Memories Of The Festival Director
The yearly Scénická Žatva in Martin is a unique phenomenon in our theatre culture. This is due not only to the number of editions, but particularly to the great scope of selection of companies from the nationwide advance reviews of dramatic and musical theatre, theatre of adults performing for children, children dramatic creativity, theatre of poetry, elocution, dance theatre, scenic miniatures. A critical-theoretic reflection of this event allows for analysing, then abstracting, and generalising certain processes.
The Scénická Žatva in Martin has always been the highest school – it introduced discussion boards with renowned theatre critics, and lectures and workshops with university lectors. Thus, the search for the festival’s new status was not easy. Let us go back into its history.
By the end of the third cycle of revived famous autumn Martin Culture Festival at the Martin Theatre Festival in 1967, members of the preparation committee discussed the conception of the next editions of the Martin festivals. The majority of the participants proposed to make it the festival of festivals, that is, the representation of the highest rated performances from the Festival of Humour and Satire in Bratislava, from the nationwide review of amateur theatre companies in Spišská Nová Ves, and from the Festival of Poetry Theatres at the Štúrov Zvolen, as well as other invited companies. During the discussion the need for publishing bibliographies for this event was accented, as well as reintroducing the awards and rewards, which the 1967’s edition lacked. Another emphasised issues were: the need for a suitable juxtaposition of amateur and professional performances, qualitative changes in the contest of monologues, and the want for lectures covering a wider range of amateurs. At the last, the Culture Institute was assigned as the most suitable partner. In the end of the discussion was discussed the position of the festival among the other Slovak reviews. The Martin Festival sought not to violate anything with a tradition of its own; the aim was to implement the existing natural status with the consciousness of the past generation’s artistic achievements in order to create a confrontational basis for the stimulation of the current development.
The third edition of the Martin Theatre Festival was held within the Scénická Žatva (21st – 25th October) and in honour of history it was labelled 43rd O memoriál ÚSOD-u. Post facto, the theatre companies that met the criteria for the past twenty years (which were: at least two participations at nationwide reviews, noteworthy contribution to the progress of Slovak amateur theatre, and continuity of work) were inscribed to the memorial book of ÚSOD – the Honourable Wreath of Winners. 16 companies were added to the Wreath.
The season of puppet art, 6th Festival of Puppet Theatre, took place as usual within the Scénická Žatva as its second part but somewhat later (13th – 16th November). Such integration was very important for the puppet production that felt lonely and isolated from the other parts of the national culture. Being in one line with other reviews the puppet theatre production became a conscious and appreciated value.
Counter to the previous editions organised by Matica Slovenská, in 1970 Scénická Žatva was not a succession of separate reviews of dramatic and puppet theatre performances. The organisers experimentally joined the reviews to one whole: the 44th edition of O memoriál ÚSOD-u (the review of winners of the Slovak amateur contests and other guests) and 7th Festival of Puppet Theatre – Gašparko’s Shield. Connecting the drama and puppet activities together at the Scénická Žatva 1970 (17th – 24th October) a space for mutual confrontation and creative influence was created. This edition caused the puppet theatre for children being next to the drama theatre of children. These two fields of theatre were often mixed up and many useless misunderstandings arose. Yet, the art for children and the creative work of children are two different things, and neither the addressee nor the consumer are the same.
The decrease in artistic quality of some productions from their presentation in other nationwide reviews repeatedly brings forth the questions about the suitability of the autumn term of the festival, and at the same time, it causes scepticism towards the union of the autonomous Martin festivals (dramatic and puppet). The most of the visitors, though, do not realise the organisational drawbacks of the union, and cherish the unique possibility of confronting development trends, level and form of theatrical work of drama and puppet companies. Even before the Scénická Žatva 1973, the leaders of children ensembles questioned the odds of reprising something so subtle, fragile, and full of children fantasizing creativity; whether the teacher with his children collective, whom he provoked to spontaneous invention and playfulness – the basis for the final outline of a production, will manage to fix a shape in children that would not sway in the tempo and rhythm, yet would not become just a precise cold reproduction in reprises and over the time. Especially those collectives in whom the children matured more quickly during the holidays and lost their genuine children playfulness, which did not happen once at the reviews, confirmed the fears.
