Description of the attraction
Theatrical art in Montenegro is not only an artistic phenomenon, but also a social one. The path of all the dramatic traditions of the country stretches from the origins of the national culture.
The theater of Montenegro is currently the only professional theater. It is located in the capital of the country, Podgorica, in a beautiful building, which is rightfully considered one of the most striking buildings of modern architecture. This is the second building for the Montenegrin theater, opened after a lengthy restoration in 1997.
The first building served him for 20 years, from 1969 to 1989. In the last year, there was a big fire, during which it completely burned down. The construction and restoration of the new theater building lasted 7 years. This prolonged recovery was facilitated by the financial instability in the republic caused by the collapse of Yugoslavia. The new building opened its doors to spectators and actors in 1997. In the first 10 years after the restoration alone, more than 40 performances were successfully performed on the stage of the theater. The theater annually receives over 50,000 spectators under its vaults. He is a repeated initiator of all kinds of festivals of theatrical art, including musical ones.
The history of the emergence of the National Theater of Montenegro has been going on since the beginning of the 50s. In the middle of the last century, there were 5 professional theaters in the country. Montenegro was in 1st place in Europe in terms of their number per population. It was then, in 1953, in Titograd (as Podgorica was formerly called) and the municipal theater was formed. Its organizers dreamed that their brainchild would become one of the most significant cultural institutions in the country, and they were constantly working in this direction. Since 1958 semi-professional collectives from different cities of Montenegro have been included in the theater troupe. And already in 1960 the troupe of the theater went on their first tour abroad of the republic. And so, in 1969, the theater received its official status and became National.
In the mid-70s, a new director was appointed - Vlado Popovich, who tried to breathe new trends into the actors' work, was not afraid of creative experiments in theatrical performances. The audience did not always perceive such a search for their individuality by the troupe unambiguously.
After the fire of 1989, the country's theater life was frozen and revived again with the arrival of a new team of actors under the leadership of Branislav Michunovic. Now the troupe is actively replenishing with young talents from the theater school in Cetinje and bright actors from neighboring countries.
