Alfred Fredi Altarac playing in the Roda theater (stork)

The beginnings of theatrical life in Belgrade date back to 1841, when, in December, the play The Death of Stefan Dečanski was performed in a part of the port Customs House (Turkish: Đumrukane) . [1] By performing this play by Jovan Sterija Popović, a group of amateur actors, led by the educator Atanasije Nikolić, founded the first permanent theater in the Serbian capital under the name of the Đumruk Theater. [2] The theater, which became professional and, thanks to Prince Mihailo Obrenović, also state-owned, was interrupted by the uprising of the defenders of the constitution in the summer of 1842. [3] The prince had to leave Serbia and spent almost two decades in exile. Upon his return to the country, he again came to power in 1860. In addition to directing his state policy towards the struggle for the national liberation of the Serbian people, Mihailo did not neglect the cultural development of Serbia. Thus, after the visit of the Serbian National Theatre from Novi Sad in the autumn of 1867, which came to Belgrade from the then Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and performed in improvised spaces, he decided to erect a purpose-built building for the national theatre. Despite the fact that the National Theatre was built in less than two years, the prince did not live to see the completion of the works. He was assassinated in May 1868. The first performance in the newly built space was performed on 20 October 1869. For that occasion, the writer Đorđe Maletić wrote the work Posthumous Glory of Prince Mihailo , which was a kind of memorial to the murdered Serbian ruler.

In July 1900, Branislav Nušić, by then already a well-known writer of plays, as well as poems, stories, travelogues and newspaper articles, was appointed as the director of the National Theatre. As stated in the Prosvetni glasnik, the appointment of Nušić brought with it, in addition to a new management, a new repertoire with a “very rich selection of new Serbian originals”. [4]Nušić remained in the national theatre for a very short time. At the suggestion of the Minister of Education and Church Affairs in 1902, as a first-class playwright of the National Theatre, he was “retired at his own request with a pension due to his years of service”. [5] Two years later, after working in the Postal and Telegraph Department of the Ministry of Construction, he became the director of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. After one theater season, he left Novi Sad, returned to Belgrade, and without hesitation accepted the proposal of Mihailo Sretenović, a teacher, children's writer, and playwright, to establish a children's theater together. Nušić deeply believed in the educational role of theater, and believed that it should be accessible to both adults and young. The initiative to establish such an educational institution was first introduced to the public through an announcement in the magazine Delo, which stated: "Mr. Mih. Sretenović, a teacher, wishing to provide elementary school children with entertainment appropriate to their age and at the same time make teaching, especially Serbian history, more understandable and appealing, came up with the bright idea of ​​establishing a 'Small Theater', which would perform plays related to the elementary school curriculum [...] The 'Small Theater' would have its own small theater orchestra and small choir, and performances would be given on Thursdays and Sunday afternoons in the old seminary building." [6] As the first student theater, by decision of the Teachers' Assembly, the Small Theater was placed under the auspices of the Teachers' Association in 1905. [7] Unfortunately, financial difficulties led to its closure in 1907. For the next three decades, there was no children's stage in Belgrade. This inertia of theater workers when it comes to children's theater was sharply criticized in 1933 by playwright Ranko Mladenović in his text "The Question of Children's Theater", emphasizing that: "Art for children is not really thought of. There is no plan, no system; there is not even an initiative, except for a partially private one. And even that is greeted with distrust, with indifference bordering on contempt . " [8]

            A few years later, at the insistence of the elderly Nušić, a children's theater was finally established in Belgrade, but not just any theater, but a theater in which children's characters were played by children, while adult roles were interpreted by professional actors. Thanks to the selfless efforts of Nušić's daughter Margita Gita Predić and her cousin, opera singer Sofija Vukadinović, who were directors, the small actors of the Privileged Theater for Children and Youth "Roda" [9] performed over a hundred plays in four seasons. [10] Miliva Mima Predić and Živojin Bata Vukadinović helped their wives, Gita and Sofija, in designing the repertoire. [11] In addition, they wrote children's theater plays and translated them from other languages. The enormous success would not have been possible without Roda's constant collaborators. The scenography was created by painter Staša Beložanski, Danica Živanović was the choreographer, Ana Dorjan was the music teacher, and Davorin Županić was the conductor.

FIRST SEASON 1937/1938 ...

The first activities of the theater began in October 1937. First, an audition was organized for the enrollment of young actors aged three to seventeen , then work began on preparing the plays, designing the set, sewing costumes and making wigs. The following month, intensive rehearsals began at the "Cvijeta Zuzorić" Art Pavilion on Mali Kalemegdan. Starting with the first performance , the program consisted of children's theater plays with a multitude of recitations, songs and ballets.

