The press conference for this occasion took place at the Palace of the Festival where Ivica Prlender, General Manager of the Festival, Dora Ruždjak Podolski, Theatre Program Director, Franka Perković, director of the play, Tomislav Zajec, author of the drama and Branko Maranić, representative of Mazda Motors Croatia, were present.
Dubrovnik Summer Festival and Mazda Motors Croatia Ltd have been cooperating for six years and having Mazda as the official vehicle of the Festival has been at the mutual satisfaction.
“Mazda is honored to have the opportunity to help at this way, and to be participant in this great cultural event, but also to keep up with our public involvement by supporting cultural and artistic activities and humanitarian activities regarding the needed children.  It’s our great honor to have the opportunity to participate at this announcement of this season’s first drama premiere”, said Branko Maranić.

This latest play by Tomislav Zajec, just after winning the second place at the Marin Držić competition, will have its world premiere at the 61st Dubrovnik Summer Festival. The Delivered play was written in 2009 and it’s the final part of the author’s Trilogy. Trilogy’s other parts are Dorothy Gale (winner at the Marin Držić competition in 2007) and the Astronauts (written in 2008).  The Delivered is a story about nine people who meet for the first time at the moment of train accident, and than again, exactly a year after that event. We find them struggling with the consequences of the accident, but also questioning own sense of self, unrelated to the event itself.  Title The Delivered is at that way a metaphor of the struggle for salvation and liberation that the characters have to, each individually, deal with.
“This play is about how lonely we are all in that fight, and how it is actually so familiar to us, because basically it's always painfully the same.  Exactly at that unspoken and intuitive level encounters among characters take place. Although distant from each other due to differences among them, they are able to recognize in others the same aspirations and to give comfort to each other, at least momentarily”, said the author.  Tomislav Zajec is young (1972) and very productive writer (eight plays, four novels and three poetry books). He is the author of the script for the film “Mother of Asphalt” by Dalibor Matanić and is also teaching assistant for Theatre and Movie Writing at the Academy of Dramatic Art.
For Franka Perković, director and professor of acting at the Academy of Dramatic Art, this is a debut at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.
“She has been chosen for this play exactly for her ability to give, to rigidly realistic form, a more poetic expression, with her known gently brutal director’s touch. Besides that, Franka Perković has successfully interpreted few contemporary dramas by young authors like Ivana Sajko and Dubravko Mihanović, and the works of Miroslav Krleža she has, more than once, interpreted contemporary and committed”, said Dora Ruždjak Podolski, Theatre Program Director.
“First time I read the text, I was impressed with the atmosphere. That atmosphere is woven in short encounters, short sentences, some characters, some sorrows, desperations, solitudes, and yet there is something amazingly beautiful”, said the director. Franka Perković was born in Zagreb where she studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy. She got the degree in Theatre Directing and Radiophony at the Academy of Dramatic Art. Awards for dramaturgy at the Naj, naj, naj Festival in Zagreb and the award Marul for directing at the Days of Marulić in Split are confirmation of her work.

Ambiance play

Belveder Hotel is a perfect setting for the story in which general frame of the accident is reflected intimately at each individual. Franka Perković has chosen this venue instantly when she saw it, because she found it easy to metaphorically associate it with the characters.
Actors in the play are:  Milka Podrug Kokotović , Nataša Dangubić, Nikša Butjer, Bojan Navojec, Franjo Dijak, Filip Juričić, Vlatko Dulić, Silvio Vovk, Aleksandra Stojaković i Toni Perović. Set design is work of Ivo Knezović, costume design Marita Ćopo and the lighting design Zoran Mihanović. Author od the music is Frano Đurović and the stage movement is created by Pravdan Devlahović.
Festival's audience will have the opportunity to enjoy the play on July 31 and August 2,3 and 4.