12.06.2020

On 12 June, 2020 at 20:00 at National Theatre of Kosovo was presented the premiere of musical theatre performance “Spring Awakening” a collaboration of National Theatre of Kosovo and Art and Community Center – Artpolis.

For the director of the performance Zana Hoxha, Frank Wedekind’s masterpiece “Spring Awakening” was an artistic calling, a desire and a need to bring this play in Kosovo, further adapting it in the era of 90s in Kosovo. The need of young people to understand and be understood has been and continues to be a challenge, especially considering the history that has followed the young people of Kosovo in the 1990s, a time of protest and resistance, a time when collective and personal freedom was limited by the political regime of Milosevic and the patriarchate, while solidarity kept the spirit of collective resistance alive.

Youth and their natural needs have not been a priority of the society, so information about sexuality, feelings, love and experiences have been discouraged and neglected by family, school and society. School violence, physical and sexual abuse, prejudice, unplanned pregnancy and abortion have been and remain real problems of our Kosovar society.

The first premiere during this pandemic time of COVID 19 coincidently addresses the lack of collective freedom in Kosovo. This performance awakens the need to raise discussion of such “forbidden” topics, to talk about feelings, sex and first experiences as they are happening, the need to know it all, to understand and experience them all.

This performance including all of its creators is dedicated to all the teenagers who fell in 1998-1999 in the last war in Kosovo.

Author: Frank Wedekind
Adaptation & Director: Zana Hoxha

Actors: Hajat Toçilla, Valmir Krasniqi, Labinot Raci, Arta Muçaj, Shkelzen Veseli, Semira Latifi, Shpetim Kastrati, Qëndresa Loki, Verona Koxha, Flamur Ahmeti, Armend Ballazhi

Musicians: Alzan Gashi, Arbër Salihu & Drin Tashi
Choreography: Robert Nuha
Costumes: Yllka Brada
Scenography: Youliana Voykova – Najman
Stage Manager: Bajram Mehemtaj
Asisstant: Elira Lluka

Supported by: cfd, UNFPA, Kvinna till Kvinna