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Although there is no such possibility, between the interwar period Kaunas and their personalities, the images fell on the pages of the play “Foremen” written by the director. Describes how director Juozas Vaičkus and his student actors prepared for the establishment of the State Theater by rehearsing H. Sudermann’s play “Joninės”, which premiered in 1920. December 19 “The foundations of Lithuanian professional theater were laid, by what we must remember those people with respect, because without them there would be no heights of the current theater “, is convinced the famous theater director and pedagogue G. Padegimas.
– Director, remind me of the social and cultural environment in which the idea of the birth of the State Theater matured.
– The idea of establishing a professional theater originated in 1909, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the “America in the Sauna” performance in Palanga, but was hampered by the First World War. Well, in 1918, after the establishment of the Republic of Lithuania, the initiative was taken by the Lithuanian Artists Society, which was established in Kaunas in 1920. in January. Let’s not think that the theater field in Lithuania was empty: the “National Theater” directed by director Antanas Sutkus and the “Flying Troupe” by Juozas Vaičkus were in operation. This with the company in 1919. He returned to Lithuania from Saint Petersburg by train and rehearsed during a month-long trip. He returned with a repertoire, played in Vilnius, then, after occupying it, moved to Kaunas.
In addition to J.Vaičkus and A.Sutkus, there were also Konstantinas Glinskis, Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas, Antanas Vitkauskas. All five men aspired to become theater directors, but found no consensus on how to work together. The Lithuanian theater was born under difficult circumstances: the decision to establish the State Theater was signed by the Lithuanian government on the eve of the Širvintos-Giedraičiai battles, allocating 30,000. gold. Just think, not knowing if the state will survive! Lithuania survived and J. Vaičkas had the mission to create the premiere for the opening of the theater. He rehearsed in an assigned five-room apartment on Kęstučio Street (this house did not survive) along with his like-minded actors, Petras Vaičiūnas, Teofilija Dragūnaitė, later Vaičiūnienė, Morta Grikšaitė-Vaičkienė, Ona Kurmyte, Pole Tendžt There were no contracts, so all the creators earned money: J.Vaičkus was a lawyer, P.Vaičiūnas worked as an interrogator at Panevėžys, the actresses worked as secretaries or worked in other institutions. After a day of work on the hill and the city’s wooden sidewalks, they rushed to rehearse.
100 years later, none were alive and had yet to meet some of them. I’m glad I got on the train of memories.
– The actors and the director burned with enthusiasm, and what did the audience expect? After all, the Werewolf Theater, which displayed satirical depictions, was very popular in Kaunas at the time. There is a phrase in your work: “If you act without dancing, don’t wait for the audience”.
– This phrase was said by J. Vaičkus, it is not elegant. The Vilkolakis Theater was very popular, because it provided satirical news compared to our day, I would say, the equivalent of “Knowledge of the bicycle”. Theater, which is a reflection of life, anthropology and requires effort of thought, has been and is complex. Emancipation from the audience took several years, and theatrical culture only developed. It was difficult for the Lithuanian theater seedlings to break through. The performances required a lot, often, the public demanded freshness. J.Vaičkus had graduated from the Imperial School of Art, loved Scandinavian drama, H.Ibsen, other authors, but the audience had not grown until then. He taught theater in elementary school to hundreds of actors. A lot could be said about this undeservedly underrated theater personality, but he is unequivocally a pioneer, a little understood innovator. By the way, he banned the pointer after the third trial.
– The premiere of “Joninės” was made by those who created it. The presentation was not well received. Critics had a negative resonance with the performance, Vydūnas noted in his comments that Lithuanians were incorrectly portrayed in the play. The work itself spoke of a relevant phenomenon at the time: what happens if you deny your roots.
– Yes, the artistic value of the premiere is modest, but this performance is the firstborn of professional theater. I have already mentioned that the actors created the play in their spare time, they lacked support. In the presentation, the public will also hear those nuances. It is no secret that on the eve of the premiere, Konstantinas Glinskis presented her version of “Joniniai” at Tilmans Hall, and even wrote a negative review of the premiere of J.Vaičkus. Thank goodness he had enough ingenuity not to print it.
– He collected the material for the play “Pirmeiviai” for a long time, and wrote it very quickly, during the first month of quarantine.
