Radovan Matijek ((Photographer: Peter Thielen)

“In the process of developing a sculptural construction, it inevitably arises my subconscious autobiographical dualism between dynamic dance movement and that one halted in one sculptural statics” said Radovan Matijek, talking about his sculpture Clamor Lugubris in a interview we had in December 2020.

An unbelievable life energy, power and courage radiate from the whole work of Radovan Matijek. During his studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in Croatia, he danced in an ensemble for contemporary dance, presented performances and exhibited in solo and group art exhibitions. Later he has expanded his artistic expression to acting, film production, scenography and choreography and he has specialized butoh dance. He was born in Split (Croatia), where he still has one of his studios and where he gets new ideas for his work. The other two studios he has in Germany, where he lives after spending some time working and studying among Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Paris.

His work indicates a high creative potential, which he by the power of his talent and broad knowledge directs towards the creation of impressive work. The uniqueness, aesthetics and expression of his work attract viewers attention, leading them to think and reflect.
It was a great pleasure and enrichment to talk to the artist Radovan Matijek whose new projects are awaited with great curiosity.

Jasna Lovrincevic: “In the autumn 2020 you exhibited a sculpture called Clamor Lugubris at Kreislauf 2 exhibition in Kranenburg and an installation at Katharinenhof Museum. At the same time, the play Kaltes Herz (The Colden Heart) for which you have created puppets and objects was shown at Hof Theater on the other side of Germany and you worked with Sabine Seume as a stage assistant for her dance performance Infinity at Atelier for Performing Art in Düsseldorf.

Through these three different simultaneous artistic events, it has been presented your artistic personality focused on different forms of art expression.

How do you feel about a situation like this where you are presented by different art forms
at three different distant places at the same time? ”

Radovan Matijek – Clamor Lugubris

Radovan Matijek: “First of all, I am a artist of fine art, sculptor and then a performer. But I almost always intertwine several media, I am quite present in the theater, I do special objects for various theater productions collaborating with various directors and choreographers. I act and dance and I make objects and create complete theatrical scenery. I make choreography and I exhibit my work.

This year 2020, there was a lot of turbulence due to covid 19, many projects have been canceled or postponed. Here, however, I have successfully realized three projects between the two ‘lockdowns’.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your sculpture called Clamor Lugubris I associate with two figures in a butoh dance pose, perhaps knowing that you are known as a longtime dancer of that dance. Could you please tell more about the sculpture and your installation with glasses exhibited at Kranenburg until mid-November? ”

Radovan Matijek: “Kranenburg is a small, picturesque town. It is the place with the Pilgrimage Church and Way of St. James leads through it. Twenty German and Dutch artists exhibited their works in the outer circular belt of the town, between the walls and the water, and in the Museum.

Radovan Matijek – Clamor Lugubris

The sculpture Clamor Lugubris (Lamentation) is displayed at the beginning of that circular belt.
In this object, I have combined one insectoid and one floristic form. The sculpture stands on four legs which look like the legs of an insect. Out of the body twist two elegant necks ending in two stylized flowers, which look like wide-open mouths from which emerge vibrating tongues screaming toward the heaven. It’s actually a 4.5 meter high mutant.

You have nicely noticed that in the elaboration of the sculptural construction itself, it inevitably arises a subconscious autobiographical dualism between dynamic dance movement and that one halted in one sculptural statics.

But the dynamics is timed, the feeling is that the creature will move in a new direction at any moment and start to beat us on the heads. We should not forget Chernobyl, Fukushima… not to close our eyes to the flames of fire which swallow the Amazon, to the plastic which floods the oceans, to the CO2 which suffocates the already congested atmosphere, and our egocentric mind…

The sculpture is bright yellow and it has high´gloss. It is a bit robotic, futuristic and yellow colour is a sign of optimism at all this negative perception of the sinking world.

I hope deeply and sincerely that my multiplied sculptures of this type will not adorn the future gardens of a lost paradise.

At the Museum, I exhibited one installation of broken glasses called Fragil.

Radovan Matijek – Fragil

On one larger table, I set a hundred broken wine glasses without chalices or pedestals. Instead of missing parts, they carry thin branches of finely processed wood. The fragile, almost delicate constructions of inorganic glass and living wood have a metaphorical meaning. Broken glasses symbolize the fragility of human civilization which is always destroyed by wars or natural disasters. Each war leaves behind dead and wounded, ruins and ruined identity. It is questionable how something new can emerge from such seemingly hopeless remnants.
But each shard carries within it a small remnant of identity remanding of what it was before the disaster. The branches growing out of broken cups symbolize emerging life. This installation speaks about fragility of human life and about conditions under which a traumatic identity can be redeveloped for the good without concealing the ruptures and deformations left behind by the trauma. There is reason for quiet hope, but not superficial optimism.”

Jasna Lovrincevic/strong>: “In 2018 you participated in an extraordinary and significant German-Dutch project Brokopondo, travelleing to the state of Suriname where you exhibited an interesting wooden object called Lucifer (Mach). In fact it is the Dutch word for match as you have explained in our introductory conversaton.

Could you tell more about this project. Did you use the wood taken from an artificial lake, created by constructing a hydroelectric plant, actually wood from a submerged forest?”

Radovan Matijek – Brokopondo Project

Radovan Matijek: “Suriname is a small country in Latin America, a former Dutch colony whose area is 80% covered by the untouched jungle under the protection of UNESCO. Dutch is also the official language in that territory.

At the invitation of the Seewerk Gallery and Museum in Moers, I joined to ten selected artists for the Brokopondo project. Back in 2013, I exhibited at Seewerk Gallery, among other pieces, an installation called Streichhölzer, translated as Matches. Some twenty twisted “trees” whose ends are burnt blackened heads, actually make one burned forest. Such activist accents were followed by this invitation for Suriname.

There I made a sculpture of Lucifer, in Dutch it means a Match. It is made of hard wood ‘walaba’ which has been preserved in the fresh water of the Brokopondo Reservoir for thirty years.

The sculpture is 7 meters high and it is displayed at the New Amsterdam Open Air Museum at Paramarib, the capital of Suriname. When I returned to Moers, I made a very similar object which has been permanently set up in Seewerk Park.

My matches are accents against the burning of rainforests and the uncontrolled exploitation of wood in the Amazon and other rainforests across our planet. ”

Jasna Lovrincevic: You are graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Prof. Stipe Sikirica. In spite of the fact that you were educated in some way by traditional classical approach you already as a student presented various installations. What challenges was the combination of modern and traditional presented for you at that time and what about nowdays? ”

Radovan Matijek: “Although I graduated in the class of sculptor Stipe Sikirica, I was already involved in installations art work at the time, which was a continuation of world and Croatian avant-garde heritage. Later, I have participated in my own installations as a performer.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your biography is very rich, in addition to sculpture, dance and theater, it also includes work on film. In 1990 you produced the film Cej for which you, together with your collaborators wrote the script, did choreography and you were director. How did you start to work on that film and where has it been shown?

