Vytautas Šerėnas: a man you could not be admired Names

When you are 28 years old and you have to pay tribute to a person in a white sheet whose name only evokes a wide range of feelings, believe me, writing text is not easy. Just when I started writing to myself, I wouldn’t allow myself to mention that I’m from the generation that grew up with “Cycling Knowledge,” though I can’t say I don’t know what it means to see two intellectuals waiting for a late night show at home every night. repeating repertoire of characters, when you can be a girl of about eight, the bell tower, the show seems like just a show, although for some reason you already understand why your parents wait for the night, and now you can even think what the hell is going on in that journalism driven away

Later you grow up with the characters, some knew them more, some less, but it would be very difficult to find a person who has crossed the age of twenty, who did not know a single character, who had not heard of Philip somewhere, maybe Zita from Mažeikiai, or maybe legendary Brat.

The responsibility to honor both a person who has distinguished himself in Lithuania with his text is both an honor and a great burden, when the mood of the people who know Vytautas Šerėnas, the vibration or the laughter in their voices must resonate in his words.

“I will say it very openly; I will remember the laugh all my life. We laughed a lot, it was a wonderful moment,” said Darius Balčiūnas at the end of the conversation, with an unexpected pain in his voice. Philip But especially, from the beginning.

Vytautas Šerėnas was born in 1959 in Antagavė, Ignalina district. Here he graduated from high school, entered the Vilnius Polytechnic and acquired the specialty of liaison, then entered the Vilnius University, specialized in economics at the Faculty of Industrial Economics, and defended his doctoral thesis. Here Vytautas was received by Arūnas Valinskas. He himself was studying at the Faculty of Law at the time, Vytas, as he is briefly called, was already teaching at a nearby faculty and was an amateur activist. If two chebros and furious Arūnas with the show group “Dviratis”, Vytautas – with the “Hammer” brigade. It may sound like the beginning of an unsuccessful prank: a bicycle and a hammer met, and then …

“Or we combine combines”

A mustache and beard

When Arūnas first met Vytautas, they participated in a competition with their groups, where the latter played a man from the province for the first time. How today Arūnas remembers three words that changed their lives: “And we are reapers”.

Those three words were enough to make the whole room fall off the chairs. Arūnas says that Vitautas was by nature a man who had a certain arsenal of his roles. Yes, you got it right, it was the beginning of the legendary Bratkus. A book about these two characters will definitely be released one day.

Vytautas brought Usa and Barzdonas from their childhood. Everyone agrees with that. Giedrius Jokimavičius, the manager of Dviračio žinios, says briefly and clearly: he did what he liked, he liked and what he stuck with. It happens that he takes sticks and everything. After all, he says, no actor was. He did not play. He only did what he knew.

“I wanted them to never end. He did very well. It was very unfortunate when they weren’t there, very much, ”adds actress Kristina Kazlauskaitė, who will occupy a very important detail in this story, but is now an ode to Bratkos.

Admittedly, this fact should surprise fans. It turns out that Vytautas had to be persuaded to play, and here we can already thank the opening core: A. Valinskas and the eternal silence of Gintaras Ruplėnas. Only when they saw the combine they wanted more. At first, everyone had the role of “knowledge”: Arūnas was also named, Gintaras was a journalist, and a little later Haroldas Mackevičius, a tourist from Warsaw. Only Vytukas played more, I don’t know why.

When the main nucleus – Arūnas, Gintaras and Vytautas – mixed all of Lithuania with their program with concerts, performances and “marches”, the creation of the show began. At first they all met at home, their wives did not like those gatherings much, especially since the men had already decided what they were choosing, his wife was preparing dinner, and it was understandable why the other parties might be skeptical about these meetings.

Maybe that’s why they were quickly expelled: they filmed the first show for a day and a half at the old legendary restaurant “Iron Wolf” near Lukiškės Square, they created a script there, they filmed there, there was even a swimming pool. “The atmosphere is not bad at all, it suited us,” says Arūnas. And he adds, and later, in principle, what he wanted, he did.

The point is simple, there is little heroism at the start of the bike show. The trio just did it. “You know, when you can run, you run, you can’t imagine doing something special here. When you can go, you go, when you can only limp, limp, but we were runners at the time. We didn’t see if we would. The first question was: how do we do it? ”, remembers Arūnas.

