Maja is a practising theatre director and visiting lecturer working in a wide range of contexts, including classical and contemporary text-based theatre, devised work, music theatre, experimental opera, multimedia performances and socially engaged theatre practices. She studied Theatre and Radio Directing at the University of Belgrade (BA Hons), obtained MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from the Royal School of Speech and Drama and further trained at the National Theatre Studio in London and Directors Lab West in Los Angeles.
Together with her artistic practice, Maja teach across various BA and MA levels. Her teaching experience has included designing and delivering lectures and workshops on both BA and MA levels at University of Kent, Royal School of Speech and Drama and University of West London. Her main areas of expertise are directing, devising, collaborative theatre-making, comedy, European theatre and applied and socially engaged theatre.
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Qualifications
MA Advanced Theatre Practice (The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
BA Theatre and Radio Directing (University of Arts Faculty of Dramatic Arts Belgrade)
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Memberships
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Teaching
In 2014 I started working as Assistant Lecturer at Kent University, and since 2017 I have been a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. From 2022 I have been working at the University of West London. My teaching experience has included designing and delivering lectures and workshops on both BA and MA levels. My main areas of expertise are directing, devising, collaborative theatre-making, comedy and ludic practice, European theatre and applied and socially engaged theatre.
Research
Currently, I am working part-time on a practice-based PhD at RCSSD developing new directorial strategies for community based theatre practice in post-conflict settings through using humour and comedy. This interdisciplinary research has evolved out of my professional practice as a theatre director working with the London-based NGO Most Mira.
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Research and publications
‘Shakespeare’s Fools: a piece in peacebuilding mosaic’ in Shakespeare and Social Engagement (ed.) Rowan Mackenzie and Robert Shaughnessy, Berghahn Books, August 2023.
'Bosnia and Herzegovina' in Aneta Mancewicz and Ralf Remshardt (ed.) Routledge Companion to European Theatre and Performance, August 2023.
'Serbia' in Aneta Mancewicz and Ralf Remshardt (ed.) Routledge Companion to European Theatre and Performance, August 2023.
‘Theatre and Reconciliation: The Day of an Unlucky Man’, Journal of Arts & Communities, 8: 1-2, pp. 121-134. 2016.
‘Confronting Medusa in post-war Bosnia’, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 20:2, pp. 191-195. 2015.
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Conferences
2021
‘Conversation on Kraj’, socially engaged video project, PSI Constellate.
Guest Lecture, 'Theatre and Crisis', MA Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest.
Podcast, 'The Identity Series', Dash Arts.
2020
‘Theatre and Post-War Reconciliation: the potentials of comedy and collaborative theatre making’, Performance, Embodiment and the Digital Archive: Collaborative Research in Sites of Conflict, Royal Holloway University of London.
Podcast, 'Second Hand Memory', Dash Arts.
‘Growing up with the legacy of war in time of climate change’, Collisions Festival, RCSSD.
Workshop, ‘Transgressive Methods’ and panel discussion, ‘Picturing Climate: Art, Academia and Cross-Border Interventions in Times of Climate Emergency’, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern.
2018
‘Smiling while waiting for decision on asylum’, IFTR, Belgrade.
‘Shakespeare’s Fools’, Applying Shakespeare Symposium, The Shakespeare Institute.
‘Silent soldier: performing comedy for reconciliation’, Theatre and Memory Wars, Vytautac Magnus Universitas, Kaunas, Lithuania.
‘Comedy and peace-building in Northern Bosnia’, Art and Activism, Steinhardt NYU, New York.