Despite being exempt from paying the mandatory tax on sold tickets, the theater did not have enough money to secure its own space. The stage of the Kolarac People's University, the "Manjež" stage of the National Theater in Vračar (today the Yugoslav Drama Theater), and the stage of the National Theater near the Monument (today the National Theater) were rented for performances.

The premiere performance, scheduled for January 19, 1938, had to be postponed. On that cold winter day, at noon, at his home in Dedinje, on Rozalije Morton Street, Branislav Nušić died. His death was a great loss for Serbian culture, and especially for the theatrical life of Serbia. In the following days, Belgrade said goodbye to the greatest Serbian comedian. The most emotional, but also the most beautiful farewell to Nušić was organized by the children of the Rodina Theater when they performed their first performance on January 23, at the Kolarac Foundation.

For two full hours, the audience enjoyed a varied program. The opening act was Pusha's arrival in the world . A boy in a Sokol uniform, holding a ball in his hands, entered the stage lights in the role of the emcee Pusha. [12] At that moment, the acting career of eleven-year-old Avram Altarac, a Jewish boy who was known among his friends by the nickname Freddy, began. [13]

After Freddy's announcement, the program continued with a fictional fable, A Lesson in the Forest , followed by an Illustrated Song by Uncle Jove the Dragon [14] , Czech Folk Dances, performed by students of the Czechoslovak School in Belgrade, and Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs [15] . A particularly cheerful act was Rodina Pošta . In it, little postmen handed out gifts to their friends in the audience and invited them to the next performance with humorous verses: "The Roda Theatre sends its postmen to greet the entire audience at the end of the performance and at the same time invite them to our new performance! Because no one is blind, they can see that the program is beautiful!" [16]

After a short break, the story of The Witch and the Dragon followed, as did the historical drama The Unhappy Cafina . Finally, as the poster for the first performance states, an operetta without singing but with ballet was performed, Mickey and Minnie among the Toys , performed by students of Vera Chaleyeva's ballet troupe. From the eleventh performance, the dance scenes were performed by ballerinas and ballet dancers from the Roda Theater. ^[17] The toys for the act Mickey and Minnie among the Toys were borrowed from the shop "Two Storks (Dve rode)" owned by the Jewish merchant Isaac Nissim. ^[18]

From the very beginning, among the small actors in Roda's theater were two other talented Jewish boys, the brothers Mihajlo and Rudolf Farkić. [19] In the first performance, they had notable roles in the acts Three Little Pigs , The Unhappy Cafina , and Mickey and Minnie among the Toys .

The newspaper Politika published an article about the premiere with more than excellent reviews. It says, among other things: "Through the parted curtain, first appeared a huge beak of a stork, from which, to the great surprise and joy of the children, a little athlete in a football jersey with a football in his hands fell out. From then on, we saw him before the start of every act; he was the emcee, little Pusha. And every time Pusha appeared, he would receive applause that even great actors could envy. Pusha was truly brilliant in his role". [20]

A few days later, a rerun was held "since all tickets for the premiere of the first program of the Roda Theater were sold out long before the performance, and a large number of children returned home sad". [21]

The enormous success of the first, and all future performances, was due not only to Gita Predić and Sofija Vukadinović, but also to the mothers of the young actors. They sewed costumes when needed, were makeup artists, taught the children lines, and often acted. Lujza Altarac, Fredi's mother, in addition to carefully following her son's acting adventure, often supplied the theater with various supplies from her haberdashery and manufacturing shop "Vulkan", located at 9 Vasina Street. [22] Father Solomon, probably like other fathers, only occasionally watched his child's bravura performances from the audience. [23]With great love, especially when it came to children, Lujza Altarac volunteered not only in the work of the Roda Theater, but also in the charitable, cultural, and educational activities of the Jewish Women's Society . [24]

Fredi's talent, noticed from the very beginning, was a ticket to getting new roles. In March, he shone at the premiere of the humorous fairy tale Car Ćira . [25] The Tsar was played by the boy Pera Stojanović (Petar Slovenski) [26] , the Tsarina by the girl Olga Spiridonović [27] , while Fredi caused a storm of laughter in the audience by playing Ćira, who fell asleep as an apprentice and woke up as an emperor. The play was a renewed play that was performed at the Sretenović and Nušić Small Theater. [28]

