Assembly members of the city of Vršac at the session on April 28, they dismissed acting director Ivan Đorđević, but did not appoint a new one. Due to their forgetfulness/oversight, the National Theater "Sterija" is now blocked.
Ivan Đorđević is an actor at the Vršac Theater with 30 years of experience. During that time, he was appointed acting director three times, employees say - whenever there was a crisis.
Councilors have now not explained why they are replacing him, nor why they did not vote on the competition for the director where he was the only candidate, although they should have.
What happened to the competition?
"In the dismissal decision, it says that my mandate has expired, so I assume that is their explanation, but I can't guess why they ignored the competition, unless they didn't mind the candidate," says Ivan Đorđević for "Vreme".
The story goes that he was the acting director for three years, that before the end of the first year, which is the legally allowed duration of the acting status, he warned the authorities in the city that it was time to announce a competition for the director of the theater, but he was told to continue working.
"In September of last year, the provincial inspection came to us for regular supervision, and asked to announce a competition for a director. Our Board of Directors did it immediately. Apart from me, no one responded, the Board of Directors of the theater and the National Council of Romanians, we also have a stage in Romanian, they gave a positive opinion, and since the end of last year we have been waiting for the decision of the Assembly. At the meeting in March, the competition was not on the agenda, and a few days before the latest meeting on April 28, I was told that I would be appointed." says Ivan Đorđević.
Insufficient political engagement
The playwright of this theater, Bojana Ivanov Đorđević, tells "Vreme" that on April 27 and 28, on the day of the Assembly session, the theater was on a visit to Aleksinac, and that "after a conversation with the mayor, they were told that councilors have the right to their opinion."
Photo: PromoFrom the play "Don Juan"
The dismissal of the director "is not the result of a professional evaluation of the work, but a political decision", he believes.
Ivan Đorđević does not deny it. "We were not in a blockade, nor were we on strike. Simply, the employees said so and that's how it was. So, according to SNS criteria, everything is fine with the theater. However, I was not fine. On one occasion, I was invited to the City Assembly where a member of the Council told me that I was not politically engaged enough, that I did not appear at SNS rallies, nor did I agitate enough for them. I explained that I do not appear at anyone's rallies, including SNS's because I do theater and not politics, and I refused to change my attitude."
He was also criticized for hosting Danica Crnogorčević scheduled for May 23. "I didn't know that she supported the students, and even if I had known, I wouldn't have had anything against bringing such an artist to Vršac and for Vršac to hear spiritual songs from her repertoire. After all, this kind of hosting is one of the ways of our financing, on a percentage basis, which is a common and legal practice of all theaters," says Ivan Đorđević.
Big successes of a small theater
He recalls that last year they performed eight shows and "didn't have money for any of them. We achieved everything with the goodwill and love of 27 employees, and the guests who came for meager fees."
Photo: PromoFrom the play "The Abandoned Proposal"
Also, during the three years of his last mandate, a small Kibic fenster stage near Seria was opened, then the Reading Room near Steria where Vaska Pope's Corner is intended for literary evenings and concerts, the theater and its performances were also awarded, they were at many festivals, in just two months of 2024 they participated in 10 festivals with 6 performances. Since three years ago, they have had a Children's Youth Stage founded by Bojana Ivanov Đorđević.
"These are great successes of a small theater," says Ivan Đorđević and reproaches the councilors for forgetting to mention them when replacing him. "Thus, they denied the great successes of the theater, and therefore of Vršac."
By the way, all this is happening in the year in which the 220th anniversary of the birth of Jovan Steria Popović - a symbol of Serbian dramatic literature and cultural identity - is being celebrated.
Part of a wider pattern
Bojana Ivanov Đorđević says that the employees of the Vršac Theater protested in front of their building before the May Day holidays because of this SNS blockade, and explains:
"There wasn't an iota of politics in it. We don't have an administration, which means we can't work. That's why we protested. Preparations are underway for the play we will perform this July in Greece, in Corinth, on the occasion of Steria's jubilee. We cannot continue working because there is no one to sign the necessary documents. Well, such things happen in our small, seemingly peaceful town."
He also adds that "the latest events in Vršac do not seem like an isolated case, but part of a wider pattern of changes in cultural institutions. And if this practice continues, the question is not only who will lead the theater, but whether it will be able to maintain its artistic integrity and the trust of the audience."
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