Opinions & Interviews

MOGILEV, 21 March (BelTA) – The theater forum M@rt.contact has become a center of attraction for creative young people, Belarusian First Deputy Culture Minister Irina Driga said at a press conference dedicated to the opening of the festival on 21 March, BelTA has learned.

Irina Driga noted that Mogilev hosts the forum for the tenth time. The festival is designed, first of all, for young people and is famous for its innovative trends. “For theatrical art, being young is an indispensable professional quality. To be young means to be prone to risks and experiments, and to seek continuous self-development. It is during this period of life we do things that make people puzzled at first, then surprised and amazed and eventually these things become classics and set an example to follow,” she noted.

M@rt.contact is an avant-garde festival setting a good example for all Belarusian theaters. “Thanks to this forum, every year the Mogilev Regional Drama Theater and the Mogilev Regional Puppet Theater get nominated for the National Theater Award. The Mogilev Regional Drama Theater got the Best Director Award,” Irina Driga pointed out.

The international youth theater forum was founded in Mogilev ten years ago. Since then, it has become one of the most important and long-awaited events not only in Mogilev but in the whole theatrical space of Belarus. Over ten years, the festival has presented 122 productions by theater troupes from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Moldova, Armenia, Israel, the UK, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Bulgaria.

The forum was founded by the Mogilev Oblast Executive Committee, the main department for ideology, culture, and youth affairs of the Mogilev Oblast Executive Committee, and the Mogilev Regional Drama Theater.