The 11th edition of the International Theatre Festival SLAVIJA 2012 will be held at the Slavija Theatre in Belgrade on March 9-17.

The regionally important theatrical event, which has hosted a total of 60 theaters from more than 30 countries so far, will this year gather nine theatres, including three national ones.

The festival will be opened with a solemn ceremony led by Serbian actress Branka Veselinovic on March 9, the Slavija Theatre has said.

On the same evening, the Ulyanovsk Drama Theatre from Russia will stage Anton Chekov's play 'The Feelings'. The Ensemble 'Russian Soul', also from Ulyanovsk, will flavour the evening with a musical performance.

On the next festival day, the National Theatre Cluj-Napoca from Romania will perform the play 'Zenobia' by Gellu Naum, while on March 11, the State Drama and Puppet Theatre Konstantin Velichkov from Bulgaria will stage the play 'The Woman Before', by Roland Schimmelpfennig.

On March 12, the German State Theatre Timisoara, from Romania, will present a play by Barry Collins titled 'Judgment'. On the following evening, the stage will be given to Poland's Scena Prapremier InVitr and the play 'Stones in His Pockets' by Marie Jones.

The Azerbaijani State Academic National Drama Theatre will play 'Shame' by Huseynbala Miralamov on March 14, and SINA Group Theatre, from Iran, will perform 'Tengo', based on Anton Chekov's one-act play 'Bear'.

Belgrade's own Atelje 212 will give a performance of 'Endgame', by Samuel Beckett, on March 16.

The Festival will close with a performance of 'Letters from 1920', a play based on a short story of the same title written by Serbian writer Ivo Andric. It will be staged by the Bosnian National Theatre from Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina.