APPLE
drama
Vern Thiessen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vern Thiessen (1964), a Canadian playwright.
Born in Winnipeg, where he graduated from the Academy of Arts. He later received his Master’s degree from the University of Alberta, where he taught drama. He was president of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Writers’ Association of Alberta.
Thiessen is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama for “Einstein’s Gift,” the Carol Bolt Award for Best Play for “Vimy,” and the Sterling Award for Outstanding New Play for “Apple.” He has also received the City of Edmonton Arts Achievement Award and the University of Alberta Award.
Thiessen’s work has been translated into several languages, including German, French, Polish and Hebrew. His plays are regularly performed in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as in Australia and Asia. He has served as playwright in residence at the Citadel Theatre and Workshop West Theatre in Edmonton. He is currently an associate artist at Epic Theatre Ensemble in New York, as well as with several theater companies in Toronto and Vancouver.
From 2007 to 2014, he lived in New York City. He returned to Edmonton in 2014 to serve as the Artistic Director of Workshop West Theatre.
Most important plays: “The Courier,” “The Resurrection of John Frum,” “Apple,” “Einstein’s Gift,” “Shakespeare’s Will,” “Back to Berlin,” “Vimy,” “Bird Brain,” “Rich,” “Lenin’s Embalmers,” “The Last Tree of Rapa Nui,” “Do Not Disturb,” “Of Human Bondage” (based on the novel by William Somerset Maugham).
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I am very excited that “Apple” will be making its premiere in Niš. This will be the first time one of my plays has been produced in Serbia. I am only sad that I will not be able to attend the first performances.
I had the great opportunity to visit Serbia last year, when a play I was producing was performed at the Festival of Monodrama and Mime in Belgrade. I was astonished by the warmth of the Serbian people and was welcomed kindly wherever I went.
The long history and excellent quality of Serbian theater are impressive. It is wonderful to know that there are still countries in the world that celebrate theater and its importance in their lives.
Many thanks to the cast and crew of “Apple,” and a special thanks to Spasoje Ž. Milovanović for his outstanding artistry, and to Barbara Tolevska for introducing me to your country.
I hope to be back in Serbia soon.
Sincerely,
Vern Thiessen
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Aleksandra Kovačević
Graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in 1991, in the class of Prof. Ljubiša Georgievski.
She has directed in almost all professional theaters in Macedonia, including the Drama Theater in Skopje, Macedonian National Theater, Theater of Nationalities, Turkish Drama, and co-directed the premiere of MOT (Youth Open Theater). She has also directed at the National Theater in Bitola, Anton Panov Theater in Strumica, Theater in Kumanovo and National Theater in Štip. In addition, she has directed at the Yugoslav Drama Theater and Boško Buha Theater in Belgrade, as well as at the theaters in Kruševac and Kraljevo.
Her productions have been presented and awarded at numerous festivals, including MOT (Youth Open Theater) in Skopje, FIAT in Podgorica, INFANT in Novi Sad, the International Ohrid Summer Festival, Athens – Capital of Culture, the Festival of Alternative Theater in Kočani, the Risto Šiškov Chamber Theater Festival in Strumica, the Comedy Festival in Korçë, Albania, BRAMS, the Joakim Vujić Festival, Joakim Interfest, Mali Joakim, Femart in Pristina, Zvezdarište Theater Festival and Theatre Carousel in Lazarevac, among others.
She worked as a teaching assistant at the Department of Acting at the Faculty of Arts in Pristina and at the University of Braća Karić.
She was a selector of BRAMS and served as a jury member at Theatre Fest in Sarajevo and the Alternative Theater Festival in Pančevo.
She is the author of the theater play “Perpetuum Mobile” and has published in the literary magazine “Povelja” (“Charter”).
She served one term as Manager of the Kraljevo Theater and later as its Artistic Director.
Since 1998, she has been the director of the Evening Stage of the Kraljevo Theater.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Vern Thiessen precisely describes the importance of a pause in the performance of his play in the first stage directions. When one reads such an instruction, although the reading has not yet started, one thinks of Chekhov and Beckett. Through very simple but detailed dialogues (we think of Pinter), the author then introduces us to a kind of oneiric reality arising from the suffering of the characters in a difficult struggle between life and death, love and passion, responsibility and consolation, identity and hidden identities. The protagonist bites his partner’s breast as if it were an apple in the first scene, although it is not an apple, and thus symbolically leaves the Garden of Eden and continues his journey.
