Curriculum Vitae Home | 1985 - present USA | 1967 - 1985 England | 1953 - 1967 Yugoslavia | Artship

USA : Current Engagements & Projects
Synthesis for Communication
(Theater, Movement, Music, Story, Sculpture)

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A brief summary below of Slobodan’s roots and background serve as an introduction and context for his current engagements & projects. His is a search for the synthesis of theater, movement, music, story, and sculpture, culminating in poetic communication.

From the very beginning of his “life in art," Slobodan Dan Paich has been mixing categories without knowing. Throughout his childhood, he participated in the rehearsal process 3 to 4 times a week. Thrown into the ensemble process, he “learned by doing.” Thus he assimilated the art and craft of theater and cinema on the job, working under the direct and indirect mentorship of his adult colleagues.

He sang solo and in the chorus of Radio Belgrade from age 7 to 14, acted in children’s programs on radio, TV and later in film. He sang, as well, in the children’s chorus of the opera Carmen, which inspired him to make productions, one a year, from age 11 to14, in a homemade model theater where he performed all the parts with cut-out figures. His last two productions were adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s Birthday of an Infanta and Madame Butterfly, re-created as narrated stories, which he staged for his closest friends. The making of this model theater with its figures and sets led to a deep, lifelong interest in painting, drawing and sculpture. His involvement with the miniature theater resulted, two years later, to his convening a number of small independent theater groups in which he encouraged dancers to act and actors and singers to dance.

Slobodan with E.W. Wainwright, founder of music group African Roots of Jazz , a resident artist and co-holder of the Artship vision, pictured next to the Artship. 2003
Photo: Ellen L. Gailing

Figures and parts of scenery, made by Slobodan from 1956 to 1960 for his production in a miniature theater. Considering them childish, he discarded them. They resurfaced in recent years; they were part of the inheritance of his deceased father's personal effects. Unbeknownst to Slobodan, his father had salvaged these miniatures from the trash.