Remembering the performance of this piece, Zora Vukadinović [29] noted the following in her book “Rodino pozoriste”: “I enjoyed the rehearsals, practiced ballet. However, I must admit that in the theater I was a much better spectator than a performer [...] I usually played the 'folk' or sang in the choir. Aunt Gita, soft-hearted as she is towards any child, took pity on me and persuaded her colleague, and my mother, to entrust me with the role of the First Page in Tsar Ćira. Everything went quite well at the rehearsals, but at the performance - a disaster! To understand why this happened, it should be said that the title role in that play was played by an extraordinarily talented boy, Fredi Altarac. He was a born comedian and caused the audience to laugh out loud, and I, to the horror of Aunt Gita, who was watching the scene from behind the scenes, joined the audience in laughing. Listening and watching "Fredi, I was simply writhing with laughter in the middle of the stage, which was contrary to my role as a serious page. At Aunt Gita's panicked signals to get off the stage, I just waved my hand and continued to enjoy the bravura of the irresistible comedian." [30]

Just a week after the premiere of Emperor Ćira , the play Emil and the Detectives was performed for the first time . [31] Milivoj Predić adapted the plot of Erich Kästner's children's novel and the adventures and misadventures of a detective team searching for stolen money by Emil Tischbein. He moved the plot from Berlin to Belgrade. [32] The play featured 40 child actors and 20 professionals. [33] The lead role of the adventurer Emil, who in Predić's adaptation bears the surname Nožić, went to a little boy, Sinisa Kovačić. He was replaced in the reprise performance on 17 April by Fredi Altarac. [34]

At the sixteenth performance, held on May 8, 1938, in the hall of Kolarac University, a program consisting of several theatrical works and ballet numbers was presented. Fredi and the girl Milica Maršićanin [35] performed a scene called Confusion in the Program .

The first season of the Roda Theater, which featured 17 performances, ended with a farewell performance on June 5 at Kolarac University. After that, the children went on a well-deserved theater break. 

SECOND SEASON 1938/1939 ...

After the summer break, the young actors gathered again in their theater in the fall. Since that season, the Roda Ballet and the Roda Choir have regularly participated in the performances . How popular all the sections of the Roda Theater were with the children of Belgrade is evidenced by the fact that about one hundred and twenty girls and boys applied for the audition for the ballet, while the choir was divided into a younger and older group due to the great interest. [36]

The first performance was performed on October 6, 1938, at the Vračar Theater. As in all previous performances, Fredi Altarac took the stage first in the role of the emcee Pusha. In his opening remarks, he gave the audience a brief report on how he spent his summer vacation. This was followed by a one-act comedy called The Magic Donkey by Jovan Sterija Popović. In this humorous story, Fredi was given the main role of the mischievous Jaša, one of three boys who deceive a gullible peasant by stealing his donkey and inventing various adventures in order to return it to him for a certain fee. The peasant was played by Žarko Mitrović, a professional actor, while the characters of the other two boys, Marko and Miloš, were portrayed no less entertainingly than Fredi, by Rudolf Šandor and Mladen Maras.

By the end of the calendar year, the theater had staged seven more performances. The repertoire consisted mainly of old plays, with the occasional premiere.

The following year, the Roda actors were on stage as early as January 1, 1939, at a children's party in Novi Sad. At the invitation of the local Serbian women's association, they performed several very successful plays together with the children of Novi Sad in the ceremonial hall of the Memorial House of King Alexander I the Unifier. [37]                       

The next performance was on January 4th in front of the Belgrade audience. The play Put oko sveta no. 2 premiered on the stage of the National Theatre . This cheerful revue in twelve scenes was written by Branislav Nušić, who was already seriously ill at the time, in December 1937. Since he was unable to complete the comedy, he and his collaborators Milivoj Mima Predić and Živojin Bata Vukadinović did so. Since the play was an adaptation of Nušić's play from 1911 , the main characters were no longer Jovanča Micić and the Man with a Leg, but their grandchildren. They " one day, by the grace of God, get beaten and run away into the world", but " they search in vain for a country where there are no cunning people, injustice and beatings, and thus they inadvertently travel the whole world, to finally return to Jagodina", because " if it has to be like this, it is best to get beaten at home". [38] The opening speech, as many times before, was given by Pusha, or Fredi Altarac, the speaker. The dance numbers feature a girl named Rebeka Altarac [39] , a permanent member of Rodina's ballet, who, although she had the same last name, was not related to Fredi.

