The stage design for the theater play “The Rose of Wind” (written by Nenad Fišer and directed by Haris Pašović in 1990) presented a great creative challenge for me, as well as a unique personal experience. Working for large theater production, in some of the most reputable theater houses in the former Yugoslavia (National theaters in Novi Sad and Subotica), enabled me to understand better the complexity of theatrical art and to spend invaluable time in close cooperation with people of the most diverse skills and talents. The preparation of the play took six months, which is by any production standards unusually long time. In order to share the same experience of the play the entire team of participants took part in exercises and trainings together with actors. The play was “building itself up” in front of the eyes of everyone involved, and the scenography was forming simultaneously with that development as well as through the permanent companionship, in and out of the theater.
The plot of the play takes place in a fictional tribe, with its unique culture and customs, and from the standpoint of scene and props design this demanded for an imaginative and consistent artistic invention. Additionally, the play had a tour from St. Petersburg to Mexico City, which required that all objects and artefacts should be easily transportable.
Needless to say, being surrounded by actors, dancers, musicians, and incredible craftsmen in theater workshops, made this engagement of mine a trully memorable and magical event.