WHITE, WHITE WORLD

Milena Markovic

Production: BELEF and "Dusko Radovic" theatre
Direction: Rahim Burhan

Milena Markovic was born on 9 April 1974 in Zemun. She attended elementary and secondary schools in Belgrade and graduated from the Faculty of Drama, Department for Direction with the play Pavilions, or where do I go, where do I come from and what is for dinner in June 1998 in Belgrade. She received a special award for the play Pavilions in December 2001 in the Vienna Theater M.b.H. The play had a premiere in April 2001 in the Yugoslav Theatre of Drama, directed by Alisa Stojanovic. The play was staged in Skopje, Macedonia in June the same year, by Srdjan Janicijevic. In June next year, Jaka Ivanc graduates with the Pavilions in the Ljubljana Drama theatre. The play was staged in Vienna Theater M.b. H. in October 2002 by Zijah Sokolovic.

Her collection of poems The Dog who Ate the Sun was published by Flavio Rigonat in April 2001 in Belgrade. The collection had three editions.

With her play The God has Looked at Us, Railway Tracks M. Markovic participated at the summer performances of the Royal Court Theatre in London in July-August 2002. The Railway Tracks had the premiere in Belgrade in November 2002 in the Yugoslav Theatre of Drama, the play was directed by Slobodan Unkovski.

In May 2003 the play was staged in the Polish city of Poznan in a direction by Rafal Sabara. In November 2002 the play was publicly read together with the collection of poems in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. The Swedish edition of the collection of poems is expected soon.

She is currently preparing another collection of poems entitled The Truth is in the Heath. M. Markovic is the mother of a eight year old boy named Ognjen.

Rahim Burhan is a founder of the Roma Theatre Pralipe in Skopje, Macedonia in 1970. The first play No, no was an immediate success in 1971 and was awarded by the city of Skopje and the Republic of Macedonia awards. The first tour of the ensemble was the one in Milheim in Germany in 1986. The theatre moves to Milheim in 1991 and starts working as a part of the Theatre on The Ruhr. From there the ensemble starts a tour to twenty three European countries visiting more than a hundred cities. Since 2000 the Theatre becomes independent performing under the name of European Roma Theatre Pralipe based in Duseldorf. The Roma Theatre of Rahim Burhan received many credits and prominent awards (The Association of German Critics award 1992, the best adaptation award at the 12 NRW theatre festival 1993, the Llorca Award in Grenada 1998 and many others). The awards received and his political standpoint inspired Rahim Burhan make a decision to perform his plays in Roma language with an aim to preserve the language and the culture of Roma people and help support their self-esteem and help integrate this culture in new Europe. Still, Burhan does not only address Roma, but all people who like theatre and who are open to specific Burhan Pralipe Theatre aesthetics. Burhan is currently preparing the new project entitled Theatre Europa, the Stage of European Culture.

A note from the dramatist

I do not believe in assigned tasks and I am terrified of professionalism. I am not saying I consider this to be one of my virtues. In fact, whenever I received a call or invitation with an already prepared idea for me to do something about it, I either refuse it or accept it, soon realizing I could not make it. The invitation by Anja Susa to do something based on motives coming from Roma fairy tales, a play that would be directed by Rahim Burhan was something I took immediately.

Firstly, because of my faith in Anja Susa for being the one who is going to seriously change the situation in our theatres, therefore I would be working with her anyhow. Secondly, I heard of Rahim Burhan and I find his approach to theatre very interesting.

Then the fairy tales. This is the third fairy tale I wrote. The first was entitled Mladen and Stojsa, or how good hearted people beat the evil. The second was Vassilisa and the fire dragon. The first one was written according to the morphology of Serbian and Russian fairy tales. The second one represents the journey through my experiences and symbolism. The third one, The Wide/White World I wouldn't know. I chose the story The Poor Man and His Daughter for the frame of my play. By its theme, the story could be regarded as the type about the wise girl. I was not happy with just one story so I took motives from the story The Friendship. There appears a motive of the wide white world where the hero should go to when he completes various heroic deeds. My story is about a boredom and love. About people from different environments. About the freedom symbolized by a wheel, the Roma symbol. About the happiness and troubles that the freedom brings. And about the fact that the people can overcome it all. How - you will see for yourself, or maybe not. I was having a good time while following the tracks of those wheels.

Milena Markovic

About the play

The main idea of this project was to adapt for stage a collection of Roma fairy tales entitled God, Turn Me into an Ant collected in Kosovo and Metohija. This is the first such project in an institutionalized theatre. It appeals not only to parents but first and foremost to the children who in future should become citizens, members of modern, democratic system of values. Activities of this kind in the past were carried out by various non-governmental organizations and informal theatrical troupes, significantly influencing the poor and simple cultural model of Milosevic's Serbia. However, their effects were limited. Placing the project in a serious institution/theatre for children, with a long tradition and credibility will raise the attention of the cultural public and ensure the longer life of the play thus enlarging the circle of people to see the play.