If I were to single out drama pieces out from my literary opus, and if I were to analyze the constantpoetics of dramafrom a standpoint of theater studies, I can state that it is being formulated into a specific system,per se. So, the system is not explicita priori. It is possible to classify the opus of drama into several different chapters: Drama for children and youth, with a specific examination of the dramaturgy of puppetry; Drama that examines the ethnological substance, myths, the magical and ritualistic Slavonic ceremonies, wherein the role of the Woman and customs tied to her actions are being made point ofin the micro and macro spaces of life; Family drama (conditionally speaking) that examines and notes the dramatic form of heightening realness and absurdity, metamorphosis and dissolution of established models and ethic norms. The common matter is; not abiding by the limits of genre, flexibility of dramatic structure to interventions, rewriting, dramaturgical and directorial interpretations when translating to the stage language. Adapting to the actor’s interpretation of the character. Along with drama writing, I am also a dramaturge of many performances of contemporary theater. Also, I have done many dramatizations and adaptations. I thought the subject Practical Dramaturgy at the Academy of PerformingArts in Sarajevo for over 20 years. I worked on a large number of radio-dramas, dramatizations and adaptations for the medium of radio. Along with theater, radio has been very useful in drama writing.
Why was I doing so much? How useful was it to new generations? The audience? A writer cannot provide an exact, precisely formulated answer. And even to a theatrologist eludes the entirely, theoretically established analysis, or it happens to be relative to the context and currents of drama literature. Maybe the most exact being: my fascination with drama and theater. Which, over time, became and stayed the love of my life.
Ljubica Ostojić was born in February 20th 1945 in Belgrade (Serbia), and by the end of the same year she was living in Sarajevo (BiH), where she completed her education and acquired university diplomas. She graduated at the Academy of Pedagogy (Department of Fine Arts) and the Faculty of Philosophy (Comparative Literature – Theater Studies), in Sarajevo. She continues life and work in Sarajevo until today.
She worked as a dramaturge of the Drama Stage of the Youth Theater and a professional writer with the status of a free-lance artist, a theater critic of many years standing in showcases “ECHO” and “The Literary Showcase” and newspapers “Oslobođenje” and “Večernje Novine”, the editor of a documentary, experimental and poetic drama at Radio Sarajevo, and a collaborative dramaturge at the Youth Theater in Mostar /MTM/. From 1994 – 2016 she worked as a lecturer of Practical Dramaturgy at the Academy of Performing Arts /ASU/ in Sarajevo, as a full-time professor.
She also writes radio-dramas, TV dramas and scripts, critique and essays from the area of theater arts, literature and fine arts. She is a dramaturge, a dramatist and adaptor of many performances of contemporary theater. She wrote and published 15 books of poetry and prose, 7 drama texts, 10 books of poetry and prose for children.
Her poetry, critique and radio dramas have been translated to English, Albanian, German, Hungarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Slovenian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Greek, and French language…
She is a member of the Writers’ Society of BiH from 1974 and the P.E.N. Center of BiH. She won many awards and acknowledgements in literature and theater studies.
Sve se nekako preživi, osim smrti
It all started from the news of the International Pillow Fight Day that has been marked in over 130 cities withno incidents. How should that appeal to a Sarajevan citizen who not too long ago lived and suffered through the siege spanning almost four years, under countless falling grenades, shot each day and night from surrounding hills, sniper fire, and the horror and terror of war, without any fighting pillows?
Implicitly, through the dramatic activity and the ticking of a broken old wall clock, a typical Sarajevan family in transition will show what happens in the aftermath of war, while the rest of humanity (for the most part) regularly marks the aforementioned International Pillow Fight Day. This Family is the main protagonist. Brothers of the broken family – Emin, the librarian and poet who often times relies on escapism (he is incognito meaning he isn’t belonging to any notion), Edin, a disappointed former fighter (wife and children sought refuge in Sweden); Emilia, the wife to Emin, she is energetic, enterprising, realistic; her mother Ms. Mama, from Belgrade and married sometime in the past in Sarajevo, a dear and somewhat demented old lady; Hedija, the pre-war neighbor and war widow, a living example of a perishing former neighborhood; Una and Ena, daughters to Emin and Emilia, twins. Una is getting preparing to leave to London, Ena in love with Alija staying in the relationship, will get married when she graduates from the studies of English language (upon her mother’s insistence); But, to a simple and strong character, not typical to the contemporary youth, ready to work and build a life with a wife he is in love with. Time, Life and Death quickly running out, interplay in the breakdown of the Family which is entering some new kind of form.
This is also one image of contemporary Sarajevo. Sad, bitter and powerless, for those with a taste for it.