– As a child in the summer, I read the press and literature accumulated by my grandmother’s brother’s officer, who died in the uranium mines of the USSR, with his grandparents in the village of Dzūkija. Much later, I presented a series of television programs “Moments of the Millennium. Theatrical instinct” with people who remember that time. I’m gathering information and it seemed like an insurmountable mountain, but the first day of the quarantine someone called me and I sat down at the computer. It seems to me that the characters themselves told me what to write. I used a lot of material, memories. I found many details in the rare publications section of the Kaunas Public Library in 1920. in the Lietuva and Laisvė newspapers. I dedicate the play to all the brothers and sisters of the theater, to all those who have cultivated the theater for 100 years. I used the expressions of colleagues, like Algimantas Masiulis, when we talked about that there are some shortcomings and things like that, they said, “Oh, he’s human.” Algimantas used to say: “The human being is human, but he is human.” It sounds from the lips of Juozas Stanulis. I did not avoid theatrical jokes, theatrical superstitions. When writing dialogues, I used my grandmother’s vocabulary, the Dzūkija and Samogitian dialects, because the language was not standardized at the time.
Those people created Lithuania, and now our world has changed, a consumer society has been formed, leaving its country, children and parents.
In the sense of genre, the play contains dramas and post-dramas. I tried to have a sitcom and melodrama that prevailed in J. Vačkus-era theater, but it was all shrouded in nostalgic smoky smoke. “Pirmeiviai” completes a trilogy of my works created over 10 years, which also includes “J.A.H”, dedicated to the memory of the writer, public and literary figure Juozapas Albinas Herbačiauskas, and “Alksniškės”, reminiscent of President Kazys Griniai.
– However, this play is not just a retrospective of the birth of the theater. In presenting the project and the scenery of the performance, you said that a 100-year layer is also important to you: the present and the past, the signs of the theater.
– The theme of acting is always very important to me. This is about man and time. 100 years ago, people were not consumers but creators. It doesn’t matter what profession you’re in. Imagine, those people created Lithuania, and now our world has changed, a consumer society has formed, leaving your country, children, parents. It is surprising to be a pioneer, your country, your theater. I think it is very important to talk about this. Then they established schools, hospitals, which are closing today. From the president to the student, we massively plant the trees that we recklessly cut today. There are rumors that instead of declaring the City Garden so expensive for Kaunas residents, the Soviet garden is already waiting for the ax blade … The Soviet government cracked down on the City Garden, destroyed the magnificent fountain, and replaced it with kitsch afterwards. of the burning of R. Kalanta, and the current government seems The pseudo-modernism determined here to erase any trace of historical memory.
– The heroes of the play are energetic interwar artists, embodied by the young generation of the Kaunas National Drama Theater, beginning their creative journey. This choice was not random?
– I invited to play almost the entire previous course prepared by known directors: Algirdas Latėnas and Vidas Bareikis. We worked with Algirdas during my studies, and Vidas played in my performance “Fire Hunt with Guards” when I was still a student at the M.K.Ciurlionis National School of Arts. Young people work wonderfully, take an interest in the lives of their heroes and the like. We met at my farm in Yushkony, where we read the play for a few days, and I introduced them to Mikhail Chekhov’s method. At the beginning of the process, I noticed that I would divide the roles led by the higher forces: Deividas Breivė is very similar to J.Vaičkas, Aistė Zabotkaitė has a lot in common with O.Kurmyte and Motiejus Ivanauskas, like Petras Kubertavičius. When artist Birutė Ukrinaitė collected portraits of heroes, we note that there is not yet one of those soul and body twins.
– Director, you played a lot of interwar theater actors. Which one would you like to have a live chat with?
– As a director, it would be very interesting for me to meet J. Vačkus. He has had the opportunity to communicate with his J.Stanulis students, Kazys Tumkevičius, to film them. J.Vaičkus died without leaving a memory, there are only comments about him. There is much uncertainty about why he had to leave the core of the theater. Why he created cinematography in Lithuania was neglected, and its merits are undervalued. It would be interesting to hear from his own lips why he left the theater without a fight. Still interesting characters that are fictional in my work, like Brotherhood. It is a prototype of a novice poet who lived in that J. Vaičkus apartment. Viewers should be interested in guessing what is real and what is imaginary. 100 years later, none were alive and had yet to meet some of them. I’m glad I got on the train of memories. I feel the duty to pass it on to future generations, to help me realize what has been up to now. I hope that this performance also has an educational meaning, shows how these people, with just one idea, created a theater, they were pioneers.
WHO? Premiere of the play “Pioneros”.
When? August 21, September 24 and October 30.
Where? On the grand stage of the Kaunas National Drama Theater.
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