Zoran Stefanović, the recently appointed artistic director of Drama at the National Theatre in Belgrade, he replied with a letter to the criminal complaint sent by SINGLUS to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, the actor's union of this company, against the minister Nikola Selaković, the president of the Board of Directors of the National Theater Dragoslav Bokan and the acting director of that company Dragoljub Bajić, accusing them of harmful actions for the collective.
We quote the letter almost in its entirety.
As well as the text by which Zoran Stefanović announced his appointment and this is long - about 15.000 characters with spaces.
The title of the letter is Nameless winemaker, actor in civilian clothes and the flourishing of the National Theater in Belgrade, and the subtitle "Response of the drama director of the National Theater in Belgrade to the president of the trade union 'Singl', regarding the criminal complaint against the Minister of Culture of Serbia, the president of the board of directors and the manager of the theater".
Photo: FonetDarko Tomovic
It has been sent. Darko Tomović, probably because he, as the president of Singlus, signed the criminal complaint, and not all Singlus members who submitted it to TOK.
You didn't mention me in your application.
He immediately reproaches him with the following:
"Even though I am your direct manager, the newly arrived artistic director of the drama department at the (Royal Serbian) National Theater, you did not mention me by name either in the application or in the media, but only by my actions. This made me feel bad, because I, as a hero of potential organized crime, would like to join this general history of dishonor, so that my name would be sung in the fiddle."
Stefanović then apologizes to Tomović for, he says, misquoting him in the media and regarding young actors who have been threatened with being fired. Namely, there is only one actor in question, and Stefanović is advocating for him not to be fired.
Photo: FoNet/Marko DragoslavićActors' strike
Three unspoken merits
After that, he reminds Tomović what he kept silent about:
"First. The most important thing. You saw for yourself that my presence these few weeks as the director of drama of the National Theater was strictly focused on the welfare of the house, art, culture, employees and their families, and that there was no political or other segregation."
Second. I identified and acknowledged the mistakes that the state of Serbia, as the owner of the institution and our employer, made in the culture of the previous four decades, and I officially reported to you what the state and the administration are doing now to reform the (Royal Serbian) National Theater in Belgrade and our culture.
Third. I agreed to all your Singles union demands and began to implement them, only to suddenly renew the rebellion after only a few weeks. And filed this colorful criminal complaint."
With your voice in my mind
In the part of the text, which is subtitled "Criminal complaint as a monodrama", he writes that he read the criminal complaint "as a monodrama, of course, with your voice in my mind. (I didn't have time to make it as a movie with your character through artificial intelligence.)"
So he says:
"The application has the stream of consciousness of the one who wrote it (whoever he is), a personality that emerges in all dimensions, but there is no legal education even at the level of a secondary law-bureaucratic school. As a dramatist, of course, I love that force. And I ignore the obvious flaws: ignorant expression in the Serbian language; invented accusations; ignorance of legal terms (not the same as suspect, accused, accused or convicted), law (knowledge of what constitutes a criminal offense), drafting of legal documents (this is a parody of a legal document) or the legal system in Serbia (the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime is not responsible for these issues, nor are you responsible for all of this); factual negligence (incomplete or incorrect names of acts), etc.
Your concern is touching what the shining "Region" — political Zagreb, Sarajevo, Ljubljana and Tirana, the arch-bearers of European civilization and culture — will say about the leaders of the (Royal Serbian) National Theater in Belgrade, and that's why they won't invite us as wedding guests and dear guests (while they make regional military pacts). There is also a hint of paranoia in your application about the people you are slandering, and who, I speak now as a witness and participant, have only done good to you and yours, because they literally give you bread in your hands. (I did not know those people from the state and the administration of the NP until I received an offer for this position. But their arguments led me to easily decide on a position that is understood as one of the most unpleasant in the history of Serbian culture. And none of them gave me prior instructions. I work according to the law and conscience, with my team.)
The most liberal theater
Your big slogans about censorship, freedom of speech and the right to personal opinion are for little children this time. The National Theater in Belgrade is the most liberal national theater in Europe, perhaps in the world. And not only by critical performances. You can ask the embassies of Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Holland and other benevolent countries if the actors there would arrive twice to carry the political banner on their national stages.
It will not be tolerated.
This brings us to the main dispute that you and I may have regarding illegal behavior: henceforth, it will not be tolerated to use the stages of the National Theater in Belgrade for propaganda or anything else that is not an integral and approved part of the performance as a work of art. As far as that is concerned, the employment contract that you all signed, the accompanying internal acts and the entire labor law are clear.
Protest of the National Theater
You've noticed that stage abuse is the only instance where my mythical tolerance and superhuman understanding of people has been completely reduced, and for good reason. The stage is sacred, because it was created from the altar, and the theater was created from the temple, and to this day their spiritual function is real. It is dishonorable and unwise to abuse the privilege of addressing humanity from the stage for any purpose other than the performance of our business, the lofty mission of purifying and ennobling human souls. Our "doing work" is not, therefore, our simple work process and business obligation, but rather the creation of a work of art, a work that must not be polluted in its consecrated space. And we are also employees paid by the main, state, national theater. Other forms of expression of personal opinion are guaranteed by law, but not this form.
