Mladen Dražetin

Mladen Dražetin (Cyrillic: Младен Дражетин, 3 March 1951 in Novi Sad – 23 July 2015 in Novi Sad) was a doctor of social sciences, Serbian intellectual, economist, theatrical creator, poet, writer and philosopher. He was born in Novi Sad in 1951. His father Rada was a courier in the Local Community Office in Mošorin, while his mother Vukica (born surname Janjatović) was from Sombor. He left behind a works of poetry, prose, drama and philosophy. He was the creator of the Correspondence Theatre ("Dopisno pozorište"), a specific type of theater organization and play, which he conceived and organized in 1974. He died in Novi Sad in 2015, and was buried in the cemetery in Ledinci.

He finished the Comercial School in 1968 in Novi Sad, Advanced Commercial School in 1972 in Varaždin, and graduated in the Subotica Economic College in 1983.

Dražetin defended his Master thesis "A specificity of origin and activity of The Correspondence Theatre in Novi Sad, with a projection of further perfecting" ("Specifičnost nastanka i delovanja Dopisnog pozorišta u Novom Sadu, sa projekcijom daljeg usavršavanja") in 1989 at the College of Drama Arts in Belgrade and PhD in 2004 at the Faculty for Service Business in Novi Sad with thesis Amateurism as a way of man's self-realization through local radio and television stations in Vojvodina ("Amaterizam kao način čovekove samorealizacije putem lokalnih radio i televizijskih stanica u Vojvodini").

Dražetin performed various tasks in several working organizations and state administration. He was also employed at Television of Novi Sad and Radio Television of Serbia and also worked as a professor.

Career: worked in "Autovojvodina" (1968-1977), in SOUR "Agrovojvodina", where he edited the newspaper with same name (1977-1980), then moved to the City Assembly where he worked as the market inspector (1980-1985) and senior market inspector (1985-1990), then in the Television of Novi Sad was the Director of the Service of joint programming activities (1990-1993) and Head of TV Cinemateka and editor of Redaction for historiography of the cultural heritage of Vojvodina (1993-1994), and was also editor in "7 TV days" ("7 TV dana"). Then he worked as a federal market inspector (1994-2003) and the republic market inspector (2003-2009). He also worked as a professor for about ten years in Higher Technical School of Professional Studies in Novi Sad for teaching areas: multimedia I, multimedia II, WEB communications and mass communications. He was also a guest lecturer at the BK University in Belgrade and Faculty of Education in Sombor. He also served as a juror in the High Court in Novi Sad and as an court expert for the evaluation of the capital, damage assessment and calculation of earnings.

Dražetin was the creator of the Correspondence Theatre ("Dopisno pozorište"), a specific type of theatre organization and play, which he conceived and organized in 1974 as the original theatrical movement for spread of elementary theater and ethical-aesthetic culture. He was among the founders of the Drama Art Scene ("Pozornica dramske umetnosti"), whose chief executive he was from 1994.

He showed the theatrical performances in the villages, city parks and squares, in companies, as well as in the apartments. TV show of Petar Ljubojev about this project received in 1986 the Grand Prix at the festival in Monte Carlo. Dražetin has directed over a hundred theatrical plays and recitals in amateur and professional scenes, within the Correspondence Theatre. He appeared as an actor in theatrical plays and in about ten films.

By his own script, he directed two films of silent burlesque: "Disordered thoughts" ("Rastrojene misli") (1971) and "Humorists from Novi Sad" ("Komičari iz Novog Sada") (1973). He also worked on poetry and has published seven collections of poems.

His social drama "Confession" ("Ispovest") (1972) and experimental comedy "Philosophy" ("Filozofija") (1976) were performed on professional and amateur scenes. He edited the newspaper of amateur theater "Stage" ("Pozornica") (from 1974) and the editions "Tribune of Poetry" ("Tribina poezije") (since 1981) and "Mass culture and art" ("Masovna kultura i umetnost") (since 1996), all within the publishing activity of The Drama Art Scene and The Correspondence Theatre.

Besides that, he was a literary critic, theorist of theater and television. On television, he directed more acclaimed shows such as "Health theater" ("Zdravstveni teatar"), "75 years of Esperanto" ("75 godina Esperanta") and other.

Social drama "Confession" which Dražetin wrote was played in over fifty thousand micro - theaters of the Correspondence Theatre around the world, as an educational program.

He wrote a book on ethics, aesthetics and sociology of culture called "Eternal art of the play" ("Večna umetnost igre"), which is a result of his thirty years of scientific research and the choice of teaching material from lectures at universities, colleges and high schools, where his lectures from 1996 to 2013 were attended by more than ten thousand students.

Dražetin gave many notable lectures "On the establishment and operation of Correspondence Theatre from Novi Sad, as a universal correspondence system" ("O nastanku i delovanju Dopisnog pozorišta iz Novog Sada, kao univerzalnog korespondentnog sistema") in several countries - Russia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Republika Srpska, Macedonia and Montenegro.

He played episodic roles in two local feature films: "The Jews are coming" ("Jevreji dolaze"), directed by Prvoslav Marić and "The Hourglass" ("Peščanik") which is based on a novel of Danilo Kiš.

He was a member of the Association of Writers of Vojvodina and of the Association of Journalists of Serbia.

Collections of poems written by Dražetin:

• "Poems" ("Pesme") (1971)
• "Quiet Night Brightness" ("Sjaj tihe noći") (1971)
• "Reins Lost" ("Zametene uzde") (1972)
• "Dream Sorrow" ("Tuga sna") (1974)
• "After Vagabondage" ("Posle lutanja") (1981)
• "Secret Hem" ("Tajni porub") (1986)
• "Heart on a Swing" ("Srce na ljuljašci") (1990)

Other Dražetin's published works:

• "Eternal art of the play" ("Večna umetnost igre") - the philosophy of the new development (theory and practice) - The first Serbian philosophical system (Novo Miloševo, Banatski kulturni centar, 2014).

The printing of several Dražetin's works which will be published posthumously is in preparation. Last Dražetin's work which he completed shortly before his death is a theater piece "Tican's Revolt in 1807" ("Ticanova buna 1807."), which he dramatized and wrote directing and adjusting his work in accordance to scientific publications of the Historical Institute SANU, as well as in accordance to processed appropriate stories and legends about Tican, which passed from generation to generation.

Unpublished Dražetin's works whose publishing is in process:

• "Universal animation system Correspondence Theatre - Correspondent play process (theory and practice)" ("Univerzalni animatorski sistem Dopisno pozorište - korespondentni proces igre (teorija i praksa)") (Šajkaš - Novi Sad, 2015).
• "Tican's Revolt in 1807: the national drama in three acts" ("Ticanova buna 1807: nacionalna drama u tri čina") (Šajkaš - Novi Sad, 2015).
• "Confession" ("Ispovest") (social drama) and "Philosophy from A to Z" ("Filozofija od A do Š") (Experimental Comedy).
• "Pačka Schwap" ("Pački Švapa") (novel).
• "Winged Song" ("Krilata pesma") (poetry for children).

Unpublished Dražetin's works in manuscript:

• "A thousand poems" ("Hiljadu pesama") (poems).
• "Essays, reviews, literary representations" ("Eseji, recenzije, književni prikazi") (collection of works).
• "Amateurism as a way of man's self-realization through local radio and television stations in Vojvodina" ("Amaterizam kao način čovekove samorealizacije putem lokalnih radio i televizijskih stanica u Vojvodini") (PhD thesis).
• "Correspondence Theatre" ("Dopisno pozorište") (script).