45 years of the Week of Slovenian drama

45 Years of the Week of Slovenian Drama

The Week of Slovenian Drama is the central festival for performances of Slovenian plays, organised annually by Prešeren Theatre Kranj with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Kranj. It encourages the staging of performances of national drama as well as its production, promotion and presentation abroad. To achieve that, the festival cooperates with Slovenian and international theatres and theatre institutes. Important contributions to the encouragement of creating Slovenian drama are annual playwriting workshops, mentored by renowned Slovenian and foreign playwrights, reading performances and presentations of the nominated plays and cooperation with the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television and the Faculty of Arts, both of the University of Ljubljana.

1971 – the first Week of Slovenian Drama in Kranj (the Week of Slovenian Drama was organised in Celje in 1955, 1963 and 1954)

1973 – the first participation of performances of Slovenian drama from theatres of the then-Yugoslavia at the festival

1979 – the first Slavko Grum Award for the best new Slovenian play and the first Grün–Filipič Award for the achievements in Slovenian dramaturgy

1999 – the first Grand Prix for the best performance awarded

1999 – the first translations of award-winning text prepared by the festival

2003 – the beginning of reading performances of the plays nominated for the Grum Award

2004 – the Grand Prix renamed after the recently deceased playwright Rudi Šeligo

2004 – the beginning of the annual playwriting workshops, future Grum Award winners are among the participants

2006 – the first Audience Award given

2007 – the Day of the Nominees offers an in-depth view of the new texts

2009 – the Week of Slovenian Drama and the Slovenian Centre ITI join forces to promote Slovenian drama abroad

2011 – the Week of Slovenian drama and its partner festivals prepare an initiative for a festival association for new drama

2012 – the first Young Playwright Award

2014 – the plays from similar festivals of national drama presented at the festival