Scenes from the film Cej (Digitized by Miodrag Trajkovic)

Radovan Matijek: “The film came as a spontaneous reaction. We were looking for a venue for our new play and we didn’t find any theater where we could stage it and we decided to make a film. That was before the war (in Croatia), I act, dance and direct together with a colleague Ljiljana Mikulcic. The material was recorded in 1989. The title Cej has no meaning, it is just a sound or sigh.

It was a premonition of our war when people even didn’t think about it. We made a film about the horrors of war in an allegorical, metaphorical expressions.

It is a short film, it is a sound film, and there is no text. The film has been shown at many festivals, it lasts for 34 minutes, and it has been shown in France, The Netherlands and Germany on the television channel Arte. ”

Scenes from the film Cej (Digitized by Miodrag Trajkovic)

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Have you continued with film production?

Radovan Matijek: “Between then and now I have produced several short films mostly related to my art or dance performances.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You create and make puppets and different objects for various plays at several theaters in Krefeld, Monchengladbach, Essen and Hof as well as for the theater Freilichtbühne Alfter and Westfälisches Landestheater. How do you approach a design of all that objects or puppets? Are you independent at that work? ”

Radovan Matijek – Puppets (Photographer: H. Dietz, Hof Theatre)

Radovan Matijek: “I work in the theater in terms of making special objects and puppets. These puppets are big, two to three meters high, they are mobile, actually they look very lively, they are always animated by dancers or actors. Now, in Hof in Bayern on the Czech border, it is performing the play with title Cold Heart (Kaltes Herz). For this project I have made ten, long fingers. Each finger is carried and moved by one dancer. At the end of the show, a naked puppet which looks like a child stands on the stage supervising the audience by its big blue eyes and staring at it – ‘ the life goes on’.

Ideas arise in conversation with the director according to his needs of visualizing the play. In the realization itself, I have unlimited freedom. ”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “One unavoidable topic related to your artistic expression is dance, especially the butoh. You have danced as a student in Zagreb and later in London and Germany. In Zagreb you danced in the ensemble of Milana Broš, about whom the author Maja Durinovic has written that she (Broš) was “known for destroying elitist and aesthetic notions of art.” Did Milana Broš attract you by her ideas in dance or perhaps have you come under her influence in some way, in terms of dance? ”

Radovan Matijek – Puppets (Photographer: H. Dietz, Hof Theatre)

Radovan Matijek: “At the same time, while I studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, I danced in the ensemble of Milana Broš. She has received a large number of awards for contemporary dance both as a dancer and as a choreographer, abroad and then in Croatia.

Milana Broš at the time, in the mid-80s, was the only one to offer the dancer an avant-garde line within contemporary dance that I immediately recognized as a young performer, desirous for new experiences. I completely agree with Maja’s opinion, by the way, my colleague in the ensemble at the time.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You have made numerous performances with the butoh and you have written choreography for it. When did you start to dance the butoh and why do you like that dance?”

Radovan Matijek: “Butoh is an avant-garde, expressive dance, which originated in Japan in the early 1950s. It builds on the expressionist experiences of German dance in the 1920s of Mary Wigma and it brings an unavoidable aesthetic of the Far East with an enormous possibilitiy of improvisation and exploration of one’s own body and movement. Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ono are the fathers of this new stage expression.

And how did I start? I presented one performance in Zagreb with idea to perform one moving sculpture. I intended to play one stone sculpture in motion. I painted myself in white color and I somehow began to move in space. Someone told me it looked like the butoh dance. At the time, I didn’t even know what was the butoh. It was in London, while I was working at the Oktober Gallery, I met a butoh dancer. The dance immediately won me over with its expressiveness and at the same time by its mystery, its spontaneity, the aesthetics of the white body and the so-called ‘black soul’. The butoh is always associated with some dark side of our psyche. I am an artist who likes to try new things, who likes to dig through his own subconscious and complement the mosaic of the world around us. In this dance, the subconscious component, which deepens and opens new horizons, is very important. It allows your own body to move without any control.

Arriving to Krefeld, I have joined Sabine Seume, at that time a well known butoh dancer and choreographer, and I have specialized in butoh at her workshops. Still today, we are close collaborators.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “I have read butoh dance doesn’t need choreography because of it’s spontaneity?”

Radovan Matijek: “Oh, of course the butoh has a choreography, but also the possibility of improvisation.

There are special techniques to make choreography. Kacogen is one of these techniques or rather a state of mind which progressively moves towards the exploitation of its own body. The process is very subconscious; with half-closed eyes the organism enters a trance state and then the body moves on its own. In this process, one tries to turn off the real mind system and to give the body the ability to expose itself without any control of mind. The movements can be very wild but can also be very slow so there is a wide range of sensation.

Of course, in that process, it is needed a person who observes all this from the outside. Then the choreographic elements are written down. One performan is built on a collection of active images.

Jasna Lovrincevic: ” You always have a lot to say and show. You always express yourself in a new aesthetic way and all your work indicates a high artistic potential and a talent that has no limit.”

Radovan Matijek: “Somehow these are my animations and interest that I have always had: stage and visual art. It’s hard to set boundaries where one art begins and where another. It’s my nature. Everything draws me to something and then it comes out that I have to accomplish it. Why (?), I haven’t thought about it yet. I just go to realize that project which presents a new challenge for me. ”

Radovan Matijek – Pirate Ship- Performance

Jasna Lovrincevic: “It is nice and interesting that you manage to fulfill and present your art ideas, what it is usually not easy and mostly unattainable for many artists.”

Radovan Matijek: “Probably, the collaborators and the audience love and respect me, they appreciate my creations, my way of thinking and acting.”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Alex Gallardo)

Both film and theater are one big school of life where you never stop to learn and get inspiration” says the artist Kristina Orlovicin a interview we had in November 2020 following her filming for the short film Sueños rotos, where she is one of the leading actress.The film is produced by Nanu Film .

