Author in focus 2024

The Macedonian Theatre Festival “Vojdan Chernodrinski” – Prilep has named Goran
Stefanovski as its Author in Focus for its 58th run. For Macedonian drama and theatre, Goran
Stefanovski is considered one of the most significant authors, professors, and theatre artists.
His work is original, auteur, and complex, and his approach to drama and theatre is authentic
and unique. In 1974, Macedonian drama and its theatres witnessed perhaps the scene’s most
prodigious entrance, and indubitably the most impressive premiere of a dramatic text, in the

form of the show “Yane Zadrogaz” by Goran Stefanovski, directed by Slobodan Unkovski, and
produced by the Dramatic Theatre – Skopje. This text and performance signal a big change in
Macedonian dramaturgy, a change that brings into focus the contemporary undercurrent of
postmodernism and any / all related stamps of the new age. Goran Stefanovski’s legacy
consists of a plethora of memorable and quotable lines, mighty and proactive words, powerful
sentences and undoubtedly, thus far, the establishing of one of the most creative theatre
frameworks.
For this reason, it was beyond important for us to dedicate this year to Goran Stefanovski, and
due to this, a number of activities are planned for the festival: a portrait of Goran Stefanovski,
FDU for Goran Stefanovski, writing workshops, conversations, and book promotions. The most
famous Macedonian dramatic author Goran Stefanovski was born in Bitola on April 27th, 1952.
He passed away in Canterbury, England on November 27, 2018. He graduated English
Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology in Skopje. He studied English Language
and Literature in Belgrade. He finished his Master’s degree on the subject of “Violence in the
Scene as a Foundation for the Dramaturgy of Samuel Beckett” (1979). He worked as a
dramaturgist in the drama segment program of TV Skopje (1974-1978), and then as an
assistant in English Literature at the Faculty of Philology Skopje (1978-1986), with a focus on
Shakespeare and British Drama. From 1986 until 1998, he was a professor in Dramaturgy at the
Faculty for the Dramatic Arts – Skopje. In 1990, during the summer semester, he worked at
Brown University in Providence, Road Island, USA through the Fulbright Scholarship, awarding
him with the title of Notable Artist. From 1998 until 2000, he became a visiting professor of
Dramaturgy at the Swedish Institute of Dramatic Art in Stockholm, Sweden, and from the year
2000 he became an honorary professor of Dramaturgy at the University of Kent and at the
Canterbury Christ Church in Canterbury, Great Britain.
List of Works Composed by Goran Stefanovski: “Yane Zadrogaz” (1974); “Divo Meso” (1979);
“Stationary Flight” (1981); “HiFi” (1983); “Double Rock Bottom” (1984); “Tattooed Souls” (1985);
“Black Hole” (1987); “Long Play” (1988); “Babylonian Tower” (1989); “La Traviata” (Rock
Opera, 1989); “Zodiac” (Rock Balet, 1990); “Chernodrinski Comes Back Home” (1991); “I Love
Chernodrinski” (1991); “Sarajevo” (Performance of the promotion of Antwerp as European
Cultural Capital, 1993), “Old Man Draging Stone” (Choreodrama, 1994); “Kazabalkan” (1998);
“Euralien” (Scenario for a theatre project in performance by 50 actors and 13 directors,
commissioned by “Intercult”, Stockholm and performed as part of the European Cultural Capital
– Stockholm, 1998); “On the Road to Baghdad” (Performed by the dance-theatre Greencandle,
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, 1999); “Hotel Europe” (Concept, scenario, and dramaturgy for
the European theatre project directed by nine directors from Eastern Europe; coproduced by
“Intercult”, Stockholm and festivals in Vienna, Bologna, Bon and Avignon, 2000), “Everyman”
(2003).
He also wrote screenplays for a number of TV dramas (“Clinch”, 1974; “Gas Station Tom”,
1978; “Tumba, Tumba, Wilderness”, 1980) and shows (“Our Years”, 1979; “Scattered Alphabet”,
1985). He is the author of the dramaturgic format for the children’s TV Show “Our
Neighborhood” (Produced by SCC, USA, in cooperation with the Sezamov Workshop

[Children's Television Workshop], 1999-2001). He’s also worked on the screenplays to two
animated movies (“HiFi”, 1988, and “A Story From the Wild East”, 1994).
Awards: Award “11th of October” (1980); Sterin Award for Best Dramatic Work (For the plays
“Divo Meso”, 1980, and “Black Hole”, 1988); the “Stale Popov” award; the award for best
dramatic work given by the Macedonian Theatre Festival “Vojdan Chernodrinski” – Prilep (for
the plays “HiFi”, 1983, “Double Rock Bottom”, 1985; “Tattooed Souls”, 1987; “Babylonian
Tower”, 1990).
Goran Stefanovski is performed across all Macedonian theatre scenes (Skopje, Bitola, Shtip,
Strumica, Prilep, Veles, Ohrid, etc.), across all (at one point) Yugoslovenian cultural centres
(Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Nish, Mostar, Banja Luka, Subotica, Pirot,
Titograd, Tuzla, Cele, Leskovac, Varazdin, Rieka, Zajechar, Zrenjanin, Prishtina, Osiek,
Sombor, Kragujevac, Vrsac, etc.), and all the way to the biggest theatre centres in the world:
Paris, Belgrade, Budapest, London, Pazardzhik, Sofia, Varna, Zagreb, Moscow, number U.S.
cities, in Brezno in Slovakia, in Łódź in Poland, Antwerp in Belgium, Stockholm, etc.