Theatrical Life Atnaujinta: 2011-03-07 15:17:48

Kaunas has earned the right to be called the city of theatre. In the interwar period, professional Lithuanian theatre had formed in the provisional capital, modern and innovative artistic trends quickly spread here. Kaunas of the Soviet era upheld the direction of a resistance theatre, which received response not just in Lithuania but abroad as well. The theatrical face of modern Kaunas is composed of over 12 professional insitutions, as well as theatre collectives of children, youth, students and amateurs.

The first theatre in the Kaunas' province was built by the order of the Russian Tsarist administration in 1892. The building of the then functioning Kaunas City Theatre (now the Kaunas State Musical Theatre) was designed by the architect Justinas Golinevičius (1829–1893). In the years of the Tsarist occupation, a Russian theatre troupe acted here. Lithuanians used to gather into illegal cultural collectives and benefit societies, organized Lithuanian nights and, in this way, fostered the ideas of a national theatre in secret from the occupant-government.

In 1905, the first public evening of Lithuanian theatre took place in the Kaunas' City Theatre, initiated by the national association "Daina". The amateur theatre people presented to the public one of the most popular dramas of the time – comedy "America in the Bath" ("Amerika pirtyje").

The preparations for the official establishment of the professional Lithuanian theatre scene in Kaunas took place right up until 1920. The development of professional theatre was taken care of by contemporary Lithuanian intellectuals who had joined the Association of Lithuanian art creators. Some of the most famous of them included Aleksandras Vitkauskas (1887–1943), a professional actor and director who had returned from the USA, Antanas Sutkus (1892–1968), a theoretician and director that had graduated from the Moscow Theatre of Modern Arts, Konstantinas Glinskis (1886–1938), a pupil of theatre schools in St. Petersbourg, actor and director, Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas (1893-1948), the student of the famous Russian theatre personality and the founder of the Moscow Theatre of Fine Arts Konstantinas Stanislavskis and Juozas Vaičkus (1885-1935), who was trusted to direct the first theatre play of the professional "Drama Showplace" – Hermann Sudermann's "Joninės". The premiere of this play on December 19, 1920 marks the official birth of professional Lithuanian theatre.

In 1922, the  "Drama Showplace" and its opera troupes (as well as ballet troupes in 1925) became the State Theatre – the Lithuanian national centre of theatrical culture. Ambitious arguments and stormy art discussions accompanied both the birth of the State Theatre and its further activities. Directors who worked in the State Theatre represented different artistic viewpoints, understood theatre in unique, differing ways. The theatre stage served as the location for the productions of varying styles: national romanticism, naturalism and symbolism existed in the repertoire alongside plays of 19th century melodrama and modern realism.

The actor and director Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas, tried to steer the activities of the State Theatre in the direction of modern aesthetics, while working in the theatre in 1929–1935 and inviting a famous Russian actor and pedagogist, Mikhail Czechov (1891–1955), who has produced no less than tree plays in the State Theatre. These theatre creators attempted to lay down the principles of inner truth of feelings, without which an actor's identification with the character's experiences is impossible on the Lithuanian stage.

The ideas of the formation of modern scenic space – constructivism, Cubism, Art Deco – were realized in the State Theatre by painters Stasys Ušinskas (1905–1974) and Liudas Truikys (1904–1987). In 1936, the premiere of the play "Sylvester and the Pipe" ("Silvestras ir dūdelė") at the Metropolitan hall in Kaunas allowed Stasys Ušinskas to realize the idea of a puppet theatre. Aside from the official cultural centre – the State Theatre – the interwar Kaunas also had a number of non-state stages. The most famous of them are related to the name of director Antanas Sutkus, such as the Nation's Theatre, which functioned, with breaks, in 1919 and 1923–1924, and nurtured the attitudes of national–symbolist theatre, and "Vilkolakis", which was a satirical–political cabaret. It is also worth mentioning the theatre–study of of the Workhouse which functioned in 1937–1940. The legend of Lithuanian theatre, Juozas Miltinis, also worked here after returning from studies in Paris.

After the second world war, the theatrical space of Kaunas was divided: opera and ballet were moved to Vilnius in 1948, drama was joined with the Theatre of Musical Comedy in 1949 and later separated. In 1959, the Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre was moved to the building of the former cinema theatre in Laisvės alėja, where it is functioning to this day, whereas the troupe of the musical theatre stayed in the building of the State Theatre and formed the base of the Kaunas State Musical Theatre.

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Yet another splash of liveliness in the Kaunas' theatrical life was made in 1975–1988, when the director Jonas Vaitkus worked at the Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre. Vaitkus produced more than 20 plays here, which were unique due to their expressive plastics and conditional language of visual metaphors, leaving a distinctive mark in the history of Lithuanian theatre. During the period of his work in Kaunas, Vaitkus established himself as creator of conceptual theatre, revealing inner conflicts of characters in his works, their rebellion against the environment ("Calligula" by Albert Camus, 1983), interplay between national identity and archetypal shapes of theatre ("Thrush is a Green Bird" by Bronius Kutavičius and Sigitas Geda, 1984) and forming the space for symbolic resistance against totalitarian reality. One of the most famous theatre directors of today, Eimuntas Nekrošius, also worked in the Vaitkus-led theatre.

After the restoration of Lithuanian independence, the theatrical topography of Kaunas expanded: new private or municipality-funded theatres were established, untraditional, chamber spaces for acting were created, theatres drew in the young generation of Lithuanian theatre artists.

In 1992, the Valentinas Masalskis' and Vidmantas Bartulis' Arts Collective (1993–1999) and the Kaunas Little Theatre were opened in the M. Daukšos street. The director Stanislovas Rubinovas founded the Kaunas Youth Chamber Theatre in 1990, the core of which was composed by the pupils of the Youth Music Study established in 1976 together with composer Giedrius Kuprevičius. In 1994, the dance theatre "Aura", headed by Birutė Letukaitė, became a Kaunas city municipal theatre. 1981 was the year when the Pantomime Theatre led by Kęstutis Adomaitis started its activities. In 1998, Gintaras Varnas, creator possessing a vivid directorial imagination, debuted at the Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre.

Today the theatrical activities of children, the youth, students and amateurs are all actively developed in Kaunas. In addition to the artistic variety in Kaunas' theatrical life, new forms of theatre work organization are materializing – art projects, seminars, festivals, panoramas of Lithuanian dramaturgy and other initiatives seeking to decentralize the Lithuanian theatrical structure.

*More about this topic is available in the article "Theatrical Life in Kaunas” by Prof. Jurgita Staniškytė in the publication “Revelations of Kaunas”, 2009 (Kaunas: VMU).