Conversation with Kristina Orlovic is pleasant and interesting. Since the beginning of her Studies of Scenic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, driven by a love of performing arts, she has been constantly exploring new artistic expressions, especially contemporary and butoh dance. Kristina Orlović easily introduces you to challenges facing physical theatre, which she has specialized at the International School of Dramatic Corporeal Mime – MOVEO in Barcelona, as well as to the complexity of the butoh dance, which she has studied by different artists like Sayoko Onishi and Imre Thormann in Italy and later in Spain by Sua Urana, Yumica Yoshioka and Rosanna Barra. With her great enthusiasm for the theater and dance she has faunded her own theater. She likes to talk about it because it is her own creation. It is a visual theater where she has used unusual theatrical techniques based on her academic knowledge and her dance experience.

Kristina Orlovic is currently focused on film. She belongs to small group of actors who have academic knowledge, stage experience and physical control acquired through dance. She made her film debut in 2011 acting in the short film Alkiler. In the year 2018 she was a guest actress in the Spanish series Cançó per tu, La Fossa, and Mira la que has hecho and in 2019 in the serie El inocente.

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Until two or three years ago, since you have started working on film, theater and dance had been dominant in your artistic career: from your Studies of Scenic Design and physical theater through your training in contemporary dance and Japanese butoh dance to founding your own visual company. Today, when the film is one of the most powerful and for many young people one of the most attractive industries, what is so amaizing about theater for you? What challenges present the theater for young artists today? ”

Kristina Orlovic: “Unlike film, theater takes place in real time, in front of the viewer’s eyes, what enables emotional and human connection (between actors and audience). That is lost in other formats. Theater requires a lot of preparation, presence, creativity, memory and precise coordination of all stage elements. responsibility and adrenaline because the whole performance of the play depends on it. I am most impressed by this direct communication in front of the audience, adrenaline and presence at the time of performance and the process of creating the play. I think every young actor should initially make experience in the theater because the theater is much more complex and there is mach more demanding approach to acting, and the actor receives immediately feedback from the audience.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “In Florence you completed the Study of Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts and in Barcelona the International School of Physical Theater Moveo. If you could say more about School of Physical Theater Moveo in Barcelona. What was the focus of the study?”

Kristina Orlovic: “International School of Physical Theater MOVEO runs a full-day professional development program in physical theater, based on a dramatic body mime developed by French actor Etienne Decroux. It is specific training focused on dramatic body mimicry. Through this artistic training the students obtain knowledge, methods and technical foundations that allow them to use their body as a central element of creation and interpretation so that they can become creators of their own projects.
The training is focused on the idea of turning the actor’s movement into something tangible for the viewer, using his (actor’s) body as the main tool like “the thinking body”.
The aim is to make the invisible to be visible: feelings, thoughts, situations, dreams, objects, etc. ”
The study program is structured around four main blocks: technique, improvisation, composition and repertoire. Graduate program lasts for two years and specialization program for three years.”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Carlo de Rosa – Libre)

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Together with the Swiss artist Nathalie Pierrehumbert, you have founded your visual and physical theater company Ooops! Company in Barcelona, where you have realized two plays: Libre (Free) and Orphfic (Orpheus). What did drive you and what vision of future work did you have at the time of foundation of your Company? Did you already have ideas for the plays you have created?”

Kristina Orlovic: “Originally we were driven by a passion for physical theater and a love of creation. We wonted to retain the pleasure of doing what we love and to explore originality in artistic expression through a variety of stage methods and skills. The play Libre started as our final project in specialization program at the International School of Physical Theater in Barcelona where I and Nathalie Pierrehumbert met. Following our graduation we decided to continue with that play and to start a company.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Following the success with the Libre, you have received the status of an artist ” in residence “. What has this prestigious international program enabled you to do?”

Kristina Orlovic: “It provided us with financial support for the project, the use of the L’Epicentre Theater for the performance and premiere of our play in Geneva in Switzerland, and collaboration with several other artists from the world of music and digital art who took part at the final form of the play. Let’s call it a great creative pleasure.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Libre (Free) has fantastic scenes, the flight dance is particularly impressive, the set design, music and lighting, the whole performance is amaizing. If you could say a more about the theme itself? Where did you perform that play?”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Carlo de Rosa – Libre)

Kristina Orlovic: “Libre is a metaphorical theatrical creation that reveals a divided, sensitive and irritated character, a victim of one’s own thoughts, desires and nightmares. It explores the boundaries between body and soul, reality and imagination within a world that calls itself ‘free.’ It combines different stage methods where body movement, music, sound, lighting and video mapping merge into space and influence each other, externalizing the inner world of the main character as well. We have performed it in Barcelona and Geneva on several occasions in various theaters and halls.”

Jasna Lovrincevic:”The Orpheus had been prepared, but unfortunately it haven’t been performed in front of the audience. Have you prepared Orpheus in Barcelona or Switzerland? You said that the play contained fewer dance scenes. What approach did you have to that play?”

Kristina Orlovic: “Yes, unfortunately we were not able to perform the play publicly due to financial problems that arose during the creation of the play. We prepared Orpheus in Barcelona where we also got an art residence, in fact a rehearsal space, but this time without financial support. The main event of a play is a rival relationship between love and art, and an addiction to it. The approach was based on physical theater stage techniques such as body mimicry, E. Decroux techniques, live music and improvisation. We were inspired by poetry, fine arts and music.”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Carlo de Rosa – Libre)

Kristina Orlovic: “I sincerely hope it could, although the approach and dynamics are different in film. Both film and theater is one big school of life where you never stop to learn and get inspiration”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Amador Camargo – La Soledad)

Jasna Lovrincevic:”You are the author of the theater play La Soledad and the co-author of the production El visitante de la oscuridad, created in 2013 in Spain. You performed it also in Zagreb and Italy. In addition to physical theater, butoh dance is the main means of expression in both plays. Did you have an idea about the butoh dance before starting your courses with that dance? How would you characterize butoh dance in terms of your experience?”

Kristina Orlovic:”I started with butoh dance while I was living in Italy where I saw a performance by Japanese butoh artist Sayoko Onishi and it aroused my great curiosity because it surpassed anything I had seen before. Then I decided to explore this form of contemporary Japanese dance because it seemed very interesting, daring and original. There are no set style, it can even be purely conceptual without any movement. It is defined by aesthetic features that oppose Western archetypes of beauty, unusual minimal or almost non-existent costumes, white body color, grotesque movements and strong expressiveness. I would characterize it as a meditative state of the soul in motion, in search for individual and collective memory desireing to explore primordial human conditions.

Butoh inspired me to do a solo performance of La Soledad in Barcelona, where I met Catalan artist Lydia Zapatero who was also exploring this form of
dance. Lydia and I decided to independently produce the play El visitante de la oscuridad in collaboration with the Vueltabajo Theater, with which we were creating and collaborating in Barcelona at the time. The play was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s song “The Raven” and the butoh dance technique. We presented both plays in Zagreb at the FAKI Festival of Alternative Theater.”

