History
In the beginning of the year 1986 Vitomira Loncar, Zvjezdana Ladika and
I, Ivica Simic,
had an idea to open are own theatre.
Today, when there are thousands of performed shows behind us,
dozens of rewards and recognitions, and when we are looking forward
to a 20 year anniversary of the official opening of the theatre, we
can freely say - we did it. The first independent show - "Pricalo i
Malena" ("Blumen der Phantasie" - "Storyman and Tina") was
performed in Munich in April of 1987 in German language. We worked
together with Zvjezdana Ladika on the show, and right after the
tour in Germany, Roman Suskovic Stipanovic also joined us. It was
the beginning of Mala Scena, which we registered as a theatre in
1988. In the same year we rented a space of local community on
Medvescak, adapted it and found are home. We officially opened the
theatre on December 6th 1989, and the first show - "Prava stvar"
("The Real Thing") by Tom Stoppard premiered on December 9th.
The first several years we had the privilege to work with a
distinguished professor, Vlado Habenek who gave us a special boost
with his direction of two shows: "Dvostruka nevjera" (Double
Infidelity) in 1990 and "Lettice & Lovage" in 1992. Mala Scena
has maintained three programs for many years: "Vecernja scena" (The
evening scene), "Djecja scena" (The Children's Scene) and "Dramski
studio" ("Drama studio"). But during the war, and especially after
1993 and my participation in a director's seminar in Esslingen,
Germany, where I had met the most significant artist in the world
of theatre for children and the young in Europe, Mala Scena turns
more attention to working for children and young people. Since
then, Mala Scena has developed a strong international activity,
which resulted in many performances abroad, but also in
organization of international meetings in Croatia such as "Days of
Dutch Theatre for Children and Young People 1996" and festival
"Mlijecni zub" (Milk tooth) from 1998 to 2004.
With time, we have formed a wide circle of friends abroad, which
is reflected in the theatre's repertoire. At this point I would
like to mention "Speeltheater Holland" - Saskia Janse, Onny Huisink
and Kootje Krüse gave the Mala Scena Theatre in a Bus.
Recently, we are very proud of our show for the youngest,
"Padobranci ili o umjetnosti padanja" (PARACHUTISTS
OR ON THE ART OF FALLING). Soon after the premiere on
festival Visioni di futuro, visioni di teatro in Bologna, March 7th
2006, the show became a world wide hit in theatres for the
youngest, and has been on a whole series of international festivals
and became an authentic Croatian cultural product. This show
strengthened the position of Mala Scena on the world's map of
theatre for children and young people significantly paved our
future direction. We have many plans for further development and we
hope that with the help of our faithful audience, which grows with
each passing season, will be able to accomplish them.
Ivica Simic
Artistic Director
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