As a result of the evaluation of the jury, the Girne Municipality determined the theater works that were awarded in the Girne Municipality 1st Alikko and Caher children’s playwriting competition, which was organised to bring new and original plays to the country’s theater, permanent works and new writers to the theater culture.
The jury consisted of Girne Municipality General Art Director Derman Atik, Writer-Play-Director Dr. İzel Ceylani, Actress – Writer – Director Hatice Tezcan, Teacher – Actress – Director İlken Atik, and Expert Psychologist Süheyla Timuçin.
According to the jury’s evaluation;
The 1st place winner is Cengiz Eşiyok’s Country of Happy Clowns with the pseudonym 21121.
The work that won the 2nd place, under the pseudonym 69751, is Mehmet Boncukoğlu’s United Animal Forest
3rd place, won an award with the play, Gizem Bilgi Su Şahin’s Wonderland Island, under the pseudonym Lutro.
Derman Atik, Girne Municipality General Art Director said “We, as Girne Municipality, aimed to organise this competition to accelerate the TRNC Children’s theater and to encourage writers and young people who want to adopt theater playwriting as a profession. We wanted to leave books consisting of children’s play texts in our country libraries and school libraries so that they can be used in our country’s theater environment, with works consisting of well-written children’s play texts, and to be used in our primary schools, especially in the theater community.
The reason why we call this competition ‘Alikko and Caher’ children’s playwriting competition is to ensure that the culture of the Turkish Cypriot people is remembered. It is a chance to stop and think, to have a healthy communication with ourselves, our environment and nature, by consciously choosing science and art, without losing our courage and hope and our faith in the good days to come. We aimed to evaluate first of all, this anxious and difficult period, where it is uncertain what stages it will reach, and can be beautified with the help of art, with productive and creative efforts as much as possible, and will bring joy and enthusiasm to all humanity.”
Mayor of Girne Nidai Güngördü said ” Culture and Art is an inseparable part of life… Despite the fact that the pandemic and the related difficult conditions still continue in all areas, our municipality has managed to realise many cultural and artistic activities within the bounds of its possibilities. In this period, the unifying and healing power of art gained more importance and value than ever before. While our municipality took the decision to organise the 1st Musical and Musical Theater and 1st Alikko and Caher children’s play writing competitions, our primary goal was to bring writers and new works to production in art, to the country’s theater, to record the theatrical works to be obtained and to transfer them to future generations.
At this point, writers from both our country and Turkey showed great interest in the competition. Jury members carefully evaluated the works submitted to the competition and determined the winners. I would like to thank all the jury members for their support and cooperation. I would like to thank all the participants who submitted their works to the competition for their interest, and sincerely congratulate the award-winning authors.”
Source (Turkish) Girne Municipality
