The Croatian Centre of ITI was founded in 1994. as a non-profit, professional and volunteer organisation (citizens’ association). At the Constitutive Assembly of the Centre, Sanja Nikčević was elected its first president. Within a few years of its being active, the Croatian Centre of ITI grew from a small association of theatre enthusiasts into an organiser of numerous theatre actions and manifestations as well as a respectable publisher of theatrological publications and books. The main task of the numerous programmes of the Croatian Centre of ITI is building the bond between Croatian theatre and the world as well as its presentation abroad. At present, the Croatian Centre of ITI has over one hundred and fifty members who are eligible to carry an international I.D. card, which enables them to have various benefits in theatres worldwide. The Centre publishes the bulletin Croatian Drama and Theatre in Croatian and English; the bulletin contains information on the Centre’s activities as well as a number of useful data on Croatian drama and theatre. Thanks to the work of the Croatian Centre of ITI, a great deal of information on Croatian theatre, the dramatic and theatre tradition of these parts as well as on reputable Croatian dramatic artists has found its place in world theatre publications.

Since 2001. on, Željka Turčinović has been leading the Croatian Centre of ITI as its President, while the members of the Managing Board are Damir Mađarić, Radovan Marčić, Zoran Mužić, Gordana Ostović, Ozren Prohić, Srečko Šestan and Dubravka Vrgoč. The members of Supervisory Board are Hrvoje Ivanković, Davorka Juravić, Nina Kleflin, Želimir Mesarić and Urša Raukar Gamulin, while Dubravka Čukman acts as Administrative Assistant in the Centre’s office and Tajana Gašparović as expert collaborator. According to current Centre regulations, the Managing and the Supervisory Board meet three to five times a year. The Annual Assembly is held in the month of January.

THE CENTRE’S OFFICE
In October 2003, after several years of working in a limited space in Novi Zagreb, the Croatian Centre of ITI moved into the new and prestigious spaces of Villa Arko in Basaričekova Street 24, in the centre of Zagreb. The Croatian Centre of ITI shares its space in Villa Arko with the Croatian PEN Centre and the Croatian Writers’ Association. The move to Basaričekova Street has undoubtedly had a stimulating effect on the enhancement of programme activities and on the more frequent socialising of the Centre’s members, but also on the encounters with colleagues from abroad.
Villa Arko was constructed in 1938 based on a project by architect Alfred Albini (son of famous composer and author of several operettas and ballets, Srećko Albini). The investor was the well known Zagreb industrialist, economist and chemist Vladimir Arko. As a Modernist edifice steeped in tradition, Villa Arko is considered one of the most successfull incorporations of newer buildings in the ambience of the Upper Town. From 1772 until its tearing down in 1938, a non-descript one-storey house stood on the site of this edifice. In the last decades of the 19th century, the old house had hosted one of the most popular “purger” (the colloquial name for old Zagrebians) inns, “Matejna”, named after its owner, Mijo Matejna. Back then, “Matejna” was the gathering place of Zagreb bohemians and clerks from the Upper Town’s offices, whereas in the 18th century German theatre troupes occasionally showed their performances in it.

ACTIVITIES OF ITI
The main goal of the regular activities of the Croatian Centre of ITI is to inform its members on events organised by other ITI centres in Europe and worldwide as well as on the programmes of studies and seminars related to theatre work in the broadest sense. Distributing information and making connections with information networks is therefore our principal task.
The Centre has a very rich database (around 800 addresses of local and international theatre profesionals) through which it maintains regular contacts with over two hundred theatre people by sending bulletins, translations of theatre plays and miscellaneous information on Croatian theatre and drama. The Croatian Centre of ITI also has its regularly updated Web site (http://www.hciti.hr).

THE HC ITI DANCE BOARD
Founded in June 2000, the Dance Board of the Croatian Centre of ITI has grown into one of the rare solid strongholds of the Croatian dance scene. It represents firstly the place the logistic support to dance groups and projects as well as being the source of information and a way of joining the international network on the level of the ITI Dance Boards. Thus tourings of our groups were successfully realised in Mexico, Peru and Cyprus. Thanks to the Dance Board, the celebration of Dance Day on April 29 has become a true holiday in the Croatian dance calendar. What we consider the most valuable result of the work of our Dance Board is the launching of the magazine for Dance Art Kretanja (Movements, 2002), published twice a year, as well as the publishing of the Guide to Croatian Dance. The guide was published in English only and it is valid everywhere where there is an interest and need for information as it contains all the addresses, contacts and repertoires of the current Croatian dance scene.