I think your application is legally worthless, but that's just me. And I suspect that she is politically worthless. The application serves as a media ploy to maintain tension and conflict in the echo chamber you live in, at a time when the real world, the planet, is shaking, about to explode.
But there is something that is not a trick in the application. You abolish the presumption of innocence, prejudge living people and their families, and advocate (revolutionary) summary judgment. You set precedents. That's not good, they say in my area, Podrinje and Kolubari."
The state is a fair employer
In the rest of the text, he answers the question from the subheading "Are we in the time of the flourishing of the National Theatre?", and right at the beginning he points out that "the year 2026 brought peace and betterment to the employees", and that "the state has shown itself to be an unusually fair employer. In times of crisis, salaries in the theater are regular, the work is carried out, no one was fired after the rebellion, awards are given based on merit and not on party affiliation, all programs and plans from the previous administrations are being implemented (including new performances). is the old artistic council and some other bodies, the previous material and interpersonal damage is repaired..."
And here's what we did.
Then he recalls "what was started to be prepared in a short time, from the beginning of the year, with the prospect that it will bear fruit relatively quickly: correction of the price and labor coefficient; systemic increase of salaries and benefits; preparation for investment maintenance of the building after 40 years; completion of fire protection (which in its previous state could have led to a tragedy of historical proportions); restoration of the public address system; increase of own income in difficult financial circumstances; rejuvenation of personnel; care of doyens in retirement; work on cultural diplomacy, world presentation of the house and our culture; further genre and cultural adjustment of the repertoire, and many other important streams, etc., etc.
"You also saw that I sincerely tried to fulfill all your demands of a trade union nature without delay: that fellow actors who have been working part-time for years be accepted into permanent employment, that the number of organizers (producers) in the drama be preserved, that I be a 'lawyer' for misguided colleagues who sometimes spread falsehoods about the house in the media, etc.
How did you think you could go against the minister
And then, in the middle of the general improvement, you started again with political banners and simulations of criminal charges. That doesn't seem like reasonable behavior.''
In the part of the text entitled "Union that is not", Stefanović asks three hundred questions to the trade unionists. Let's mention only one thing: "Are you leading the members to think that it is even possible to replace the representatives of your own employer, the state, the Republic of Serbia: the Minister of Culture, members of the board of directors, administrators and management, us directors of the artistic and professional sectors? (In reality, such replacement is possible only under two conditions: 1. that you gain power by participating in the elections, or 2. that a new employer arrives on a foreign tank and appoints you with a decision written in a foreign language.)"
The series of questions ends with a conclusion:
"If your answer to the above questions, like mine, is affirmative - I congratulate you. With this, you have excluded Singlus as an official factor in improving working conditions in the National Theater. Singlus is thus not a trade union, but a parapolitical organization, part of some revolutionary movement that is incomprehensible to me."
Singlus, I appreciate, has become detrimental to the people who trust it and whom the union supposedly represents.
And even more: it seems that Singlus, due to its lack of knowledge of the law and its procedures, is commercially incapable of carrying out trade union activities and representing workers' rights.
Since, if I haven't already emphasized, I am employed in a theater and I also love drama, I was, literally until today (March 10), somewhat surprised by your colorful behavior, where you and I agree on everything and start working on the realization of your demands, and then after a month you abuse the theater stage by pushing younger colleagues and women to rally. And you announce to me, with a raised hand in the direction of the drama, that "there will still be rebellions" because, as you say, Nikola Selaković, Dragoslav Bokan and Dragoljub Bajić are "enemies with whom there is no compromise".
I hear that the local elections are near
I swear to you, I thought that this changeability was some picturesque psychological and character trait of yours. However, today (March 10) I hear that there are some particularly important local elections in Serbia this month. This may indicate that you, suddenly, against all agreements and reason, with this rebellion in fact renewed the true activity of the trade union.
Do you, colleague Tomović, lead a "union" whose actions in all cases are only part of the "Student List" pre-election campaign? (I'm not at all questioning that there really aren't any students there, which I know for sure as a student at the University of Arts in Belgrade.)"
Servant of God who will write history
Stefanović ends this text with a segment entitled "Offstage, everyone chooses his own role" in which he indirectly gives Tomović advice such as "I would be sorry if you hid the activity of a political activist and revolutionary behind the mask of a 'trade union leader', using acting (your gift, calling and bread!)". He tells him that he "as a dramatist and cultural historian, a servant of God with a pen that will write some of the future histories, I can't wait to see who writes and directs all those roles."
But it is not too late to come back to ourselves and continue where we left off. I will continue in any case."
He signed himself as "Your well-wisher, Zoran Stefanović, in the service of the artistic director of the drama sector of the National Theater in Belgrade."
Although the letter is for Darko Tomović, Zoran Stefanović also sent it to other members of the National Theater Singlus.
