Maribor Theatre Festival Grand Prix for the best production

The Maribor Theatre Festival Grand Prix for Best Production went to Angels in America by Tony Kushner, directed by Nina Rajić Kranjac and produced by the Mladinsko Theatre. "Director Nina Rajić Kranjac clearly enjoyed the challenges presented by Tony Kushner's 1991 epic. She has boldly approached the monumental text with a consistent sense of invention, successfully connecting the play's many political and philosophical strands while shaping it into a performance for our times. She maintained an adventurous spirit throughout the six hours, drawing out rich and insightful contributions from the entire cast, out of which ultimately grew a playful, fierce production that is as emotionally stirring as it is stylistically exciting. Not even the weather could wash away its triumph."

In addition, the production boasts with three more awards. The recipients were:

• Nataša Keser for her role(s) in the production, among them the Angel;
• Anja Novak for the roles of Harper Pitt in Angels in America and Paula in Women as Lovers, based on the novel by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Nina Ramšak Marković and produced by the Mladinsko Theatre;
• Marina Sremac for costume design.

The jury bestowed a special award to Sex Education II, a series of lecture-performances on women's sexual pleasure, directed by Tjaša Črnigoj and co-produced by The New Post Office (Mladinsko and Maska) and The City of Women, "for their outstanding social responsibility and performance activism, which boldly and decisively introduced onto the stage and into the wider public space the whole spectrum of important topics of female sexuality, which are generally invisible, ignored or tabooed in the patriarchal social environment. […] It is impossible to separate the social significance of such a project from the quality of its performance – as it is one of those artistic processes in which ethics builds aesthetics."

The same production also won over the members of The Slovenian Association of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists, who named it the best production of 2023.

In addition, our long-time collaborator, prop master Dare Kragelj, has won The Indispensable Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented by the Association of Slovenian Theatre Directors. It is dedicated to those theatre workers who are usually overlooked when handing out awards or recognitions, but nevertheless make key contributions to productions or who show exceptional dedication in the creative and performance processes.

We are happy for them and extend our heartfelt congratulations to the winner of the Borštnik's Ring, Branko Šturbej, and all the other awardees.