DAYS OF HUNGARIAN DRAMA AND THEATRE

Zagreb, February-March, 2004

Days of Hungarian Drama and Theatre are the continuation of the programme of presentations of foreign plays and their authors as well as of theatre professionals of a guest-country in Zagreb. To date, during the five years of the existence of this programme, we have realised the Days of Scottish, Welsh, Austrian and Italian Drama and Theatre.

30th ITI WORLD CONGRESS

May 28 - June 4, 2004, Tampico, Mexico

The Croatian delegation at the Congress was led by President of the Croatian ITI Željka Turčinović; the delegation included Želimir Mesarić (Theatre Education and Training Committee), Jasen Boko (International Playwrights’ Forum), Vitomira Lončar (New Project Group), Lary Zappia (Dramatic Theatre Committee) and Gordana Ostović (Committee of Cultural Identity and Development).

In addition, Croatia has drew considerable attention with its books and publications (Different Voices, Eight Contemporary Croatian Plays; Croatian Drama and Theatre, Guide to Croatian Dance among others).

Željka Turčinović was elected Member of the Executive Board of the World ITI (EXCOM). Besides the working part of the Congress, Croatia took part in two projects that were the integral part of the Congress programme.

Dance Project Chances and Challenges

The young and talented dancer OGNJEN VUČINIĆ (1982) was among the performers. The project was part of the closing ceremony of the Congress.

The Promotion of Croatian Playwrights

A public reading of Elvis Bošnjak’s play Carried by the River in Spanish, directed by Nenni Delmestre.

INTERNATIONAL DRAMA COLONY - From Text to Performance

Motovun, the first week of July

The Drama Colony is one of a series of attractive and useful programmes of the Croatian Centre of ITIUNESCO. It was launched in 1999 and is designed for Croatian as well as foreign playwrights with the aim to verify the stage qualities of their plays in the form of public readings based on the model practiced in the American O’Neil Center in Hartford, CT. The Croatian side presents young and non-established playwrights, giving them a chance to work on the staging of their text with professional actors and directors, while foreign guests of the Colony present their recent dramatic literature through a selected dramatic text. Public readings have site-specific traits as the stagings take place in the picturesque outdoor locations of the medieval Istrian town of Motovun. “The performances” are staged without set and costume design, the actors holding the texts in their hands.

The basis of collaboration of Croatia and the foreign countries in the Colony is reciprocity; thus our contemporary playwrights and their plays have been presented in the USA, the Czech Republic, India, Mexico, Greece and Chile - the countries from which the representatives took part in the Colony’s work.

Our foreign guests in the Colony have been USA, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Mexico, Finland, Greece, India and Israel. The achieved interaction between local and international playwrights and directors in the Colony builds bridges of theatre collaboration; on the other hand, the work-in-progress principle of work on the text enables the young writers to acquire the experience of the metamorphosis of a literary text being transformed into a theatre piece.

Participants in 2004
Croatia
Lana Šarić: The Dolphin, the Crab and the Swallow
Greece
Hrisa Spilioti: Who discovered America?
India
Rajeev Naik: What Are We To Do With Sathe?

Participants in 2005
Croatia
Maja Sviben: Source Point
Israel
Anat Gov: Best Friends

PROMOTION OF CROATIAN DRAMATISTS IN THE WORLD

The programme for the promotion of Croatian dramatists is the Centre’s international programme whose purpose is the promotion of new dramatic texts and authors but also of the stage culture in general. This is a two-way cultural exchange that, on the one hand, functions as the promotion of new high-quality Croatian plays that could be of interest to theatres in the partnercountry and result in a staging; on the other hand, this is an opportunity to acquaint Croatian theatre professionals with dramatic pieces by foreign authors. This project is realised each year with a selected country or countries. In 2004, these were India (Filip Šovagović’s play Bricky in Marathi) and Mexico (Elvis Boπnjak’s play Carried by the River in Spanish).

In 2005. these were Greece (Miro Gavran’s play The Patient of Mister Freud in Greek) and Chile (the presentation of Croatian dramatist, actor and director Filip Šovagović at the 5th Festival of European Drama through the public reading of the play Bricky).

CROATIAN SHOWCASE, Zagreb
October 20-25, 2005

First presentation of the best performances in the last seasons that are still on the repertoire of Croatian theatres. The selection of performances was made by HC-ITI President, dramaturge Željka Turčinović, whereas the showcase was partly connected to Gavella’s Evenings - the review of the best Croatian productions of the previous season. The participants of the showcase were the selectors of international festivals, as well as theatre critics, directors, translators, theatre managers and producers. The majority of performances was followed by encounters with the creative teams and the actors through which the showcase participants could find out more about the production, the organisation and the functioning of Croatian theatres.