The program that the actors of Roda Theatre performed on the second day of Christmas did not start as usual. The introductory speech by the host Pusha was omitted. Instead, the play Petao i Pusha was shown for the first time . Pusha was played by Mihajlo Farkić, while the role of the rooster was entrusted to Mladen Maras. Freddy appeared on stage at the very end, in the premiered comedy Boxing Match by Stevan Zagorčić .

One of the favorite plays, both for the audience and the actors, was the five-act comedy with ballet and singing, Rista sportista , written by the actress Ljubinka Bobić. [40] The experiences of the Belgrade boys described in this piece, who get into various troubles while chasing a soccer ball, became so famous that they even found their place in the sports section of the newspaper Politika, while they were published in the form of a comic strip in Politika's entertainment magazine until the beginning of World War II. The newspaper article described this play, which premiered on 15 January 1939, with great sympathy. The author, who signed himself only with the initials "S", says, among other things: "The main character of the play 'Rista Sportista', little Mihajlo Tomić, played like some old actor, very convincingly, deftly and boldly. He proved to be a worthy son of his father, the famous tenor Mr. Živojin Tomić. The trio: Šule, Dule and Cule (Miodrag Gajić, Fredi Altarac and Rudolf Šandor), comrades of Rista, were also very good. All three tried to give the best possible performance and they succeeded in doing so". [41] At the fifth performance of this comedy, Blagoje Moša Marjanović, a famous Yugoslav football player, was a guest. Before the children took the stage, Moša gave a short lecture on sports and football in a piece called Who are the real athletes? .

In the second season, the five-act play with song and dance Lažni tsarevic , later renamed Ludi Labakan , also won great sympathy from the audience . It was first performed on 2 April, the Orthodox holiday of Palm Sunday, at Kolarac University. [42] In the adapted fairy tale by German writer Wilhelm Hauf [43], the character of Prince Omar, the son of the famous sultan, from whom the little conceited tailor Labakan wants to steal his noble title by deception, was interpreted by Fredi Altarac. However, on the day of the first performance, an accident occurred. The young actress Milica Maršićanin, who was supposed to speak about the holiday, suddenly fell ill. Gita Predić and Sofija Vukadinović urgently had to find a replacement. Since they did not doubt Fredi's intelligence, they assigned him the task of informing the audience about the unfortunate event. How it all looked is best illustrated by an excerpt from the entertainment magazine Sad i nekad:

"Suddenly, a nice, plump guy runs onto the stage, high-spirited. He addresses Mr. Mima Predić, still in his overcoat:

-                What's up, Uncle Mima? Why did you call me? And hello, Freddie, listen! Hurry up! Milica has a fever and is lying in bed so she can't come. Here, quickly learn this by heart so you can announce it to the audience. I will, right away.

He took the program from Predić's hand, on the back of which was written the text of that announcement, and disappeared among the scenes. Indeed, not even five minutes had passed, and little Fredi Altarac, the conference of this theater, came before us and indeed – flowed like water.

-                So let's begin, Mr. Mima commands , Come on, Fredi, go to the curtain and announce the sad news.

Little Fredika went before the curtain without any trepidation and, after a storm of applause, performed his task without a single mistake.” [44]

Towards the end of the season, the Roda Theater visited Pančevo. The occasion was the establishment of a theater for children and youth in this city, called Dečja radost. On that occasion, the children from Belgrade performed "their demonstration performance" in the hall at Trubač. ^[45]

THIRD SEASON 1939/1940 …

The third season of Roda's Theater began on October 1, 1939. The first and almost all subsequent performances were performed on Sunday afternoons at the Kolarac People's University. Fredi had several notable roles in this performance. As the audience had already become accustomed to, he first appeared on stage as the lecturer Puša, then he played Mika, the son of Mrs. Smile, in the comedy Theater Rehearsal , and finally he played the vizier's son in the historical play for children Three Sisters and the Grand Vizier .

At the next performance, on 8 October, the audience's attention was particularly drawn to Henica Rosenrauch, a little ballerina from Zagreb, who was a favorite of both children and adults and was already well-known to Roda's audience. She always excelled on stage, whether it was classical ballet, folk dances or tap. This time too, she was no exception. She displayed her dancing skills in several solo numbers – in the ballet Croatian Folk Dance "Šestinčanka" , Hymn to Spring and Japanka, and in the tap dance Popeye the Sailor . A child prodigy, as she was called, Henica came from the famous ballet studio led by the dancer of Jewish origin Rod Riefler. [46]

Adapting foreign plays became a regular practice at the Roda Theatre. Thus, at the end of October, the play The Chinese Doll was performed . This work by Lionel Darty, which describes the events of the Sino-Japanese War, was first performed in 1937 at the New York Children's Theatre, and was written for the little film diva Shirley Temple. In the Roda Theatre production , the role of Shirley was played by Renata Ulmanski [47] , the Chinese girl by Stojanka Ilić, while Fredi Altarac spoke about China and interpreted images from contemporary China that were shown on the movie screen. [48]

Fredi played in several other premiered plays of the third season – in Migulac , Cinderella , Innocent Sin , Risti Robinson and Nosonja .

