ABSTRACT
Public theatres are financed by public funds or taxpayers’ money. Even without any direct, open, or conscious intention to discriminate, by using different methods of exclusion, mainstream theatre makes choices and thus significantly contributes to the pattern of exclusion in the publicly privileged representation of its value system. In a society such as Croatia, which is post-authoritarian, post-conflict, and undergoing a transition, democratic institutions are fragile, culture of respecting others and different ones is only beginning while the cultural life and the environment remains exposed to new authoritarian, non-liberal, and conservative tendencies. The media has to learn that those less “attractive” theatre productions, although they are far from red carpets, spotlights, and glamorous opening nights with celebrities and tabloids, still deserve media attention and reporting because of the role they play in society and the social value they hold.
