{"id":9657,"date":"2021-05-13T13:17:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitdistrikt.rs\/?p=9657"},"modified":"2021-05-13T13:17:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:17:23","slug":"director-sonja-petrovic-i-think-of-novi-sad-as-my-space-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visitdistrikt.rs\/en\/2021\/05\/13\/director-sonja-petrovic-i-think-of-novi-sad-as-my-space-of-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Sonja Petrovi\u0107: I Think of Novi Sad as My Space of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young, brave and free \u2013 that\u2019s the first thing we\u2019re going to say about Sonja Petrovi\u0107, a director who won over the Novi Sad audience with her play Who Killed Janis Joplin?. When the play was first staged in the Serbian National Theatre, the director attracted the attention of theatre lovers, and so she began to receive numerous awards. Among them, there\u2019s the Annual Award of the Serbian National Theatre that Sonja deservedly won this year with her well-planned and creative directing. Portraying the American rock and blues icon of the 20th century was also her way of expressing respect for Janis since, as Sonja says, without Janis Joplin her personality wouldn\u2019t be the same.<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Sonja Petrovi\u0107 graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and then finished her master thesis at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, after which she came back to Novi Sad and to the Academy as a PhD student. Her plays have been staged abroad too, where she\u2019s received numerous awards, among which is the Laureate Award of the \u2018ArtOkraina\u2019 festival in Saint Petersburg. She directed a couple of radio-dramas and is the director of the \u2018Festival of Ecological Theater for Children and Youth<\/a>\u2019 in Ba\u010dka Palanka, for which she won the October Award. Sonja is also one of the founders of the regional platform for development and affirmation of theatre for children and youth \u2013 \u2018Od malih nogu\u2019. Currently, she\u2019s working on a new play called The Little Match Girl<\/em> in the Youth Theatre, based on the motifs of Hans Christian Andersen<\/strong>\u2019s literary fairy tale.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that Novi Sad \u2018stood up\u2019 after the premiere of the Who Killed Janis Joplin?<\/em> play. The awards that the play received are an obvious indicator of how good it was. Both you and actresses Bojana Milanovi\u0107 and Sonja Isailovi\u0107 won the Annual Awards of the Serbian National Theatre. How do you feel about this award?
\n<\/span><\/strong>– I\u2019d be lying if I said getting an award doesn\u2019t feel good. Getting acknowledgement from an institution such as the Serbian National Theatre is important. I respect both the award and the institution. I believe every award has a certain meaning, depending on when in life you receive it. Personally, this award encourages me to keep doing my job with the same enthusiasm and passion. Practically speaking, it\u2019s quite important to have written proof and arguments when you first start doing this kind of job, as it can help you and open doors to other things as well. I feel the responsibility to keep creating within the unpretentious yet high standards that we set for ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n