Kristina Orlovic (Photographer: Constanza Manescau – El visitante de la oscuridad)

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Contemporary dance is also important in your career. When did you start with contemporary dance? Where did you perform it?”

Kristina Orlovic: “I started with the contemporary dance quite “late”, at the age of twenty, when I moved to Florence to study. I performed it mainly in Florence and Tuscany and later in Spain where I continued with my studies.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “During the arrangement for this interview, you mentioned that you have traveled a lot. As a student you visited India and you were in the Himalayas. How inspiring these trips were for your artistic life, although your growth in Croatia as well as your stay in Florence were equally attractive and inspiring?”

Kristina Orlovic: “I find that every experience, country and culture I have lived in, has influenced and inspired my way and have added something authentic to my personal and artistic growth. I love to travel, meet different cultures and customs, learn languages and seek inspiration in various forms of artistic expression.”

Ivan Vrgoč (photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Ivan Vrgoč and his santinis-Production will be the first in the world to apply 3D holographic projection technology to a theatre play, in the show Der Entertainer, within the Abriss Festival, at Theatre am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. The premiere of Der Entertainer will be on March 9, 2018. It will be shown the hologramm of two famous actors from Berlin, Harald Juhnke ( died 2005) and Anke Engelke. Abrissfestival, produced by santinis Produkction, held from January to May 6, 2018, is inspired by the closure and demolition of Theatre am Kurfürstendamm, which will be replaced by casino.

The Festival, which included four performances and three events from the series of Santinis & Friends, is the last spectacle at the Theatre am Kurfürstendamm of hundred years long tradition. The Trio Konstantin Wecker, Bodom Wartke and Benefiz – Jeder rettet einen Afrikaner (Charity – Everyone Saves One African) are in the programme of Santinis & Friends.

Ivan Vrgoč has been connected with Theatre am Kurfürstendamm in a very special way. The first santinis-Production, Rumors, Rumors, has became the most successful performance of all time at Theatre am Kurfürstendamm and it was the most attended production in Germany during the time of its performance. During the preparation for the Rumors Rumors, Ivan Vrgoč, who also played in that performance, decided to work as producer. Santinis-Production has produced also several others performances at Theatre am Kurfürstendamm. Their production of Eine Familie was nominated for the Berlin Friedrich Luft Prize, and the Noah Heidle, the author of the play Homemaker (Alles muss Glänzen), attended personaly the premiere and rehearsals of that performance.

I spoke with Ivan Vrgoč after the premiere of Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm (The Miracle of Ku’Damm), held on February 10, 2018, in which has been evoked the events related to the Theater am Kurfürstendamm after the decision had been made about its closure and demolition.

In the play Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm, based on the motives of the a 1987 science fiction movie Batteries Not Included (in Germany known as “Das Wunder in der 8. Straße” ), the theatre under threat from property investors received the help from the universe, from an unidentified flying object (UFO), which brought the whole Theatre to the universe.

In one of the leading roles in Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm, appeared Barbara Schöne, who brings to the play the spirit of the old, splended times of Theatre am Kurfürstendamm where she has used to play before she retired from the scene ten years ago. It is her first appearing on the stage after that time.

Alongside to the actors Patrick von Blume, Luise Schnittert, Holger Franke, and Gian-Philip Andreas, who play, sing and dance, the Berlin’s musician Nikko Weidemann is permanent on the scene with his nostalgic songs and also as accompanist playing guitar or keyboard. Although physically not in the theatre, the voice of Josef Hader, Austrian cabaretist and actor, resonated across the theatre, at the moment when the whole theatre schould be absorbed by an unidentified flying object.

Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm (Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

The whole show is a combination of musical, comedy, fantasy, true facts, nostalgia, hopes, irony and indifferent realities, but laugther and spontaneous applause in the audience (at the premiere) and applause in the rhythm of music, give impression about a theatre which is beyond the postmodern with its determinants. It is more about one which oscillates in indeterminacy of metamodernism.

Jasna Lovrinčević: Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm (The Miracle of Ku’Damm) is announced as the first ‘santinis’ production of a self-written text. If you could please tell more about the text, whose idea was to write that kind of text?

Ivan Vrgoč: The text was written by our dramatist Patrick Wildermann. He has been with us for five years. The text depicts the situation related to the demolition of the Theatre am Kurfürstendamm, the stories were told how they happened. That was our idea.

Going from the fact that the audience at the first public performance of Das Wunder vom Ku’Damm obviously had great fun and it was very satisfied with the performance, but theatre criticism has expressed a different opinion of the play, I asked:
Jasna Lovrinčević: Have you been personally satisfied with the text?
Ivan Vrgoč: I have been satisfied how the text has been made, but with the direction, I was only half satisfied.

Knowing that direction was not strange to Ivan Vrgoč because he already has worked as director, I wondered why he did not intervene.
Ivan Vrgoč: We could not intervene much because we focused on the second production “Der Entertainer” with popular German actor Peter Lohmeyer, which will be held on 9 March. For the first time we are working with a new technique, holography, which has never been used in the theatre. The musicians used it. With holography we will create actors who are on stage but also it will come to the stage Harald Juhnke who is already dead.

Jasna Lovrinčević: Did you need to have a special permmission for hologramm projection?
Ivan Vrgoč: We co-operate with the Musion Holotec company that runs it at a the global level. They have already made Michael Jackson’s hologram, Mariah Carey and so on. We came into contact with them and we met with them. I’ve got that idea for two or three years, but we can not finance it by ourself. When we got in touch with the Musion Holotec company, it was interesting also for them to try to apply holographic technique to a theatre. We’ve been working with them so we’ve managed to do it now.

Shitfaced Shakespeare

Theatre

The latest production of the Abriss Festival will be Shitfaced Shakespeare. It is very successful play in the United Kingdom, and it has been running since 2010. The company santinis-Production has received a license for the first adaptation of that concept to Germany.

Ivan Vrgoč: Shitfaced Shakespeare is scheduled for April or May, performances will take place until midnight, and later will be a party at the theater. It is a very successful play in England, and now it will be performed for the first time in Germany.

For the end of the Abriss Festival it has been prepared a big surprise .

Ivan Vrgoč: On the 5th and 6th of May, we will be presenting all the Abriss Festival performances from 14:00 to 20:00, until midnight, then it will start a big Abrissparty.

