Theatre group Rače
Theatrical activity has a rich tradition in Rače, as various performances and plays took place on the stage of the Primary School Rače between 1923 and 1941.
After a few years of lull, theatrical performance was revived again after WW2 and it continued successfully until 1960, when stage activities ceased again for some time.
Later, between 1970 and 1985, the theatre group started its activities again at intervals, until in 2008 Melita Lašič, as a director, gathered a group of people with a desire to perform on stage. In the beginning, they joined forces with a theatre club from the Primary School Rače and put on stage a play by the brothers Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The first premiere was in the same year at Christmas time and it had quite a few reruns, and above all a positive response from the audience.
In March 2009, the group expanded and preparations began for the staging of Tone Partljič’s comedy, Partnership. It was immediately a great success. Moreover, the actress Simona Napast received Linhart Encounter Award (on the regional level) for her role as a cleaning lady Maria. For the same part, she won the title of the comedienne of the year 2011 in Pekre at Comedy Festival.
In 2011, some actors of the theatre team (Alen Jelšek, Tina Kovačič, Melita Lašič and Simona Napast) participated in the film project directed by Rudi Uran. As members of the film team Nebeška vas, we proudly walked the red carpets at the premieres at Planet Tuš in Celje and Maribor.
In the acting season of 2012, we put on stage Vinko Möderndorfer’s comedy, Checkmate, in which the actor Darko Bedjanič played the role of Mr. Kralj and received the Linhart Award as the best male actor.
In the next acting season, Anton Žumbar’s comedy, Moj Vinko, delighted not only the players but the audience as well. It was very successful and remained in the programme of the year 2015, too.
The 2014/2015 season began with another in a series of comedies, Patients in the Waiting Room, by the author from the Slovene Littoral, Andrej Jelačin. With it, we once again presented ourselves at Linhart Encounter, an annual festival of non-professional Slovene theatre groups, where our amateur actors stood out again, as Borut Batagelj alias painter Franci received an award for the best male role.
In the 2015/2016 season, we prepared a comic play by Branislav Nušić, The Bereaved Family, with an evergreen theme about wills and inheritance, in which our actress Simona Napast received another Linhart Award for the role of Sarka.
In July 2016, a part of our team (Borut Batagelj, Smiljan Fras, Melita Lašič, Simona Napast and Aleksander Sinadinović) played in a new feature film directed by Rudi Uran, Future: Open.
In the 2016/2017 season, we presented Vinko Möderndorfer’s comedy, The Authority, which we also had a great success with. At another Linhart Encounter, two of our actors received Linhart awards: Branko Leva for the leading male role of Ante Pešalič and Barbara Arcet for the supporting female role of Marjana Consulting.
We started the 2020 season with the premiere of the English comedy Madmen’s Day (originally What the Butler Saw). The play was at once a great success but due to the coronavirus pandemic our activities and stage performances were temporarily postponed.
The current cast: Barbara Arcet, Nino Auer, Borut Batagelj, Smiljan Fras, Alen Jelšek, Barbara Jurički, Branko Leva, Alenka Petrović, Irena Podgrajšek, Aleksander Sinadinović, Klavdija Volf.
Director: Melita Lašič
Whisperer and language consultant: Marjana Granda
Lighting and music technician: Borut Batagelj, Aleksander Sinadinović
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Former actors: Urška Aram, Darko Bedjanič, Denis Beras, Ana Breznik, Simon Breznik, Mateja Kolarič, Andreja Kovačič, Tina Kovačič, Valerija Kovačič, Blaža Krasnik, Rolando Lašič, Pia Leitinger, Renata Mesarič, Simona Napast, Antonija Ribič, Mihaela Stojko, Miloš Vukobrat, Ivan Zajc.