What two neighbors who worked together on each occasion did to Lithuania is difficult to explain. Why did they become such a phenomenon? According to police Pilypukas, Ūsas and Barzdonas represented a large part of not only Lithuania, but also the world, because they do not hate life as much as their neighbor. And although most of the dilemmas in Bratka’s life were solved in two, they often had to meet other characters as well, but these were isolated cases. Not because Vytautas is an individualist, but because people needed such a confrontation, the answer is simple: why change something, if everything is perfect anyway?

It turns out that a much more complicated question is why Bratkos disappeared at all. The actors have not heard this response from Vytautas himself until now, because it must be emphasized that the core of the “knowledge” that created the script did not share the details of the show’s creation. The actors just had to come, play and everything.

“History is silent because men love it,” says Arūnas Valinskas.

The first woman in the “news” suffered jokes from men

This is Kristina Kazlauskaitė. Of course, when Arūnas Valinskas heard this, he immediately began to shake his head that there were women in “Dviračio žinios” before. Turns out, he’s not really lying.

The show, which aired on the air in 1993, aired on LTV, a year later moved to LitPoliinter TV, and in 1995 it was shown on LNK. The show was shown once a week, the pace was fast, but one rule remained throughout the life of the show: all three grandchildren never interfered with the performance. When there were only three men, in 1996 they were joined by the aforementioned actor Darius Balčiūnas.

He played many extremely prominent roles, and it was he who often had to appear with women on screen. However, it was not the professional actresses who were invited to join the program, but the coffee vendors who were right in front of the television building. Finally, the Lapiai cooks were protected.

How were they rewarded for this? “History is silent because men love it,” says Arūnas Valinskas.

However, Kristina joined the ultra masculine company, where Harry was already present, really first. He had the honor of traveling with men even along the US coast. USA, Performing in Chicago and doing interesting activities. What exactly the company did in Las Vegas was difficult to understand, because Kristina’s memories were like peas, they climbed somewhere, they danced somewhere, there were trains somewhere, but because at the time I was so scared that I didn’t even he could lift his head, maybe the memories of the attraction disappeared. By heart Kristina also remembers the “metal soap with a propeller blowing the wind from all angles” flight over the Grand Canyon. It turns out, reluctantly, these men were, beloved adventures, shadows.

I apologized for the question, but weren’t there demons in the company? Ladies strictly say no: the whole man was characterized by touch, gallantry, and other attributes necessary for a gentleman.

“As much as I love God, I can’t say anything. Everything was in the theater, but in this group … Maybe because I’m still a bigger piece than them. For a time only “you” applied. No, no, they won’t say anything, and if they need to, they will politely apologize, “Can you?”, Remembers Kristina.

And just don’t think that being the first professional actress in this company was very easy. No matter how fun the time the company spent was, the actors felt infinite respect for the three heads. Kristina says she never dared ask Vytautas personally why Bratkas had left, because his decisions were respected, unquestioned, and they had to play for themselves.

As I love God, there is nothing I can say. Everything was in the theater, but in this group.

As already mentioned, the writers did not interfere in the acting process. They just sent out a script, highlighting the accents, but they didn’t frame the new character. He allowed me to improvise, but there were things you had to say. “The texts they have created have meaning, essence and purpose. That’s all, “emphasizes Kristina.

How you already perform the character is entirely up to you. Want to know how the trio reacted when they first saw Ms Zita from Mažeikiai or Jadze homeless?

“It just came to our attention then. I can only say a lot. I didn’t get a single comment, I never said that well, but it could be a little different. I don’t know if I was lucky,” says K. Kazlauskaitė.

Philip thanks for the fraternal connection

Admittedly, not everything was so lucky from the first pancake. As soon as the show started, as the men prepared scripts and the actors working with the show director on what they had, it all happened. A.Valinskas says there were cases when the show had to be filmed again; if the actor does not put the accent there, it would not give so many shades.

“Vitautas could get mad and give demons, but I never got mad at him, because he was like an older brother to me, he really understood me and we supported each other.” He was a very sincere man. And good. Yes pachaltūrindavau“That’s what demons have,” laughs Pilypukas.

D.Balčiūnas, who played alongside “Bratkai” and lived in Šiauliai at the time and only made it to filming in the capital, says that this role of Vytautas, like K.Kazlauskaitė, was more stuck in his memory. This role is unique and enduring, according to Philip, when he met Vitautas, he realized that the neighbors liked him according to his character.