Noah Haidle (Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

The new play Alles muss glänzen – The Homemaker, produced by Ivana Vrgoč and his production company santinis-Production, premiered on 25 February in the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. The uniqueness of this premiere was the presence of the author of the play in the audience. The writer Noah Haidle specially came from America to be at the rehearsals, and he watched the first public performance. On the end of the performance it was spectacular moment when the producer Ivan Vrgoč invited Noah Haidle to join the actors on the stage while the audiences was greeting them with long applause.

Otherwise,the audience which completely filled the 800 seat theater, with spontaneous applause constantly was expressing its delight during the performance.

Ivan Vrgoč (Photo: Jasna lovrinčević)

Rebecca, played by famous German actress Maria Furtwängler, a central figure Haidle’s play is a housewive. She is a person of great hope, in constant expectation of her husband, full of understanding for everyone. She cooked and danced. Nothing could confused her in this sense, although around her all falled down, and the apocalyptic flood reached her window. “We can not different. We behave like everyone else. Live, as you do not have to die.” It was Rebecca’s answere to her daughter Rachel (Sarah Alles) when she asked her why they were so busy preparing their food, while outside the world was going to collapse. As Noah Haidle stated in my interview with him after the show, his inspiration for “The Homemaker” was his mother. At the end of the play he paid tribute to Rebecca’s choice of her lifestyle. Her husband, who long ago had gone in search to his happiness, returned and admited that he did not find a happiness on Kilimanjaro nor anywhere in the world, but he founded it in Rebecca’s home and at her set table. This emotionally charged moment, director Ilan Ronen placed deep under the water of the apocalyptic flood. The different scenes lined on the stage, surreal and tragicomic provoked gales of laughter, but also addressed issues of life and it’s meaning and metaphorically its opened the questions about a life in the actual world.

Ivan Vrgoc (Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Just after the premiere, on my question about Santini’s preparations for the performance, producer Ivan Vrgoč said:
Ivan Vrgoč: “It was hard, but it was good. We are happy that the writer came from America and that we could applied his advice and suggestions.”

After the premiere I asked the author Noah Haidle what was his impression about the play.
Noah Haidle: “Well, watching a play of yours that you’ve written like a dream, watching a dream with bunch of people and then watching a play that you wrote, in German, with a bunch of people is really kind of a crazy dream. It was great!”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “People were laughing, but it is really serious?”
Noah Haidle: “Yes, hopefully the comedy brings people in, makes them think, and this is going to be fun and then you are going to punch them in the gut, hopefully.

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Mr. Ivan Vrgoč told that you would write a play specifically for his company Santinis?”
Noah Haidle: “Yes, that is the plan”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do you already have the subject, something similar to tonight play?
Noah Haidle: “I do not know, hopefully something similar enough that it is good and different enough that I am not repeating myself.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Who was the inspiration for Rebecca, for the play?”
Noah Haidle: It is my mum. She is the homemaker. Thats how we in America call a housewife. The women stayed home and didn’t have a career. So, what my mum did.”

Alles muss glänzen – Noah Haidle and Actors (Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Noah Haidle has published several books, the most famous is Mr. Marmalade, in Germany published together with Lucky Happiness Golden Express and Ada And Her Daughter. The Homemaker or Alles muss glänzen, German magazine Theater heute named the best foreign theatrical play for the year 2015 in Germany.

Ivan Vrgoč ( Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

The actor and producer Ivan Vrgoč and his production company santinis – Produktion in Theater Kurfürstendamm in Berlin will set new performance Alles muss glänzen – Homemaker by American author Noah Haidle, honored by Theater Heute as the best foreign theater play in Germany in the year 2015. The premiere will be on February 24, 2017. The main role has been taken over by the leading German actress Maria Furtwängler, who also starred in Rumors, Rumors…, the first, very successful Santinis production in the year 2013.

Director Ilan Ronen works with Vrgoc and his santinis-Produktion for the second time. He directed “Eine Familie” two years ago which was the the first performace produced by santinis-Produktion nominated for the Berlin Friedrich Luft Prize. Author Noah Haidle has expressed a desire to write a stage play especially for santinis-Produktion. The artists trust and confidence in Vrgoc work as well as recognition of his work in just three years since he established his company, speak a lot about producer Ivan Vrgoč, his knowledge and his good feeling to choose a good theater play, which will move the audience, make it laugh and challenge it to think over. On the December 5, 2016 I spoke with Ivan Vrgoč about his new production and his work. He was not only in the middle of preparation for the premiere of Alles muss glänzen, but also he was in his busy schedule regarding the arrangements for the next shows and for a series of artistic evenings Santinis & Friends.

Noah Haidle Especially for Santinis-Produktion

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Why have you decided to produce Alles muss glänzen – The Homemaker?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “A play by Noah Haidle has received a Theater Heute Avord and we will produce the first performance in Berlin. So far the play has been shown in Hanover and in Switzerland in a small theater. We have received the rights for Berlin. The writer Noah Haidle will come from the United States to Berlin. He will be with us in rehearsals and at the premiere and after that he is going to write a theater play particulary for us. It’s all very exciting.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “What has particularly motivated author Noah Haidle to write specifically for you?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “We started a conversation with him about this play. He was in Germany, we met with him twice: he, our dramatist and I. He found that very nice, we were a good company, it was a good “chemistry” between us. He will come from the USA to stay with us for three weeks in rehearsals. The idea to write to us came through our conversation as sometimes happens when you know each other well. We were a good company, so we had an idea that after our premiere he would write exclusively for us under a contract.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Das the author Noah Haidle already have the subject for a new play?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “We haven’t talked about it. We are going to imagine a theme which is interesting for us, and he will begin to write a play next year.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “The Homemaker-Alles muss glänzen has been performed in Hanover with a lot of surrealist elements?”
Ivan Vrgoč: ” The play is written like that (with surrealist elements), the figures in the play are also like that, but they are real people, they are characters with real emotions. In our performance it will be the water on stage, but we are going more to the realism. Regarding the performance in Hanover, we have the other actors, other performance, we have another approach. Director ist Ilan Ronen. He is the main leader of the National Theatre in Tel Aviv. He already directed Eine Familie for us. He works for the second time for us.”

Maria Furtwängler – Leading Role

In Alles muss glänzen – Homemaker, leading role has Maria Furtwängler, the most popular stars of TV series Tatort. The beautiful actress Maria Furtwängler and Ivana Vrgoč have cooperated since they attended the course by the renowned American acting coach Larry Moss in Berlin. They played together in the first Santinis production “Rumours Rumours … ” in the year 2013. This performance has been the most successful productions of all time in the Theatre am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin and it was the highest attended performance in Germany at the time of its presentations.