The author uses an almost typical melodramatic plot and deals with a love triangle whose characters are, in a slightly improbable yet truthful way, connected in a dramatic situation of struggling with the severe illness of one of them. Illness is what makes a plain soul become more refined. Death is at the door, face to face with them, and they confront their own lives only to realize that it is through the other that they can learn the truth. Repetitive dialogues with silences in between support the plot, speaking louder than anything else said aloud.
It is in silence, repetitiveness and rhythm that the identities blend into one another. It is in the blue of the lake, in the sky above and the landscape surrounding it, and through the reality of the moment, that the unreality of death is revealed. The shore where the characters from “Apple” find themselves is the shore where one crosses from one world to the other. The play carries the atmosphere of a dream, thick with pain, beauty and passion. Gently and emotionally, on a thin line between dreams and reality, we have created a special atmosphere for this powerful and, at the same time, strange story of love and death.
Aleksandra Kovačević, Stage Director
Prof. Ljiljana Petrović, a costume designer and full professor of scenic costume at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade.
She has designed costumes for a number of feature films, including “Father,” “Circles,” “The Forger,” “My Beautiful Country,” “The Tour,” “The Trap,” “Absolute 100,” “The Small World,” “Lightning,” “When I Grow Up, I’ll Become a Kangaroo,” and others, as well as for more than 150 theater productions at almost all leading theaters in Belgrade and national theaters throughout Serbia. She has also designed costumes for television dramas, short and animated films. In addition, she has designed costumes for more than 350 advertising projects, including commercials and music videos.
She has been a visiting professor at art universities and institutions, including the University of Arts “Mimar Sinan” in Istanbul, ENSAD in Paris, and institutions in Boston, Connecticut and Bloomington, USA.
She is a recipient of a Goethe-Institut scholarship and 13 awards for costume design, including the Golden Tooba Award for Best Costume Design – Paradise Tree for the “Cargo” project, a joint project with A. Kostić (Visual Arts Festival, Tehran, Iran); awards for Best Costume Design in a feature film at FIPRESCI and Sofest; the Golden Mimosa; the Costume Design Award at the May Salon; annual awards of ULUPUDS; awards for costume design for the productions “King Lear,” “Villa Sachino” and “Trapped Sun”; the Award of the Chamber of Commerce of Belgrade; the YUSTAT Award; the Grand Prize of the University of Arts in Belgrade; the Silver Coin of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade; the Award for Artistic Creativity; and the Recognition of the City of Požega, among others.
The project “The Last Supper” is part of the collection of the Lapidarium Museum in Croatia. The design “The Mask” is part of the collection of the New Drama Center in Bloomington, USA, while the costume design for “Cargo” was purchased by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.
She was the curator for the Serbian selection at the international exhibition “Innovative Costume: The Next Generation,” held at the A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum in Moscow, Russia, in 2019.
She is a member of ULUPUDS, the film association AFUN (Academy of Film Art and Science of Serbia), the international association of costume and set designers OISTAT, and an honorary member of ULUPUH (Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts).
When is this performance playing?
You can find all upcoming dates on the Repertoire page.
BASIC INFORMATION
Genre
Drama
Age
14+
Premiere
June 18, 2019
Stage
Main Stage
CREATIVE TEAM
Text
Vern Thiessen
Direction
Aleksandra Kovačević
Translation
Duška Milisavljević
Set and Costume Design
Ljiljana Petrović
Composer
Bratislav Zlatković
Choreographer
Danica Ničić
Language Editor
Nataša Ilić
Photography
Milan Nestorović
Assistant Costume Designer
Katarina Filipović
Organizer
Miloš Pavlović
CHARACTERS
ANDY
Danilo Petrović
LIN
Katarina Mitić Pavlović
SAM
Kristina Tomić, guest artist
TECHNICAL TEAM
Head of Technical Department
Ljubiša Živković
Stage Manager
Vladislav Đorđević
Prompter
Ozren Mitić
Sound
Vladislav Đorđević
Video
Slobodan Ilić
Lighting Design
Dejan Mitić
Lighting Technician
Nemanja Pavlović
Stage Manager
Slaviša Filipović
Set Builders
Srđan Kitanović, Radomir Pešić, Dragan Dinić, Radovan Živković, Miodrag Đorđević, Mića Lazarević
Props Master
Marko Đorđević
Wardrobe
Dušica Mladenović, Marko Dinić
Makeup and Wig Artists
Ljiljana Rašić, Ivana Lazarević
Tailoring
Marina Stevanović, Vladimir Pekić
Upholstery
Dragan Dinić
Workshop
Bogoljub Đorđević, Goran Stanković, Dragan Perić
Procurement
Bogdan Todorović
Driver
Nebojša Šarčević