2nd high school theater festival at Nova Gorica Grammar School

The high school festival Student Cuts Performing Arts: Creative Spark brought together around 160 students and teachers from four Slovenian high schools that offer theatre and film as part of their curriculum, namely the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School and Performing Arts Grammar School Ljubljana, Franc Miklošič Grammar School Ljutomer, Ptuj Grammar School and Nova Gorica Grammar School.   The festival was first launched in 2022, when it was hosted by the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School and Performing Arts Grammar School Ljubljana, and this year the honour of hosting the festival went to the Nova Gorica Grammar School. It is in the young festival's interest to rotate its headquarters, so that students can get to know different places and schools alongside their peers.   The students took part in a variety of workshops, which were almost exclusively conducted by former students of the art course of the Nova Gorica Grammar School, namely Lija Mozetič (Exploratory Dance/Movement Workshop), Mojca Madon (Directing a Theatre Scene), Goran Završnik (Play and Listen), Patricija Bratuž (How is my dance language more than just dance?), Jana Rajh Plohl (Before-After: How to get better portrait photography?), Eva Zibler (Juggling and Physical Theatre) and Tamara Babić Nikiforov (Short Screenwriting Workshop).   In addition to interesting workshops, the festival also offered a competition for students - under the guidance of director Mojca Madon, an eight-member student jury judged the theatre performances staged by each school. The Franc Miklošič Grammar School Ljutomer put on the show Jutri je v sanjah izgledal drugače (Nina Kuclar Stiković), the Ptuj Grammar School the Državno prvenstvo v gaserstvu (Ajda Valcl), the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School and Performing Arts Grammar School Ljubljana again Jutri je v sanjah izgledal drugače, and the Nova Gorica Grammar School interpreted An Event in the Town of Goga / Dogodek v mestu Gogi (Slavko Grum).   For their performance of the text of Dogodek, Nova Gorica Grammar School won the prize for the most sparkling performance as a whole, for the most sparkling actor (Nejc Mladovan) and for the most sparkling use of singing, dancing, movement and music (Iva Mačuš).   We congratulate all the students and look forward to 2025, when the festival will be held in the spotlight of the European Capital of Culture!