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Could you please say more about the cooperation with actress Maria Furtwängler?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “We met at course by couch Larry Moss in the year 2012 and all course participants decided to make a play together. We gathered together and also founded Santinis. We had a very successful performance “Rumours Rumours …” in 2013. We have stayed in friendly contact. When I was reading the Alles muss glänzen I thought she would be very good for the leading role of Rebcca, so I sent her proposal and text. She has read it and has fallen in love with it. So, we agreed to work together for the second time. After the first show, “Rumours Rumours …” she said, if we do the theater again, she would be with us again. We stayed constantly in touch and now, finally we have found a suitable play.”

Upcoming Events

Jasna Lovrinčević: “This is your fifth productions. Until now there have been two comedies, “Rumours Rumours …” and “Eine Familie”. The other two performances, “Abgesoffen” by Carlos Eugenio Lopez with the current theme of refugees and migration and “Disgraced” by Ayad Akhtar with the theme of political correctness, both are dealing with serious social issues with political connotations.”

Ivan Vrgoč: “Alles muss glänzen – Homemaker is not just a comedy, it is more in the style of David Lynch as a bad dream. It’s really funny, but it is quite dramatic. The point is that the whole world shakes, that something is wrong, something is going on that need to be watched carefully. There are plenty of biblical contexts, big water comes, flooding, where one look whether the world will survive or not. This is the theme of the play, but limited to one family who seeks happiness in it. Even Eine Familie was a social theme, but there were a lot to laugh, but also a lot of pain, a good recipe for a night out, to think about and to laugh.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Abgesoffen by Carlos Eugenio Lopez with the theme of refugees and Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar with the theme of political correctness were almost like the forerunners of reality to come. Is the audience ready for these kinds of topics? ”
Ivan Vrgoč: “In any other theater it is. The last production was difficult because we hired theater Kurfürstendamm, known for its light (boulevard) comedies, where is difficult to find an audience. And now, in a new production with Maria Furtwängler, a very popular actress, this is not a big risk. The play will begin in late February, we started selling tickets a month ago and we’ve already sold over 3,000 tickets. For us it is always better to make a new topic. The audience is mature, of course. The themes of our plays are not about imaginary subjects, we all deal with these topics every day; we read, or feel, or see something. Every day these topics are here, just we do not talk about it through politics, but through people or family as a metaphor, what is beyond that. But the themes are about that what everyone can feel: How has your life been till now ? What have I done? Is my life good or not? Have I fulfilled my wishes, what did I think about it when I was young? I’ m older now, have I taken path what I am now considering as wrong, or am I going right way now? Am I really happy with my life? This is usually the tipe of reflection which each of us sometimes ask yourself from time to time.”

Santinis&Friends

Since September 2016 santinis-Produktion has begun a new production Santinis & Friends.

Ivan Vrgoč (Photo: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Are you satisfied with the audience response?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “It has been great. We have got different writers, actors and singers. Olli Schulz has performed four times and each time he has been sold out, and all four performances have been sold out two hours after the tickets went on sale. Over 3000 people contacted us and two hours later, there were no more tickets to sell. Writer Heinz Strunk also has been sold out. Hanna Schygulla, actress, has not been sold out, but there were many people in audience. One singer has been canceled due to illness, but he will come in the February 2017, so we have prolonged Santinis events. In February we will have another three events, two concerts and a reading. It is going well ”

Jasna Lovrinčević “How do you select your guests?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “We have concentrated on Sing and Song Writers who write in German, but they are not only singers, they also read from theirs books and they have the guests. I am friend with some of them. For example, I met Olli Schulz through my daughter. My daughter and his daughter have been the best friends since their kindergarten time. We were talking if we could do something together. So it’s private contact.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do the artists contact you on their own initiative?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “Always, and we are very happy about it. They usually contact us through others artists. Very popular persons are seeking contact with us. We receive a lot of e-mails. We do not select just the most popular artists, our goal is not just to fill the theater. At first we consider who is the best actor for the particular performance.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “You do not act in Alles muss glänzen –The Homemaker, don’t you?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “I have no time. I have a lot of work to do, two children and at the moment it would be no a good idea to act.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do you miss acting?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “I think so, but I have no time to think about it. When the time comes to take a roll it will be much stronger desire for acting.”

Plans for New Production

Jasna Lovrinčević: Do you already have plans for the next production. In last interview in March you announced collaboration with Larry Moss (?) ”
Ivan Vrgoč: “Alles muss glänzen- Homemaker will be performed till the end of the March 2017 and by the end of the year we are preparing three new productions with different topics. We are going to produce for the first time in Cologne. It will be production with Annette Frier who starred in Eine Familie. There are plenty of ideas, we would like to produce in other cities. In Berlin, we have good sponsors like BMW, we have a lot of contacts and we are looking for it in other cities. That is necessary, without that you can not work. We had planned to work with Larry Moss at this period of time, but because Maria Furtwängler only now has time to work with us, we had to postpone the play with Larry Moss for the winter 2017/2018. We stay in contact with him and we plan together. At the moment we don’t know exactly when it will be play with Moss. We have already a play (titel) but it could be changed. ”

Jasna Lovrinčević: ” Are all titles of the planned performances already known?”
Ivan Vrgoč: “Two performances are already certain; one comedy from London, where we were last autmn and where we met with its directors and producers and bought the rights that the comedy could come to Germany. This is the play I have planned in Cologne with Annette Frier. The second play is a book that is now being dramatized and I expect the first version for the theater before Christmas. There are plenty of plans and some of them are not only ideas but we are working on them. Others ideas are still in my mind. ”

Jasna Lovrinčević: ” Santinis– Produktion development is an unbelievable. It started with only one performance in the year 2013, and now it has a divergent development regarding the number and diversity of production.”
Ivan Vrgoč: “Yes, it becomes larger and larger. It is important to us because it gives us flexibility. If one play does not go well, with more performances we can shift the risk and money, or if one does not go well we switch to another. We are happy that five of six Santinis & Freiends productions have gone great, but normally, it can not alway to go as I would like to go.”

Alessija Lause (Fotografer: Jasna Lovrinčević

Allesija Lause, best actress at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011 and best stunt 2011 in Los Angeles, was selected as one of two actors from the 700 applicants to work with famous Canadian Oscar winner Paul Haggis personaly on the scene at the seminar in Rome in March 2015.

In the interview I conducted with Alessija Lause just before the Seminar with famous Paul Haggis in Rome, the actress said:
Alessija Lause: “I’m very excited to be working with an outstanding artist, who in Hollywood makes very relevant, but still commercial and successful films, with an artist who produces, writes and directs. I am glad to be able to learn from him. For me that means a lot. ”

Alessija Lause, known as a theater and film artist with outstanding achievements, successful producer with experience in filmmaking says: ”At the momement I have a good idea for a film and a theater performance. However, it is too early to add anything else.”

