The Centre for Theatre Research ApsArt was founded in 2004 with the purpose of developing the applied theatre practice and promoting the idea of a theatre as a personal and social development tool.
The objective of ApsArt is not a theatre game the result of which is art but rather change. We want a theatre that is free of industry, marketing, repertoire, technical equipment, buildings… and people liberated from fear, inabilities and any kind of oppression. Our mission is not to bring people to theatre, but theatre to people.
The theatre and the audience alike are common victims of the modern society that reduces the play to a mere product and the audience to a target group. The ancient unity between a performer and a spectator has been permanently disrupted. The theatre, like a man himself, starts its life with playing a game, and brings misery upon itself the moment it forgets to play, to explore. Thus, we play! We play in prisons, schools, streets, parks, clinics, and kindergartens – wherever there is life. And we do not play FOR the audience but WITH them.
Director Aleksandra Jelić is the founder and president of ApsArt.