In 1974 was the main prize of Scénická Žatva for the first time awarded by the Ministry of culture of the SSR (Slovak Socialist Republic). The Wreath of Winners was entered the companies that contested in the Scénická Žatva for a second time in a row, and in the end the companies and individuals were bestowed the awards of co-organisers.
Scénická Žatva in Martin has become the place of synthesising the knowledge of the amateur theatre, about its creative, organisational, and societal issues. This confrontation was enhanced by foreign companies and by companies of foreign Slovaks. Besides the evaluation of festival performances, the seminars (organised by the Culture Institute and Matica Slovenská) brought also several specific topics: aesthetic issues of children theatre, Russian, Soviet, and Slovak classic drama on our stages, puppeteer in front of the curtain, the amateurs and the authorial law, et al.
In 1976 the Culture Institute in Bratislava replaced Matica Slovenská in the place of the main organiser of Scénická Žatva. This year introduced new participants: the winner of MJF Festival in Poprad, and the nominees from the Hviezdoslavov Kubín (elocutionists and theatre of poetry) and from nationwide reviews organised by other culture institutions. This year was commenced a list of companies awarded the Prize of the Minister of Culture of SSR (later also: Grant of the Minister of Culture of SSR, Prize of the Culture Institute, Prize of the National Culture Centre, and Prize of the Director of the National Culture Centre) for their extraordinary creative achievement. Naturally, the organisers sought to alter the directives about the festival organisation so this would be the highest prize – a yearly award of Minister of Culture for amateur theatre and elocution. Besides this award, there existed also the Plaque of G. Fejérpataky – Belopotocký.
The seminars ceased to discuss particular productions and started to analyse more general topics of the staging praxis – following the issues produced in Martin by the performances of participating companies representing the sample of current amateur theatre. Besides the particularly interesting productions of professional directors collaborating with amateurs, another professional dramaturgic personalities and actors, for whom the direction was not just a job, started to appear – as well as ambitious amateurs, who often found their way among the professionals.
Many companies started at Scénická Žatva their ascent to the World Festival of Amateur Theatre, or got an invitation to a foreign festival – thanks to foreign spectators who came here either to attend the general assembly, a working meeting of the of the Central European Committee of the International Amateur Theatre Association (CEC AITA/IATA), discussions of editors about theatre magazines, the seminar about organising festivals with foreign participation, or the two editions of the international conference Author – Production – Critique (which was co-organised by the Association of Slovak Theatre Critics and Theoreticians, ICT, and AITA/IATA).
Scénická Žatva 1979 had a new festival tune; the logo was changed, and new, quality promo materials were published.
After extraordinarily fruitful years (e.g. 1980 when 5,000 spectators have seen the performances), organisational problems appeared. Since 1982 the selection key for the winning companies could not be used. This was due to the new structure of Slovak nationwide reviews that changed the annual cycle to biennial, and also to a further decline of puppet companies. The generation change should also be mentioned. Scénická Žatva has become the festival of young theatre followers.
The active participation of citizens on he changes in 1989 left the amateur creative work uninteresting for a time. In the first year of the Slovak Republic the first organisational and administrative problems came. The directions about organising events, classifying companies, awarding the Plaque of G. F. Belopotocký, et al., passed by the Ministry of Culture of SSR were no longer valid. The traditional journey to Martin after culture was losing its strength. Of course, there were a lot more causes that were brought by the transformation of the whole society. In the nineties were validated the words of Jaro Rihák, the member of the jury, that “at Scénická Žatva only those will be of any interest who will bring to Martin their own, authentic performance, which comes out of a distinctive and unique way of perception and style of work; where the creativity and not repeating the already known is the aim; where the quest for an individual expression in the number of shapes and forms of theatre art will join a clearly stated idea, or will subtly and silently prepare the way for a strong idea. For it is possible to do it this way, or a bit some other way, only if it comes from a great depth.”
The model of Scénická Žatva is assembled well, and some festival organisers sought to adopt it; yet no one did as well as Jiráskov Hronov, which can now, retrospectively, serve as the source of our inspiration.
Alena Štefková