Alessija Lause is co-founder and a member of the Ensemble Santinis. The Ensemble has won the audience in Berlin for the third consecutive year. The first Santinis performance, Rumors, in 2013, in which Alessija Lause starred and which was on her proposal selected, became the most successful production ever in Berlin Kurfürstendamm Theatre and the most successful production in Germany for the period of its presentation.

Alessija Lause: “I was the leader of last year’s production, but I didn’t play. It was a very good and successful performance. And now, the third is very successful, but I could not participate because at the same time I was working in Luxembourg. I was acting in English there, whicht I like very much. I was working with a young director Anne Simon. It is important for me to make new contacts and meet new people.”

Uhe Role In The Television Series ”The Team”

Alessija Lause (Photographer: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Currently Alessija Lause is brilliant as an actress in the television series ”The Team’‘. It has been on German broadcaster ZDF since February 2015. Her first appearance is in the third episode.

Alessija Lause: “It was filmed for ZDF last year. It was a very ambitious and very good production. I enjoyed participating in ”The Team” enormously. It was a German, Belgian, Swiss, Austrian, Danish and Swedish co-production. The series features eight episodes. It’s very interesting, the actors are great. The development of the story is horizontal, that’s means the story unfolds through all the episodes. It’s a very interesting story, actually terrible and the way the story developst is very intense.”

Alessija Lause has starred in several television series such as Polizeiruf 110, Tatort, Küstenwache whose theme is similar to the most recent series, so I asked her if she loved that role, or it was a coincidence that she starred in that kind of films.

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do you like that role? Are you looking for a role like that or the roles find you?”
Alessija Lause: “I’m attracted to portray a human being who is real, with his or her ups and downs, with its bright and dark sides, someone who is different, so you can see the different sides of the coin, not someone uniform…I take the roles that I like and sometimes the roles find me . These characters are very interesting. I like them because they are strange people, sometimes very good, sometimes not good at all. I like them because they have a very tight life.”

The Most Important Thing To Me Is To Tell The Story

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Until now you have worked as a theater and film actress, producer, director. Do you work all alternately or simultaneously?”
Alessija Lause: “I work as it comes. The most important thing for me is to tell stories. I will do whatever I have to do to be able to do it. So I’ll either see wether I can find someone who would produce it or whether I will work it myself. I love people and I love the story. That is why I am going to find someone, or I will see if someone finds me with who I can experience this passion. It is very important to work with an equal share. I will always do so that I can fulfilled it, to be in front or behind the camera. I like when people can revive what it previosly used to be only in words, written on paper. I like to transfer the feelings; to see what it is happening and to bring it to life. That means a lot. I’m happy if I can revive a character so that people feel touched, so they become curious, angry, laugh till they drop, or start thinking about what they have seen or have experienced.”

Alessija Lause (Photographer: Jasna Lovrinčević)

Jasna Lovrinčević: “What would you like to transfer to the people?”
Alessija Lause: “I do not want to exaggerate if I say that this is actually the task of art: I want to stay on theme important to our life, to society. Maybe with our art we can slightly improve our society, as thesse subjects warn people and point out a problem or provokes a smile. These are all possibilities. I just think I should take advantage of this platform. I hope to continue getting opportunities and that kind of platforms, so I can tell relevant stories. It’s very exciting, whether it provokes rejection or desire to grasp it personaly. I think that’s important.”

Allessija Lause is this year’s winner of Večernjakova Domovnica, the prestigious award of the Croatian daily newspaper “Večernji List”. This prize is awarded in the categories of drama, music, spectacle and sport for the Croatians living abroad. On the occasion of this award, on 8th of March 2015, Alessi Lause stressed that she will be glad to work in Croatia, her motherland, the country of her origin.
Allessija Lause: “I would like to work there!”

Alessija Lause (Photograph: Stefan Klüter)

Alessija Lause, film and theatre actress, won the Best Actress award at The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011 for her performance in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. In the same year at the Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival she won The Best Stunts award together with other members of the stunt ensemble for her performance in a short film St. Christophorus: Roadkill.

Polyglot

She is a polyglot. She speaks six languages, and she can easily switch from one language to another if necessary. Her first language is Croatian as well as German since her father is German and her mother is Croatian, who comes from City of Pula. As a child Alessija often travelled to Croatia. In an interview that I conducted with Alessija Lause in October 2013, she lovingly referred to Istria. She said: “I go to Croatia every year, once per year, and I enjoy every second there.”

She also spoke about her desire to work in Croatia.
Alessija Lause: “I would like to work in Croatia. I think about making one solo play in Croatia or with Croatian artists. I worked in the 2003 as a production assistant at Ulysses Theatre on the Brijuni islands. That year in Croatia I worked for one German production company that produced German Film Awards. At that time I was very young and I wanted to learn all about theatre and production, and not just acting. I was interested in everything and all that experience was very good and useful for my current work today. ”

It always starts from the scratch

Besides her acting and stuntwork, Alessija worked as an assistant theatre director. She produced Danny And Deep Blue Sea and she is one of the founders and a member of the acting ensemble Santinis. She organizied the International Alexander Technique workshop in Berlin and, now, she has just started to work with her acting colleague on her own TV series, which they have produced together, and for which Alessija has written the scenario.

Alessija Lause: “I could not do just one thing. Everytime you work on something new, you have to start from the beginning, and this is what I really like in the acting work. It creates new opportunities and you never go in one direction. You have to react thoughtfully, reflect the situation and have self-confidence, but at the same time it is important to be flexible and open to new opportunities. That is what creates the excitement because you can not expect a preconceived course of events. It is necessary to go out of your own shadow and be transparent. This kind of openness creates new opportunities. ”

Acting

Alessija’s first appearance as an actor was when she was six years old. She told me how people from TV companies spontaneously sought permission from her parents on the streets in Munich for her to participate in some television commercials what her parents refused for a long time.

Today Alessija says:
Alessija Lause: ” To make an acting career you must have the discipline, will, desire and the love to do it.”

She has played in many various films and TV dramas and series as SOKO Leipzig, Tatort, Löwenzahn -Schmetterlinge, Großstadtrevier – Fracht aus Abidjan, Polizeiruf 110 – Stillschweigen, Wie Männer über Frauen reden, Basement and ect..

She pointed out how she has learnt the most from Larry Moss, a respectable acting coach, whose workshops she attended in Los Angeles and in Berlin.

