The Correspondence Theatre (Serbian: Дописно позориште / Dopisno pozorište) is a specific type of theatrical organization and play, established in Novi Sad (Serbia, then former Yugoslavia) in 1973. This idea was theoretically and practically implemented by Mladen Dražetin from Novi Sad. It was the original model for the spread of theatrical culture among the broad masses.
Theatrical performances were prepared in the cities and small places all over the former Yugoslavia, in accordance with the instructions that, through the Correspondence Theatre, were given to the organizers and protagonists via letters, telephone calls and faxes, sent from Novi Sad. Members of the Correspondence Theatre from Novi Sad, fully free of charge, gave advice and offered any other assistance to the new participants of theatrical life and newly established branches of the Correspondence Theatre, regardless of where were those who needed such assistance. The originality of the model of the Correspondence Theatre brought the attention of many theorists and organizers of theatrical life.
Establishment
The theater was established in 1973, but the authorities of the former Yugoslav state did not permitted its registration under the name "Correspondence Theatre". Thus, the theater worked unregistered for over a year. On March 3, 1974, the license was obtained and the society entered into the register under the name "KUD Drama Art Scene" ("КУД Позорница драмске уметности" / "KUD Pozornica dramske umetnosti"). The seat of the society was in Novi Sad. The Correspondence Theatre itself was a universal animation system that operated within the Drama Art Scene society.
Objectives
The main goal was to collect the image of the world through the democratic indications, based on individual interpretations, to enrich the performances with the variety of experiences, and to encourage the actors and active viewers to abandon the obstacles that bear loneliness and uncommunicativity in the world of conventions and urban impersonality. Theatre was also a system for combating against bureaucracy in culture.
Mladen Dražetin, the founder of the Correspondence Theatre has defined the following objectives and tasks of the theater: Initiation of the theory of cultural humanization of the world; Initiation of the universal animation system and the theory of universal organization; Cultural shaping of the personality and the environment and realization of elementary culture of every man, "that we all think for ourselves, to create the general progress and general human peace through the culture"; Further creation of a universal cultural power as an ideology, strategy and tactics.
Cast
Actors in the performances were amateurs who have just learned the basic elements of acting, but also renowned professionals, who wanted contact with a different model of work and play with the world of sincere theater admirers.
Theatres
Plays on the stage were directed at achieving the individual satisfaction of holders of roles during the direct communication with the audience. Within this model, the dramatic, humorous and ecological theaters were realized, as well as stage calls for peacekeeping and humanitarian actions. The puppet and live plays in children's institutions and hospitals were also performed. Each participant of the plays had the possibility to propose thematic area and then spontaneously, with writers and other actors, to build the content that necessarily has a humanist meaning.
Micro - theaters of the Correspondence Theatre included the Healthcare Theatre, the Theatre "Taste of Nature", the Roma Theater, the Theater of Peace, the Theater of Humor (the Tournament of Wittiness), the Humanitarian Theater, the Theater in Nature, the Theatre of Associated Labor, the Partisan Theater, the Children's Theater, the School Theater, the Christian Theater of Philokalia, the Literary Theater, etc.
Performances
The Correspondence Theatre also used texts from classical dramatic literature, but the characters were adapted to the participants in the play, some were left out or summarized. Before performances, the surveys among viewers were conducted in some areas, aiming to reveal their preferences and to choose the theme which was the expression of their life problems and dilemmas. As the spectators at the performances were also introduced into the play, the ramp of the classical theater has been shattered. Performances were given out in the villages, where residents for the first time met with the theater, as well as on the stages of professional theaters in the cities.