She associates her childhood days to the scent of Mediterranean herbs, long bike rides, and almond blossoms. She says she and her friends always played outside when it wasn’t cold, and then curled up with a good book during winter.
– I loved the Juraj Šižgorić City Library in Šibenik; whenever I borrowed a book, I couldn’t wait to get home, so I’d start reading it on the way to my house – boy, was I impatient. Comparing different times doesn’t do any good, even though all generations tend to do that, but I don’t want to fall into that trap. The best moment is the one we’re living in. I just hope we don’t completely bring the country we’re leaving to future generations to ruin, since we’re well on our way to making that happen – says this native of Šibenik, who constantly takes the Zagreb Youth Theatre’s ensembles on tours for the sake of participating in various festivals and making guest appearances, the latest of which took place in Skopje, where they staged The Brothers Karamazov at the MOT Theatre Festival, and in Belgrade, where they played Eichmann in Jerusalem at the Belgrade Drama Theatre.
– The Zagreb Youth Theatre made frequent guest appearances in neighbouring and other foreign theatres before, and during my term, we’ve toured in Slovenia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Lithuania, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Russia. It is equally wonderful and terrifying to entertain international festival audiences that are well-informed and up to speed on all that is going on in the world of theatre. Each audience has a different mindset, which is interesting to observe–the sense of humour is different, so spectators in different countries laugh at different parts of the play. Certain plays are better received at festivals than at home, and this is usually the case because festivals usually promote new trends – she explains.
Director of the Zagreb Youth Theatre can frequently be seen at opera and ballet productions, so we asked her what was the last piece that took her breath away.
– The last shows I’ve seen were the Rigoletto opera and the Hamlet ballet at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. I’m not a regular at theatres; I’d love to attend more shows, but I do try to go to as many as possible. I was delighted with Ljubomir Puškarić in the role of Rigoletto – he truly did it justice. But I mostly go to drama productions as well as contemporary dance performances. I would also recommend Gran Bolero by Jesús Rubia Gamo, as performed by the Zagreb Dance Company, and En Knap from Ljubljana. The play pulls the spectator into a sort of hypnotic ritual – says Snježana Abramović Milković, adding that she really likes open-air theatres: even though they are technically more demanding, they add extra magic to the performances, especially in historical architectural settings such as the Renaissance square, the castle, and the lodge in Svetvinčenat in Istria, which become the stage of the Dance and Non-Verbal Theatre Festival San Vincenti every summer.
She says there are many theatres with which she would like to collaborate, but her fondest memories are attached to the theatres where the audience responded enthusiastically to a performance because the space, no matter how attractive it is, has nothing to show for its beauty without a satisfied audience.
She experienced the most challenging moment as head of the Zagreb Youth Theatre when the City of Zagreb decided to hand over the premises of the Zagreb Dance Centre (ZPC) in Ilica to the Zagreb Youth Theatre.
– It took them a while to find an adequate public institution to “join forces” with ZPC. I think the reason why they decided on the Zagreb Youth Theatre is that contemporary dance has been widely represented in our theatre for over two decades. I didn’t agree with that decision at the time, and I still think that ZPC should be a separate establishment dedicated to dancing. In addition, ZPC’s stage is not big enough for larger ensemble performances, so it would be fantastic if Croatia finally founded a national dance centre, considering the long-standing tradition of contemporary dance in our country. I handled this situation by ensuring the most favourable working conditions possible for the ZPC section, at least as much as our organisational and financial capacities allowed me. I hope that ZPC will go its separate way in the near future, but that depends on the city’s cultural policy – she says.
On the other hand, she has nothing but good things to say about the theatre, and her most memorable experiences include meeting with extremely talented directors and choreographers, as well as staging and watching magnificent productions. Over the course of her decades-long career in theatre, she found herself in many bizarre and dangerous situations, but the one that takes centre stage occurred in February 1992, in the midst of the Homeland War, when she participated in the first wartime premiere in the ruins of the since-restored Croatian National Theatre in Osijek.
– Sanja Ivić directed Beckett’s Footfalls, and Ksenija Zec was in charge of staging. During the performance, the bombing started; the grenades kept hitting closer and closer, but none of us – and the entire cast and crew were women – left the scene; we simply didn’t want to break character by showing a lack of character. That’s called a theatre drill! Then the former intendant Zvonimir Ivković came on stage and officially called off the show – she recalls.
She claims that dancing still holds a tremendous influence on her: it left a mark on her discipline, but also on her concept of artistic freedom and emotional expression itself.
– Dancers have more rehearsals than performances in their career, so they are in the hall every day, whether they have a show or not. On the one hand, this is how they acquire discipline; on the other, it is how they develop a certain resistance to form and conventions. I’m interested in new approaches and taking artistic risks; by exploring new, original manuscripts, I developed a preference for author’s theatre and crossover genres – head of Zagreb Youth Theatre admits to us. To that we add the obscure traffic of time and the short span of dancers’ careers, which they are acutely aware of. Snježana Abramović Milković says that it is something inevitable that we must make peace with. So there is not much room or need for regrets…
– I do what I love, and I’m constantly coming up with projects and initiating numerous collaborations. I’m especially proud of the international ones. I try not to think about time too much: I focus on the projects ahead and that’s what keeps me going. My only regret is that we are not a sentimental society when it comes to the performing arts. We are letting many iconic plays, as well as great directors and choreographers, fall into oblivion just because we don’t have a multimedia library where one can watch plays from ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. It’s such a shame because keeping records would provide the new generations with an insight into the most diverse styles of work.
As for literary works, she swears by Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, and she lets us in on a secret: her unfulfilled dream is to have her own theatre with her own troupe and not depend on public funding.
– I’ve always been in awe of the troupes that spend six months at a time on world tours – that’s something I’ve always wanted to experience.
To conclude our interview, we ask her what she would ask regular visitors to the Zagreb Youth Theatre if she were a journalist:
– Does the Zagreb Youth Theatre surprise you with each new play and is every visit to the Theatre a refreshing, special experience? – she gives us her answer-question with a smile on her face.
And if you ask us, we believe that anyone who has set foot in the Zagreb Youth Theatre at least once would wholeheartedly and without doubt give an unequivocal, affirmative answer to that question…