Jasna Lovrinčević: ” What do you find fascinating about him?”
Alessija Lause: “I like the most that you feel very alive working with Moss. The acting profession is often very self-centric and egoistic. Working with him that egoism disappears because, according to Moss, the actor should be focused on the content of the story, and how to tell that story in the best way in order to touch the audience. It is important to tell a story with a lot of adore and love for the story and the people. ”

Larry Moss suggested to Alessija Lause the performance Danny And The Deep Blue Sea. With that performance she achieved fantastic success. She won the best actress award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011. With her performing and her acting she told the story in the best way, and in this way she achieved the most important goal for her. She touched the people in audience.

After the performance Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, many people from the audience were waiting outside the theatre for Alessija and her colleague, Nikolaus Szentmiklosia. The people were delighted with their performance.
Alessija Lause: “They were waiting for us. They were crying and embracing us. It was beautiful.”

Photograph: Colin Hattersley

Stuntwoman

Alessija spent nice time working as a stuntwoman. She was prepared for this kind of work practicing different sports and participating in different dance troupes. As a stuntwomen she started to work in 2003 in the same period of time when she was working with Argentine theatre De La Guarda. At that time she was encouraged by one of her acting colleagues to apply to one company which was looking for stunts for one of their show.

Later, during the shooting of a series in Berlin she worked together with one stuntmen who was resposible for stunt work in that series. He was surprised when he realised that Alessija could work as a stuntwoman, and then he invited her to train in his stunt team.

That was the beginning, and later she received many invitations for different movies. She was the stuntwoman in Inglourious Basterds, Wer ist Hanna, The Three Musketeers, The International etc.

Alessija Lause: “It was very nice to learn all of that. For example a fight, that is like a dance, it is kind of a choreography. I like that very much. In stunt work you really have to focus on the things you have to do. You need to trust your partner, you have to know what he is going to do and what you have to do. It was fun for me to do that. I used to work with great people. I loved to work with them, we really had lot of fun. It was the teamwork with more men and less women. This work is quite different from acting. An actress takes her time, but stuntwomen has to act at the exact time; they count: three, two, one, and you must go, there are no chance to wait. It is a collaborative work. You must be very focused on what you need to do. ”

Allesija has been doubled for the actress Diane Kruger in the film Unknown Identity.

Since 2011 she hasn’t work any more as a stuntwoman.
Alessija Lause: “It is enough, I worked worked for many big movies, and now I need time for new things.”

When he draws a parallel between acting and his work as a producer he told: “The acting ist always essential.”

The first experience for Ivan Vrgoč as a producer it was his production of Rumors by Neila Simon performed by The Santinis, the acting group in which he participates.

He decided to be the producer of this performance after the Santinis had already chosen Rumors to be their first exit in front of the audience. The member of Santinis, the actress Leslie Malton, who used to work with famous directors, suggested to Vrgoč to produce this performance.
” O.K., why not to try”, said Vrgoč, he founded the production company and today he says: “Thank to God, it was successful.”

The performance was enormously successful. It was the most successful performance ever for the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin where it was performed. Every day, from 13th of January till 28th of February in the year 2013 during the performance time, there were eigth hundert people in the audience and theather was completly full. In the same period of time, Rumors was also the most attended performance in Germany.
“Just now I negotiate to go on tour with Rumors to Austria, Swiss and through Germany”, said Vrgoč.

It is demanding and requires an enormous personal involvement to produce a play and to act in it at the same time. But Ivan Vrgoč says that this kind of combination doesn’t represent a hard task for him.
Ivan Vrgoč: “This kind of combination is not difficult for me. There is a lot of work to do, but I don’t perceive it as work. As a producer I have to take account of the whole organisation, but since I am also acting in the play, I admire what I do. When I am preparing the play I don’t think about the amount of work. I have never said – Oh, what more I have to do – I adore to be in this process. I really enjoy it.”

Santinis

Santinis is an acting group founded by eigth famous German actors who twice together attended the workshop of the respected American acting coach Larry Moss in Berlin.
“We were all introduced to each other at the workshop of Larry Moss”, said Ivan Vrgoč. They derived inspiration from Moss’s approach to acting, directoring and to theater work. It delighted them to start a new project together which they called Santinis. Moss’s capability to motivate the actor was the main impetus for that.

“He knows how to motivate the actor so that he can completely be ready to take a role”, says Vrgoč and he continues: “The aim of Moss’s school is that the actors serve the purpose to support the main idea of the author. The actors only execute the author’s idea. Often the idea of the author is not in the first place but more directoring. The director puts his own ideas with the goal to make his art visible that once can be seen as his handscript. The role of a director is to respect the author’s work, he should go together with all actors on the journey and to discover what the writer wanted to say, and not to bring ideas which are not written in the script.”

The first performance of Santinis was a comedy, and about his plans in the future Ivan Vrgoč says: We are looking for another play and another theatre because we don’t like to play a comedy again in the same theatre.”

Theatre and film actor

Ivan Vrgoč has acted in a comedy in Frankfurt and in Munich. On the question if he likes comedy or if it hapened by chance to play multiple times in a comedy, he answered:

Ivan Vrgoč: “I like comedy, but it was by chance that I acted in a comedy in Frankfurt, and then the same performance went to Munich.”

Ivan Vrgoč attended the acting school in Cologne and Berlin. He has acting experience in theatre and in film. In the performance of „Was ihr wolt or Twelfth Night or What You Will” by Shakespeare he performed the two main roles.
Ivan Vrgoč: “It was very inspiring to play two big and main roles in the same performance.”

He told he doesn’t have any desire for a specific role.
Ivan Vrgoč: “As I am personaly changing, my desire for the roles are also changing. When I was in twenties I wanted to performe other roles than now. I like that kind of job, but I would’t like to prioritise one or another role.”

It was interesting from the position of an spectator to hear how the the actor perceives the audience from the stage.
Ivan Vrgoč: “I feel the audience and that feeling is very important. Nevermind how deep I am involved in my role or with the co-actors on stage, it is impossible to ignore the energy of five, six or eight hundert people in the audience. That is important. It is important to understand the audience; to feel if it is focused on the play, if it is enthralled by the performance. That doesn’t mean that I look where somebody sits, I am not interested in that, but I feel the audience. It is just a feeling, and not soemthing I am thinking about.

He was acting in many films, and two years ago, in the film Die vierte Macht, he acted together with the actor Rade Šerbedžija. He says that he has an enormous respect towards him as an actor and he would like to work with him again in the future.

Ivan Vrgoč was born in Frankfurt am Main, where he lived before he went to Berlin. His origin is Croatian. He goes with his family every year to Croatia, mostly to Split and the surrounding area where his parents were born.

Interview with Ivan Vrgoč held in April 2013