The names of the nominees for the Slavko Grum Award and the Zofka Kveder Award (Young Playwright Award) at the 56th Week of Slovenian Drama are revealed

From 27 March to 11 April, the 56th Week of Slovenian Drama will take place at the Prešeren Theatre Kranj and other venues.

The Competition and Accompanying Programmes will host 12 productions, with another 17 events making up the Additional Programme, including three concerts, the Day of the Nominees and reading performances, a film screening and thematic debate, as well as a live radio play and a première of a new Slovenian play at the Prešeren Theatre Kranj. We will also present the professional awards and the Week of Slovenian Drama Awards.

The central awards of the Week of Slovenian Drama are the Slavko Grum Award and the newly renamed Zofka Kveder Award for young playwrights, both recognising the best new drama plays. This year’s expert jury for both awards consists of dramaturg, educator and researcher Maja Šorli (president of the jury), critic, journalist and editor Petra Vidali, and Croatian playwright, dramaturg and author Dino Pešut. Among the entries to the competition for the best new Slovenian play (39 entries for the Slavko Grum Award competition and 13 for the Zofka Kveder Award), the jury nominated five texts for the Slavko Grum Award and three texts for the Zofka Kveder Award.

Nominated plays for the Slavko Grum Award:

Katarina Morano and Žiga Divjak: Anhovo

Lina Akif: The Devil Sharpens a Woman’s Tongue

Matjaž Zupančič: The Hurricane

Tereza Gregorič, Jakob Šfiligoj, Borut Petrović: It Was All Possible

Katarina Morano: Why We Got Divorced

Nominated plays for the Zofka Kveder Award for a young playwright:

Maruša Freya Voglar: Beans Blossom in Winter

Samo Podkrajšek: Dog and Pony Show

Iva Š. Slosar: Democracy Was Invented in the Agora the First Time Around and at the Fire Station the Second

"And it is by transforming empirical data into mimetic structures that the best plays of this year’s competitions reveal social and ecological breakdowns as a consequence of human activity. At the same time, they retain hope for the (theatre) future by using humour or presenting a tightly-knit community. […] It is also impossible to ignore the strong presence of female characters. The authors use the perspective of once-submissive female figures to transform classical stories or they open new interpretations of mythological heroines through contemporary, often true stories," was among the things the jury members Maja Šorli, Petra Vidali and Dino Pešut mentioned in their report.

Below you can find the complete jury report and excerpts from the nominated texts.

The winners of this year’s Slavko Grum and Zofka Kveder Awards will be announced at the closing ceremony of the 56th Week of Slovenian Drama on 11 April 2026.

The names of the jury members for the Šeligo Award, acting awards and special award of the 56th Week of Slovenian Drama are also already known. This year’s jury will consist of theatre researcher and critic Nika Arhar, dramaturg and researcher Alja Predan, and the author and dramaturg of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen), Maximilian Zahn.

You are invited to join us at this celebration of Slovenian drama.