One of our collaborators once called Mala Scena “a mystical castle that feels like home.” In that one sentence, they captured exactly who we are beneath all the formalities.

Formally, we are the oldest private theatre for children and young people in Croatia still in operation. We began our journey as a theatre troupe in 1986 and have been based in our now well-known venue in Medveščak since 1989.

We’ve produced 141 plays, received 105 awards for our productions, and around 10 for our overall contribution to the arts. We’ve launched an international festival called Milk Tooth (Mlijeni zub) and led several international projects. Our shows have toured the world — from the Sydney Opera House and the Barbican in London to Koenji Theatre in Tokyo.

And Informally?

Our story began when Vitomira Lončar and Ivica Šimić, after years of working in a public theatre, quit their jobs and decided to build something of their own. They wanted to create their own destiny — to make plays they believed in, with integrity, passion, and the highest artistic standards. They didn’t want to just “do theatre.” They wanted to live it.

And that spark ignited everything.

It all started with our iconic production of The Princess and the Pea, which originally premiered under the name Flowers of Imagination (Cvijetovi mašte). The first version lasted a full hour and a half! After some gentle but honest feedback from colleagues, the show was revised and became Storyteller and Little One (Pričalo i Malena), and eventually evolved into The Princess and the Pea as we know it today.

After years of traveling around Croatia (if you ever meet Vita at the box office, ask her about the mud drive that ruined the costumes but didn’t stop the show!), we finally got the chance to become more than a troupe with a car — we became a theatre with an actual stage!

The space was anything but a real theatre. But, as the saying goes, “when little hands work together...” (You can read more about our venue’s construction and the legendary first performance attended by - no one, in our monograph!)

And so the journey began.

We pushed boundaries wherever and whenever we could. From launching one of the first theatre websites in Croatia, to staging baby theatre as early as 2002, to creating The Paratroopers (Padobranci) a phenomenon of Croatian theatre that traveled the globe and played in legendary venues no other Croatian play had reached before or since.

We built our “distinct difference,” always guided by one idea: that excellence comes first, and that theatre is a refuge - a place where society comes to be nourished, recharged, and to play.

Some shows we believed in failed. Others we doubted took off.

We’ve gone bankrupt three times, and survived. We’ve celebrated huge successes and endured deep failures. At one point we had seven employees, then just one, and now we’re back to seven again.

But locking the door was never really an option.

Because for us, theatre is not a job. It’s a way of life.

When there was no other choice — we’d pack the show in a car and go. Wherever we were invited. Or not invited, but still welcomed (the cancelled US tour after the team had already landed is another story worth reading in our monograph).

In 1993, Mala Scena welcomed another member to the team, one nearly born into the theatre itself.

That same person is now the artistic director of Mala Scena. A lover of opera and an explorer of new (and all) directions, she added her own twist to the story. A touch more madness to our mosaic.

Standing on the shoulders of tradition, holding hands with the present, and looking boldly toward the future, we are still here. Believing that theatre is what keeps humanity alive. That theatre shines and reminds us of the light we carry within. That theatre is a castle, a stronghold of imagination, freedom, emotion.

And all of this is because of you, with you, and for you.

Welcome to Mala Scena, where we can't wait to write the next chapter together!