The Mostar Youth Theatre (Mostarski Teatar Mladih – MTM), Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Mostar Youth Theatre – MTM – was founded on the 24th February 1974. The main part of their work has been dedicated to the continuous and systematic theatrical education of children and young people. For this education the best progressive modern European methods have been followed. The performances of the Mostar Youth Theatre are an ongoing creative process, showing to the audience the phases of each pieces evolving stage life.

The young people who attend MTM are involved and trained in all elements of performance, especially free improvisation, acting games, physical theatre, movement, voice, pantomime, dance, masks, various styles of acting etc. Through such work MTM has had the following results: young actors continuing with their further acting education; young actors obtaining professional engagements; young actors who become permanent members of MTM; a regular audience becoming more and more faithful and enthusiastic in their support of the work.

The Mostar Youth Theatre has the following activities: a childrens drama group; a youth drama group; the senior MTM group; a music group; a dance group; a video – art group; and the MTM club – gallery.

The Mostar Youth Theatre also organises an International Festival of Youth Theatres called “Days of Youth”. It aims to assemble as good a collection of new ideas as possible from within youth theatres internationally. The Festival is held every year around the last weekend of August. MTM make four awards for the best original new pieces. They are called the “Mravac” awards.

In addition the Mostar Youth Theatre have established an International award called the “Grozdanin Kikot” award for the five individuals/organisations who have made significant contributions to the development of drama education. The awards are presented at a ceremony on the 24th February each year in Mostar on the occasion of the Mostar Youth Theatre‘s birthday.

The Mostar Youth Theatre, through the Centre for Educational Drama in Bosnia & Herzegovina (CDO BiH) is a member of the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA).

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Impressions of Mostar by cultural manager Sibylla Hausmann

Mostar, the cultural center in the South of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been divided into two camps since the Bosnian War (1992-1995): the Muslim-Bosnian East and the Catholic-Croatian West.
Political decision-making processes take place under difficult circumstances here, and it is difficult to think about  practical realities in a way that transcends ethnic boundaries.
For the theatrical landscape, this means, among other things, that the public theater is separated from the puppet theater – a genre with a special tradition in Mostar – in both the "Croatian" and "Bosnian" parts of the town. A difficult situation for a small town with little more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Mostar now has five state theaters, including the Youth Theater, which has been hosting Robert Bosch Cultural Manager Sibylla Hausmann since August 2009.
Beyond the above-mentioned problems, the city is a challenging as well as attractive location: in addition to its architectural and scenic features, Mostar is also conveniently located between the capital Sarajevo and the Adriatic coast.