Open-Air Theatre
The tendency to stage and perform plays outdoors stems from the fact that in the Primorska region, theatre attendance significantly declines with the warming of late spring. As a result, repertoire planning at the end or beginning of the season often included site-specific, open-air productions.
For example, many still remember the staging of Bulgakov’s adaptation of Don Quixote, which in 1984 took over Kontrada, the main square in Kanal. The scenographer was Vojteh Ravnikar, later the architect of the Nova Gorica theatre building; he also collaborated on the production of Rojas’s Celestina, staged in 1998 in the medieval setting of Šmartno in the Brda region. Other notable open-air productions include Goldoni’s The Bickering Women performed in the streets of Piran in the summer of 2001, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in 2003 in the evocative landscape of the Sečovlje salt pans, and Cankar’s The King of Betajnova in 2005 at the symbolic site of the former dance floor near the Kromberk swimming pool.
An open-air theatre in Nova Gorica had been planned from the very beginning of the realisation of the new theatre building. The more than three-decade-old idea gained new momentum when the city was awarded the title of European Capital of Culture 2025; the foundation stone was laid in May 2022.
According to the original plans by Ravnikar, the open-air theatre was conceived as an extension of the building, located at the rear, facing the Borov gozdiček city park. Performances were to take place on a side stage that would open towards outdoor seating.
In 2012, the plans were revisited by architects Robert Potokar (a former collaborator of Ravnikar) and Tanja Košuta. The stage is now architecturally and functionally connected to the theatre, yet physically separated from the main building, allowing the outdoor amphitheatre to operate independently. Designed as a semi-circular pavilion structure, the venue allows for easy transformation of seating into standing space and includes a partially movable roof. It accommodates around 500 visitors and serves not only theatre productions but also a wide range of other events.
Avtor: Ana Perne