Kaunas State Drama Theatre
Encyclopedia
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, and one of the oldest functioning theatres in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
.
History
Its beginnings date to the 1920s, when the Lithuanian Artists' AssociationLithuanian Artists' Association
The Lithuanian Artists' Association is a creative voluntary artistic organization in Lithuania, uniting professional painters and artists. It is the official association for artists in the country...
established drama and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
playhouses. The first play performed by the Kaunas Drama Theatre was Hermann Sudermann
Hermann Sudermann
Hermann Sudermann was a German dramatist and novelist.- Early career :He was born at Matzicken, a village just to the east of Heydekrug in the Province of Prussia , close to the Russian frontier...
's St. John's Day
St. John's Day
St. John's Day may refer to:Feasts celebrating the Nativity of St. John the Baptist:* January 7, an Eastern Orthodox feast* June 24, Midsummer Day**an Eastern Orthodox feast celebrating his birth**a Roman Catholic feast celebrating his birth...
, directed by Juozas Vaičkus, premiering on December 19, 1920 in the former Russian City Theatre, in what is now the Kaunas State Musical Theatre
Kaunas State Musical Theatre
Kaunas State Musical Theatre is musical theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was established on November 27, 1940 in former State Theatre hall adjoining the Laisvės Alėja. For some time it was playing mostly operettas.-The building:...
. The company was the only professional theatre organization in Lithuania until 1931, when its branch opened in Šiauliai
Šiauliai
Šiauliai , is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.-Names:...
.
Dramas shared the house with opera, and in 1925 they were joined by ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
. At that time the theatre was renamed "State Theatre". Most of the actors initially came from Juozas Vaičkus' Flying Theatre, founded in 1918 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
After some reforms, Konstantinas Glinskis became its new manager. In 1926 he was forced out by the new manager, Antanas Sutkus
Antanas Sutkus
Antanas Sutkus is a renowned Lithuanian photographer and recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize and Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. He was one of the co-founders and a President of the Photography Art Society of Lithuania .Sutkus's series People of Lithuania is considered one of...
, along with many other actors. Sutkus brought in actors from the defunct Vilkolakis and Tautos theatres.
In 1928 Sutkus was replaced by Jurgis Savickis, who in 1929 invited Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas from the Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
. Oleka-Žilinskas sought to improve performances using the methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was a Georgian-born Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre organizer, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898.-Biography:Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was born...
, and as part of this goal, he invited the renowned Mikhail Chekhov to join the theater. Together they trained young actors and established The Young Theatre; although their work was acclaimed by critics, the broader public showed little appreciation. Later Oleka-Žilinskas was forced to leave the theatre.
Between 1935 and 1940 the theatre's ranks were reinforced by young people coming from The Young Theatre and the Experimental Theatre Acting Studio.
The Kaunas State Theatre was constantly delivering talents to other newly established theatres: the Šiauliai Theatre, the Youth Theatre
Youth Theatre
Youth Theatre is a theatre in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina in Serbia. Youth Theatre has two stages: the children's stage and the evening stage. Its ensemble consists of sixteen permanent characters....
, the Young Viewers’ Theatre, and later, after Lithuania regained control of Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, the Vilnius State Theatre.
In 1940, when Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the theatre was forced to implement the socialist understanding of art, and were forced to praise the new regime. During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, demands for praise of that regime were also made.
Soviet times
After the second Soviet occupation, socialist realismSocialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
was enforced. In 1947 a group of Lithuanian students went to GITS, (now known as the Russian Theatre Academy), and when they returned after graduating in 1952, a new era began at the theatre. In 1959 the organization was merged with the Kaunas Young Viewer’s Theatre and moved to its present location at Laisvės alėja
Laisves aleja
Laisvės Alėja is a prominent pedestrian street in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. It stretches between the St. Michael the Archangel's Byzantine style church to the Central Post Office and Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum around the Kaunas Old Town, the oldest section of Kaunas...
71.
Notable actors
- Konstantinas Glinskis
- Rūta Staliliūnaitė
- Ona Jonaitytė
- Algirdas Masiulis
- Juozas BudraitisJuozas BudraitisJuozas Budraitis is a Soviet and Lithuanian actor. He has appeared in 67 films and television shows since 1966. He starred in the Soviet film Wounded Game, which was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
- Vytautas Girgolis
- Viktoras Šinkariukas
- Ingeborga DapkūnaitėIngeborga DapkunaiteIngeborga Dapkūnaitė is a Lithuanian actress, who stars mostly in Russian movies.-Youth:Ingeborga Dapkunaite was born in Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR. Her father was a diplomat and her mother a meteorologist. For many years her parents worked in Moscow, and she only saw them on holidays...
Notable directors
- Konstantinas Glinskis
- Borisas Dauguvietis
- Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas
- Henrikas Vancevičius
- Henrikas Vancevičius
- Jonas Jurašas
- Jonas VaitkusJonas VaitkusJonas Vaitkus is a lecturer, theatre and film director well known in Lithuania and throughout Europe. From 1969 to 1974 Jonas Vaitkus studied at the State Theatre, Music and Cinematography Institute of Leningrad...
- Eimuntas NekrošiusEimuntas NekrošiusEimuntas Nekrošius is one of the most renowned theatre directors in Lithuania.- Career :...
- Stasys Motiejūnas
Notable plays
- Barbora Radvilaitė by Juozas GrušasJuozas GrušasJuozas Grušas was a Lithuanian writer, editor, dramatist and playwright.-Biography:...
- Herkus Mantas by Juozas GrušasJuozas GrušasJuozas Grušas was a Lithuanian writer, editor, dramatist and playwright.-Biography:...
- Baltaragis’s Mill
- The Pilgrim of Dreams
- Ubu RoiUbu RoiUbu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the...
by Alfred JarryAlfred JarryAlfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side.... - Thrush, the Green Bird