Milivoj Predić adapted Stanka Dimitrijević's story " Little Devil's Birthday " , which tells the story of the adventures and misadventures of the little devil Migulać, into a theatrical play with lots of songs and ballet. The main role of the little devil, who comes to the surface of the Earth to do various little mischiefs, was played by Milica Maršićanin. Fredi had a supporting, but very notable role in this play.

The Roda Theater troupe was loved not only by the large audience, but also by journalists who regularly followed all the events of the children's theater. On the occasion of the premiere of Cinderella [49] on 17 December 1939, a journalist from the newspaper Politika wrote the following: “Our playwrights seem to be ashamed to entertain children. They would rather write ten bad plays for adults than one good one for children. And that is probably why we are the only people in the Balkans who still do not have real children's literature [...] Our shyness has now been broken by a gifted playwright, otherwise very deserving of the creation of our real children's literature, the editor of the 'Golden Book', Mr. Živojin Vukadinović [...] He took one of the most interesting folk tales, which is found among all nations – Cinderella – and made an even more interesting comedy in verse from it [...] Mr. Vukadinović's 'Cinderella' is full of witty passages, full of warmth and interesting situations [...] The scenes of the comedy are beautifully connected and they took turns quickly, so that the young spectators followed the play to the end with intense attention [...] Particularly outstanding were: Dubravka Perić and Ivanka Dragutinović, as the daughters of Lady Red-Headed, Cinderella's stepmother, Mladen Maras, as the first chamberlain, Fredi Altara, as Tale - the court fool, and Jovan Bogdanović, as the drummer [...] Mrs. Živanović with her ballet numbers, Mrs. Dorian with her musical numbers, and Mr. Beložanski with his set design, helped the writer Mr. Vukadinović and the anonymous director (author's note: Sofia Vukadinović) to make the premiere a truly great success." [50]

In the announcement of the rerun of the same play, the praise for little Fredi, who knowingly takes revenge on Cinderella's stepmother and sisters for all the evils they have done, was even greater: " [...] in this adaptation of Cinderella, the court jester Tale himself works all the miracles thanks to the ballet of the imperial theater, costumes and props. In addition to Cinderella, played with tenderness by little Katarina Obradović [...], the most significant child role is the young court jester Tale, who is played with enthusiasm by Fredi Altarac, otherwise known as Pusha the Roda's emcee [...]". [51]

Julija Lazarevic, a journalist for the Novi svet revue, a year later, after one of the reruns of the play Cinderella , described the heated atmosphere that prevailed among the young actors backstage. She also revealed some small secrets about them, and about Fredi she states the following: "As far as these internal matters are concerned, not to call them intrigues, the best versed is the veteran of Roda Theatre, Fredi Altarac, known as Pusha. Pusha has been acting since the founding of Roda Theatre, he has played a whole range of types [...] He played Emil in Emil and the Detectives , Prince Omer in Ludi Labakan , a guard in Nosonja , and in Cinderella , which is being performed for the tenth time, he plays the biggest male role – the court jester Tale. [...] Pusha has about eighty performances under his belt. He is now fourteen years old and an excellent student. Of all the roles, he likes the role of Pusha the most. Otherwise, he knows all the backstage events and wardrobe intrigues. What's more, he also knows all the secrets of his older colleagues. He has completely mastered the theatrical atmosphere. He already has a theatrical routine and his own acting attitude. His somewhat plump appearance suits the roles he plays very well. [52]

Since not all posters of the Roda Theatre have survived, a reconstruction of the performance performed on 4 February 1940 is possible only on the basis of newspaper announcements and a single photograph. The Belgrade daily Vreme reports that the program will feature two premieres – Žive lutke , a comedy in three scenes by Mihail Sretenović, which was performed at the Malo Pozoriste, and Dan primanja by the then young children's writer Guido Tartaglia. [53] In the aforementioned photograph, which is kept in the Museum of Theatre Arts of Serbia, Fredi Altarac is among the numerous costumed actors.

The sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth shows were performed on February 11 at the City Theater in Subotica. During the daytime performance , the children performed several acts. First, a scene with singing The Talking Cat was performed , then a monologue of a happy girl The Postal Package , then the ballets The Little Kittens and The Horses , then the one-act joke The New Teacher and, for the very end, Cinderella , which became one of the most beloved plays, both for the young actors and the audience. The evening program was completely different and much richer, so it was divided into three parts. The announcement of the guest performance in Subotica illustrates how important Roda's performances were in the lives of Belgrade's children. It states that "Since the Roda Theater with a large number of its members is traveling to Subotica today, where it will be performing tomorrow, this week Belgrade children will not have their favorite Roda play at Kolarac University. Therefore, next week Roda will give two plays, one on the holiday Sretenje, 15. of this month, and the other on Sunday, the 18th." [54]

In March, the Roda kids dedicated the entire program of the seventy-third performance to Uncle Jova Zmaj. In addition to smaller scenes based on Zmaj's poems, the writer's comedies Šaran and Nevin greh were premiered . At the very beginning of the performance, the emcee, which this time was the boy Dimitrije Đurković, gave a short lecture about the poet. [55] In the cheerful one-act play Nevin greh, Fredi was given the role of Gojko. On stage with him, in addition to several adult performers, were also the kid actors Renata Ulmanski and Rudolf Sándor.

As a sequel to the children's comedy Rista the Athlete , Ljubinka Bobić wrote Rista Robinson , a new theater play in four acts with singing and ballet. The main role of Rista went to Mladen Maras, while Rista's friends Šule, Dule and Cule were played by Miodrag Gajić, Fredi Altarac and Rudolf Šandor. A journalist from the weekly Vreme says the following about the content of this comedy: "Rista Robinson takes the children of Belgrade to the Adriatic Sea. There, incredible things happen to little Rista, a very nice but very conceited boy. At a children's ball, where he is dressed as Robinson Crusoe, he abandons his friends in order to pretend to be important. To his misfortune, he experiences a series of funny-terrible adventures, but his friends save him from all these dangers." [56] The comedy Rista Robinson , unfortunately, failed to reach the immense popularity of Rista Sportsman , as evidenced by the number of performances. After its premiere, the play was performed only once more.

At the beginning of May, the Roda Theatre is performing another new play. It is an operetta in five acts, Nosonja , written by Josef Steck based on the fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauf. [57] The main character is a twelve-year-old boy named Mata. Because of the insult he inflicted on the evil witch and mocked her large nose, a spell is cast on him. The previously good and handsome boy has become an ugly Nosonja (big-nose). The troubles that Nosonja goes through, as in every fairy tale, end happily in the end. [58] In addition to the adult actors, thirty children appear on stage in this play. Fredi played the role of a guard. The performance, full of song and dance, left the audience breathless and was the most successful of the season. The couple Gita and Milivoj Predić worked on the translation, adaptation and direction.

The third season officially and very successfully concluded on June 2. [59] The number of performances was much higher than in previous seasons, totaling 41. [60]

However, by the beginning of the next theater season, the small actors had staged three more summer performances in Belgrade as part of the cultural event "Svečane igre". ^[61] They performed well-known and rehearsed ballet numbers and the pieces Cinderella and Nosonja .

At the end of September , Rodina's theater visited Borovo at the invitation of the musical and singing society "Radisha", which acted as the cultural society of the "Bata" factory. Fifty little artists , on this trip , were accompanied by fifteen mothers who, as "support staff", came to the aid of the managers aunt Gita and aunt Sojka. [62] The following is written about this event in the weekly Borovo: “On Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd of this month, the famous Roda Theatre from Belgrade visited Borovo, presenting us with a true artistic creation by the late Branislav Nušić. [...] On the first day of their visit, the little storks performed Cinderella, a comedy in three acts by Živojin Vukadinović. Before that, the storks performed several rhythmic dances [...] We could not have imagined so much sense for dance, so much suppleness in the bodies of these golden children. It is difficult to single out any one of them above the others. And yet, it seems to us that we cannot fail to highlight the performance of Bojana Perić, who is already a true artist in dance, at the age of nine. [...] In Cinderella, the students Katarina Obradović in the role of Cinderella, Dubravka Perić in the role of Zlata, and Ivanka Dragutinović in the role of Biserka. But the soul of this theater seems to us to be the young Fredi Altarac, a student of the 4th grade of high school, who played the court fool Tale in Cinderella. His performance was worthy of the capital’s National Theater itself. Little Fredi stood out on the second day as well, in the role of Emperor Ćira [...] He was the soul of the play and the troupe in this play as well.” [63]

FOURTH SEASON 1940/1941.

Not realizing that the fourth season would also be the last season of Roda Theatre, the young actors returned to the theatre in October with new roles. At the first performance, on 6 October, in addition to the renewed Emperor Ćira , there were several premiere plays. The performance on 13 October had a repeated repertoire. The only novelty was the opening monologue of Perica by Guido Tartaglia, spoken by Fredi Altarac.

At the first performance in November , the three-act operetta Smile Mikado , set in the Far East, was premiered . To the music of the famous children's composer Romolo Corona, a new libretto in verse was written by Milivoj Predić. In the fairy tale with a lot of music and ballet, the main character Mikado was played by Viktor Starčić [64] , a professional actor, while Fredi was given the role of the mandarin Wee-Pang.

Roda's theater also toured Kikinda in November. The plays were performed for two days in the Sokolski Dom Hall. Among the plays in which Fredi played, Cinderella was shown .

According to the surviving posters, only the piece Smile Mikado was shown in the next few performances . The reason for this was most likely the preparation of the witty ballet pantomime I Want a Hat in the Latest Fashion , which was first performed on December 15, 1940. [65] The plot, full of jokes, takes place in a fashionable hat shop and begins with a scene in which the hat saleswomen, the apprentices and Boy, played by Fredi, are decorating the shop. With them is the owner of the boutique, played by a thirteen-year-old girl Dubravka Perić [66] . Then a lady, Mrs. Gitić (author's note: Gita Predić Nušić) enters the shop and wants a hat in the latest fashion, but a special one, one that would make her taller, since she is short. After a long search, she finally finds one she likes, adorned with various artificial flowers, ribbons, and jewelry, and happily leaves the store while the workers behind her smile sweetly. Over twenty of Roda's dancers participated in the ballets. Many of them became professional ballerinas within a few years.

In honor of their founder Branislav Nušić, on the third anniversary of his death, Roda kids first performed the play Hajduci on January 19, 1941 . In a newspaper article about the performance of this play, which was also the centenary one, it is written: “[…] This interesting story, in which Nušić tells how in his childhood he ran away to join the hajduk gang together with his friends, was dramatized by a young writer, certainly the youngest we have had so far, a seventh-grade high school student, who – despite his youth – has already managed to get the National Theatre in Novi Sad to put one of his works on its repertoire. His pseudonym is Kosta Lukić [...] The role of old Nušić in the prologue and epilogue is played by a member of the National Theatre, Mr. Pecija Petrović, and the role of young Nušić in the acts of the dramatization of the story itself is played by a member of the Roda Theatre, Mladen Maras [...].” [67] Žiko Dronja, a boy from Nušić's childhood group, who was somehow unsettled and everything depended on him, was played by Fredi.

On the occasion of the hundredth performance, a brochure was printed with a brief history of the Roda Theater, a list of 67 permanent members and 140 of them who have passed through the theater. Avram Fredi Altarac's name is in the first place.

The Children's Room , the first Serbian opera for children, composed by Milenko Živković [68] and with a libretto by the poet Desanka Maksimović [69] , was the last new piece that children prepared and performed before the outbreak of the war. The play premiered on 20 February 1941 at the National Theatre, in collaboration with the Stanković Music School and the Radio Belgrade Symphony Orchestra. The ballet teacher, the Jew Lujo Davičo, was certainly also responsible for the enormous success of the play. [70] He made sure to make the play even more interesting with pantomime additions. The choir of forest birds included his students from the Stanković Music School, including two Jewish children – David Levi and Rachel Shela Levi. The Belgrade press had more than positive reviews, assessing that this was "a rarely interesting children's play, entertaining for children, and with all the artistic qualities that adults could look for". [71]

In Politika , from January 1941, it is stated that in addition to The Children's Room , the Roda Theater also prepared the opera We Are Building a City , directed by Dr. Erich Hetzel . [72] This is a cycle of children's songs composed in 1930 by the German composer Paul Hindemith. Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of war, the opera was never performed.

On Sunday, March 23, 1941, at Kolarac University, the one hundred and twelfth play was performed with a repertoire that was already well known to the audience. It was also the last performance in which Fredi Altarac participated. Just four days later, mass demonstrations took place in Belgrade due to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's accession to the Tripartite Pact. A coup was carried out, Prince Pavle was overthrown, and a new government was established. The consequences of this anti-Hitler uprising were the bombing of Belgrade by German aircrafts on April 6.

