Invitation to the Panell Discusion

Shadow Pandemic: Hidden Voices

At the end of October, the Maribor Theatre Festival in cooperation with the Zagreb Youth Theatre and the Belgrade Drama Theatre announced an open call for the selection of three new plays as part of the international project Shadow Pandemic: Hidden Voices. It is aimed at female playwrights and addresses the problem of (increased) violence against women in the context of the closure of public life due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

As part of the open call for the selection of drama texts, we kindly invite you to the panel discussion, which will take place on Wednesday, 14 December at 12 noon in the Kazinska Hall of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor.

Participants:

• Ivana Vuković, dramaturge of the project
• Jerneja Turin, consultant-analyst at the Centre for Human Rights
• Marinka Dobrajc, representative of the Centre for Social Work Maribor

Theatres play an important role in society, and this project aims to raise awareness of this issue among the general public as well as young people. Through theatre workshops, we give young people the opportunity to learn about the process of creating a theatre performance. We give opportunities to female playwrights and theatre artists, as they are still in an unequal position in the theatre professions. The two-year project will culminate in a theatrical performance of the selected plays in an open competition, under the direction of theatre director Selma Spahić. Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme with financial support from the European Commission.

Open Call Details:

• The deadline for submission of plays is 18 January 2023 at 24.00. Texts sent after this deadline will not be considered.
• The drama script can only be submitted by women authors with a residence address in the EU member states and countries included in the Creative Europe Programme (Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Tunisia, Armenia, and Kosovo*).

*In accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and without prejudicing the status or the opinion of ICJ about Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

• Each author can submit only one original play. The submitted text must not have been published or performed in any form. Texts in Croatian, Serbian or Slovenian must be sent in Word or PDF format to the following e-mail address: shadow.pandemic@zekaem.hr.
• Interested female authors can ask questions about the competition by email: shadow.pandemic@zekaem.hr no later than 11 p.m. on 5 December 2022. The answers will be published on the project website www.shadowpandemic.eu no later than 15 December 2022 at 11 p. m.
• Each of the selected scripts will be awarded Euro 4,400.00 gross (including all taxes and withholdings).
• The selected texts will be translated into English, published in an online format and an omnibus play/performance, based on the award-winning texts as an integral part of the production, will be directed by Selma Spahić. The play will be performed in Zagreb, Belgrade and Maribor.