Shakespeare Festival in Serbia from June 19 to 25

BELGRADE - The first Shakespeare Festival in Serbia will take place in Cortanovci, near Indjija in the south of the province of Vojvodina, from June 19 to 25, and present the latest productions of Shakespeare's plays.

The festival will bring together theatres from the UK, US, Georgia, Greece, Finland, Slovenia and Serbia, and the accompanying program- experts in the field of Shakespeare studies and artists.

As part of the world tour marking 450 years since Shakespeare's birth, the festival will open with "Hamlet" by the Globe Theatre from London.

The program also includes: "As You Like It" by the State Drama Theatre Kote Marjanishvili from Tbilisi, "The Taming of the Shrew" by the Ljubljana City Theatre, "Romeo and Juliet for Two" by a theatre company from Athens, "Poor, Poor Lear" by Nina Sallinen (Helsinki, Los Angeles).

The Belgrade-based National Theatre will take part in the festival with "Henry VI", and students of the Academy of Arts from Novi Sad with the project titled "Shakespeare Museum".

The organizer of the festival, Itaka Art Centar, underlines that the aim of the festival, unique in this part of Europe, is to cherish the works of the world's greatest playwright by presenting an appealing theater program under the open sky, as was the case in Shakespeare's time.

The plays will be staged at Villa Stankovic, one of the most beautiful summer residences in Serbia, built on the Danube river bank on the model of medieval castles in Lombardy.

The idea of establishing this festival was hatched by Serbian director Nikita Milivojevic, after the premiere of his play "Henry VI" at the Globe Theatre as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympics.

Besides the love of Shakespeare...