HRVATSKA DRAMA I KAZALIŠTE / CROATIAN DRAMA AND THEATRE,
Editor: HRVOJE IVANKOVIĆ
(The bulletin Croatian Drama and Theatre represents one of the fundamental publications of the Croatian Centre of ITI-UNESCO.

KAZALIŠTE
(THEATRE)
Magazine for Theatre Art
Editor: ŽELJKA TURČINOVIĆ

KRETANJA
(MOVEMENTS)
Magazine for Dance Art
Editor: IVA NERINA SIBILA

GUIDE TO CROATIAN DANCE
Editor: IVA NERINA SIBILA

THE MANSIONI SERIES

In the twelve years of its existence, with the ample scope of interests connected to theatrological studies, dramatic texts, theatre travelogues, essays and biographical writings, the series “Mansioni” has defined and established itself as one of the most important Croatian theatrological editions. The issues in this series feature both domestic and foreign authors; besides books in Croatian, translations of plays by Croatian dramatists are being published in foreign languages, with the aim of promoting Croatian drama abroad.

PUBLISHED (1994-2005)

THEATROLOGY

Marvin Carlson: Theories of the Theatre 1, 1996.
Boris Senker: Croatian Dramatists in their Theatre, 1996.
Nikola Đuretić: Theatre Travelogues and Milestones, 1996.
Marvin Carlson: Theories of the Theatre 2, 1997.
Marvin Carlson: Theories of the Theatre 3, 1997.
Manfred Pfister: Drama, 1998.
Đurđa Škavić: The Glossary of Croatian Theatre, 1999.
Antonin Artaud: The Theatre and its Double, 2000.
Vinko Grubišić: Artaud, 2000.
Acija Alfirević: The Australian New Wave, 2000.
Sibila Petlevski: Symptoms of Dramatic Postmodernity, 2000.
Peter Szondi: The Theory of Modern Drama 1880-1950, 2001.
Antonija Bogner-Šaban: The Return to No-Return, 2001.
Adriana Car-Mihec: The Diary of Three Genres, 2003.
Sanja Nikčević: Affirmative American Drama or Long Live the Puritans, 2003.
Peter Brook: Threads of Time, 2003.
Ivić Sanja: STURGEONS OF SECOND-RATE FRESHNESS PLAYS, 2004.
Chekhov Mikhail: TO THE ACTOR - ON THE TECHNIQUE OF ACTING, 2004.
Hečimović Branko: IN THEATRE’S EMBRACE, 2004.
Muzaferija Gordana: THE THEATRE PLAYS OF MIRO GAVRAN, 2005.
Roach R. Joseph: THE PLAYERS’ PASSION - STUDIES IN THE SCIENCE OF ACTING, 2005.

PLAYS

Author group GONG: Repeated Prophecy of Cracks, 1994.
Miro Gavran: Droll Pieces, 1996.
Davor Špišić: Foreplays, 1996.
Borislav Vujčić: White Tragedies, 1997.
Davor Špiπić: Paradise With No Closing Time, 2001.
Ivan Vidić: Plays, 2002.

ANTHOLOGIES

Irena Lukšić: The Anthology of Russian Dissident Drama, 1998.
Ian Brown: The Anthology of Contemporary Scottish Drama, 1999.
Borislav Pavlovski: The Anthology of New Macedonian Drama, 2000.
Sead Muhamedagić: The Anthology of New Austrian Drama, 2002.
Contemporary Italian Drama - selected authors (edited by Mario Mattia Giorgetti), 2003.
Franciska Ćurković-Major: NEW HUNGARIAN DRAMA, 2005.

TRANSLATIONS OF CROATIAN DRAMA

Tomislav Bakarić: La muerte de Stjepan Radić (The Death of Stjepan Radić - Spanish), 1998
Maja Gregl: The Loves of Alma Mahler/Die Lieben der Alma Mahler (Croatian/German), 1999
Mislav Brumec: Smrt Ligeje/Death of Ligeia (Croatian/English), 2000
Tomislav Durbešić: Drames Choisis (Selected Plays - French), 2002
Different Voices - Eight Contemporary Croatian Plays (English, selected by Boris Senker), 2003.

DANCE COMMITTEE
Željka Turčinović

DRAMATIC THEATRE COMMITTEE
Lary Zappia

THEATRE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Želimir Mesarić

NEW THEATRE PROJECT GROUP
Vitomira Lončar

PLAYWRIGHTS COMMITTEE
Jasen Boko

YOUNG PRACTITIONERS COMMITTEE
Tajana Gašparović