Festival Team
Artistic director Aleš Novak
Producer and Assistant to the artistic director Mojca Kolar
Executive producer and Public relations Daša Šprinčnik
Visual identity designer Trampolin d.o.o.
Festival publications editor Ksenija Repina
Production assistants Nika Škof, Klara Šulek, Nina Slanič, Zala Reich
Photographer Boštjan Lah
Technical managers Matic Gselman, Matic Kašnik
Competition Programme Selector of the 60th Festival Ajda Rooss
Artistic Board
Uroš Korenčan, Jure Novak, Nina Kirbiš, Mojca Jan Zoran, Vesna Jurca Tadel, Tomaž Toporišič
Ajda Rooss graduated in 2002 from the Department of Dramaturgy at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana. As a dramaturge, director, actress, and publicist with the status of an independent cultural creator, she collaborated with various Slovenian theaters and festivals. Between 2005 and 2009, she was employed as a dramaturge at the Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, and from 2011 to 2022, she served as the artistic director of the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre.
Through her bold artistic vision, which integrated contemporary and diverse artistic approaches, the theater became one of the most productive, emancipatory, and refined in Slovenia. The artistic vitality of the theater during this period is evidenced by numerous awards and recognitions, as well as a wealth of performances at prestigious puppet festivals across Europe. During her tenure, she also shaped the artistic direction of the international biennial festival of contemporary puppet arts, Lutke. In recent years, the festival significantly expanded its influence and established itself as one of the most elite puppet festivals in Europe.
In 2015, she was one of the creators of the Puppet Museum, which features a permanent exhibition inaugurated that same year at Ljubljana Castle. For her role in establishing the Slovenian Puppet Museum and designing its accompanying content and visual materials, she received the Pengov Charter in 2017, awarded by the Slovenian UNIMA Association, and a special award for originality and excellence in bringing cultural heritage closer to children, which was presented to her in 2018 in Malta by the European Museum Academy and the International Association of European Museums.
During the academic years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022, she was a visiting lecturer on the subject Practical Dramaturgy, teaching Puppet Theatre and Theatre for Children and Youth at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana. In 2023, she served as a member of the jury for the Maribor Theatre Festival.
The Maribor Theatre Festival is the main Slovenian theatre festival, which has been enriching the Slovenian theatre and cultural space for more than half a century. It takes place in the first half of June at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor. The programme includes a selection of performances by Slovenian institutional and non-governmental producers in a competitive and accompanying programme, invited theatre performances from abroad, training, workshops and audience development activities, student theatre and professional events in cooperation with Slovenian and foreign co-organisers. It usually lasts for 14 days and is attended by numerous national and international guests, including foreign festival selectors, artistic and programme directors, journalists and other interested and professional public. The festival is financed in comparable proportions by the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Maribor and is independently managed by an artistic director.
In over six decades of its existence, the festival has realised and surpassed the vision of its founders and has become the most important Slovenian theatre event, a promoter of Slovenian theatre creativity and an ambassador of Slovenian theatre in international relations and abroad. It is an important institution for the development of national theatrical expression, a rounded programme structure based on the presentation of current productions as well as on the reflection of relevant theatrical issues and the verification of current theatrical phenomena. It has also always been a central celebration of Slovenian theatre creators. The festival awards prizes for achievements in several fields of theatre creativity, the most prestigious of which is the Borštnik Ring, a prize for an outstanding acting opus.
The Festival's fundamental aim is to select and present the finest achievements of the Slovenian theatre season, to award theatre artists and their creative achievements, to promote and popularise theatre creativity among audiences of all ages, both at home and abroad, to encourage the quality and professional level of Slovenian theatre artistry, facilitate the flow of information and exchange of performances, present foreign theatre creativity and to promote the diversity as well as the coherence of theatrical space and expression.
Maribor Theatre Festival was introduced in 1966 at the initiative of the versatile theater artist Fran Žižek, then director of the Maribor Drama, and was initially named the Week of Slovenian Theaters in Maribor. The name Maribor Theatre Festival (Borštnikovo srečanje) was adopted in 1970, in honor of the first Slovenian professional actor and director, Ignacij Borštnik. Josip Vidmar, who was also the chairman of the festival committee in its first year, granted a prestigious place to the acting profession within the festival. That year, the Borštnik Ring was awarded for the first time, recognizing an actor's lifetime achievement. In the early 1970s, an expert jury began to present awards, during which time the festival developed its competitive nature. In 1994, Rudi Šeligo, as the president of the Borštnik Meeting Council, introduced a selector for the competitive program, and in 2005, during Tone Partljič's presidency, the first regulations governing the festival were adopted. Four years later, when artistic director Alja Predan took office, the festival was renamed the Borštnik Meeting Festival and began to open up to the international scene. Since 2018, the artistic direction of the festival has been led by Aleš Novak, who extended the festival's duration, strengthened its international character, and introduced several new program components, including a day for theater creators, training, an international student theater, and audience development. The core of the festival's program remains the selection of performances by Slovenian producers in both the competitive and accompanying programs.