After the occupation of the country and the beginning of the war, Roda actors, although full of the desire to provide at least a little pleasure to the children of Belgrade in difficult conditions, managed to hold only two more performances, in September and October 1941. [73]

At those last "occupation" performances, Fredi was no longer on stage. He watched his friends from behind the scenes. The musical and theatrical work The Feast in Seville and the comedy Cinderella were performed . Fredi's role as the court jester Tale from Cinderella was performed by Jova Bogdanović, one of the most talented permanent members of the Roda Theater. Evoking memories of the days spent in the most important pre-war children's theater, he notes the following: “[...] I remember, but with sadness, the last two performances of Roda's theater, held during the occupation. They were given in Kolarac in the early autumn of 1941. Cinderella was performed , in which I had always played the role of the Drummer. However, in these performances I was given the role of Tale, the court jester. This role was usually played by my good friend Fredi Altarac, who, as Tale, always caused a storm of laughter and noisy approval in the theater. Fredi was one of Roda's most popular actors, but at these performances he watched from behind the scenes as I tried in vain to catch up with him, as Tale. Aunt Sojka and Aunt Gita explained to him that it was better for him to temporarily step away from the stage. None of us even thought that the Germans would execute our dear Fredi, his family and many members of his Jewish as well as our common Serbian people. [...].” [74]

Increasing discrimination against Jews and pressure to introduce propaganda songs and lyrics praising Milan Nedić's government into the program led to the determination of Gita Predić Nušić and Sofija Vukadinović to disband the Roda Theater. [75]

On December 7, 1941, Belgrade Jews were ordered to report to the Special Police for Jews at George Washington Street the next morning, December 8. Over the next five days, until December 13, columns of Jewish women, children, and elderly people, with bundles of the most basic necessities and a little food, were registered and transported by truck to the Jewish camp at the Belgrade Fairgrounds (Semlin Judenlager). The Altarac family was not among them. According to the testimony of Greta Albahari, Lujza Altarac's sister, Fredi and his mother were inmates of the Jewish camp on the island of Rab, and then the Auschwitz camp, where they were killed in 1944. [76] Father Solomon was also a victim of the Holocaust. The conditions under which he died remain unknown.

After the liberation of Belgrade, in January 1945, the Roda Theater continued to operate under the auspices of the United League of Anti-Fascist Youth of Serbia and under the name Pionirsko pozoriste. A few months later, the authorities at the time decided to close it. The reason, as stated, was that it was harmful for children to engage in acting and ballet and that it was more useful for them to devote themselves solely to studying. After five years of persistent struggle, at the end of 1950, Gita Predić Nušić managed to obtain approval to launch a new theater for children and youth. It was named Boško Buha, after a boy who heroically died in World War II. A part of the pre-war Reunion Palace, on today's Republic Square, was adapted for the needs of the theater, which to this day serves as the hall of the oldest post-war children's theater in the capital.

Literature

Brajović , Saša .​ Lujo Davicho , Fragments of life . Belgrade : Clio , 2019.

Vukadinović, Zora. Rodino pozoriste . Belgrade: Museum of Theatre Arts of Serbia, 1996.

Smreka, Jelka , Mihovilović, Đorđe. Name list of the victims of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp 1941 – 1945 . Jasenovac : Jasenovac Memorial Area, 2007.

Pašić, Felix . Dr. Erich Hetzl, director . Belgrade : Teatron , no. 146/147, Year XXXIV, 2009.

The Origin and Work of the Jewish Women's Society 1874 – 1939. Belgrade: Almanac of Humane Societies, 1940 .

Archival materials

Archives of the Jewish Historical Museum ( AJIM): Database of Jews born in Belgrade; Database of Jews married in Belgrade; Holocaust Gifts Fund

Museum of Theatre Arts of Serbia (MPUS): Folder "Rodina pozoriste"

Politics: Newspaper documentation

Periodicals

Borovo, Borovo (1940)

Time, Belgrade (1933, 1938, 1940, 1941)

Day, Novi Sad (1938)

Delo, Belgrade (1905)

Politics, Belgrade (1938, 1939, 1940)

Pravda, Belgrade (1938, 1939)

Educational Gazette, Belgrade (1900, 1902)

Teacher, Belgrade (1905)

Electronic sources

Digital Repository of the Historical Archive of Belgrade, https://digitalni.arhiv-beograda.org/login.php

Jewish digital collection of the Historical Archives of Belgrade, https://jdz.arhiv-beograda.org/rs

Jewish Biographical Lexicon, https://zbl.lzmk.hr/?p=2624