Since it was very easy to communicate remotely in those days, and he couldn’t find information as soon as he took out the phone, Philip prepared himself for his roles by reading newspapers and taking an interest in current events. The writers demanded the same. And although it seems that the technology at that time did not allow too much mischief on the filming site, D. Balčiūnas shook his head: believe me, it was so much fun that now that he remembers his youth, it shakes his heart.

If I was a pachaltur, I was also catching demons, Philip laughs.

It used to be that even out of 50 dubies who just filmed because they just stared at each other, why are they stumbling? You don’t know, they just watch. Or you still don’t say a word, and the writers took those things strictly. Each word is important, not unnecessarily the scripts were born in such spectacular circumstances.

As for all the interlocutors, I was always fascinated by the fact that they themselves did not know what the trio, being together in the same room, knew, did not know, and how the texts that reached them were born. A. Valinskas says: “It is better to ask what we did not do there.”

But again, laugh with laughter, but the three owners of a sharp mind and tongues highly valued the word. By creating the closed script, they themselves became all the legendary characters, all of whom had learned to think, speak like Bratka, Philip, Zita or many others. And the memories of the actors testify to the will of the characters. More precisely, memories, because both Darius and Kristina admit that as soon as the first shows were created, the characters were thought of every day. “I don’t even know what I played there. Only one God knows,” adds K. Kazlauskaitė.

However, only the most deserving were destined to stay. And he doesn’t seem to make a mistake about the choice. And here it is already possible to finally answer the question, why did Mustache and Barzdon disappear?

“Then we realized that all conspiracy theories would evaporate. What Vytas did, how all the roles came up, was brilliant. We talked about him playing, and after many years he said, ‘You know, I think the public is tired. and I’m already tired of these two brothers. And then, by joint decision, it was decided that there would be no more Bratkai, “explains Arūnas.

I will say very directly that all conspiracy theories will evaporate

He is not a perfectionist, but he is only responsible for his field.

After Kristina Kazlauskaitė and Darius Balčiūnas voted for the best role for V.Šerėnas and awarded the award to the neighbors, the other two interlocutors became an excellent counterweight. Much later, acting actors Larisa Kalpokaitė and Mantas Stonkus voted that nothing else suited both Vytautas and the role of the leader. Until the draw, it was Arūnas who received the award. And he stabs it as precisely as a finger.

He presents the award to Ūsas and Barzdonas, and the second place was awarded to Vytautas Lansbergis for improvisation, not because Vytautas failed to lead, but because Vytautas did not play the leader. He was with him. And if you have lost the honor of meeting this prominent person, everyone agrees that it was here that V. Šerėnas really revealed himself.

A. Valinskas says he was not a 100% perfectionist. He allowed himself to choose the option of being responsible for an area that he knew perfectly, everything else was no longer his business. That area, of course, was economics and politics. The three core cores were interested in different things, maybe only Arūnas and Gintaras were more in the right direction.

“Sport was of no interest to him at all, saying that sport does not create any added value in human history. Interested in the world of entertainment? He learned these things from us, then he had to be interested in them, although he didn’t really like it, ”laughs Arūnas.

K. Kazlauskaitė remembers Vitautas as a man with a sharp tongue, but, most importantly, a very sharp mind, whose muffled humor on the underside did not fascinate. A keen mind united them all, as did diligence. As the actress says, it was really special because the culture, the knowledge of what she is doing, what she aspires to, the ability to represent her opinion, because, believe me, they were not only referring to politicians, but to professionalism. Reminiscent of Vytautas as host thus far, Larisa Kalpokaitė says that what fascinated her most in this role was her easy distance and irony. That is what Larisa says, and he has been in life, a man who can not help but admire.

I used to say that sport has no added value in human history

“For me, Vitautas is just the face of Lithuanian comedy. That’s all,” says Mantas Stonkus. When he joined the company in 2010, he didn’t have much time to remember the first acquaintance, it was so impressive. H. Mackevičius noticed a talented young man during exams and offered to go to his office that day and that day. The selection took place in a 10-square-meter room, where all three (without A. Valinskas already) were sitting. Mantas arrived with trembling sticks, and left, though he said himself perhaps a little differently.

“I came, sitting with wooden faces, saying, ‘Well, give us a name now.’ I was ready for the Regimantas Adomaitis parody, I can repeat his voice well, I played, and during that time, not even the slightest muscle moved. I finished playing, I was on my feet, and they continued in silence with wooden faces, and then, after about five seconds, even though it seemed like a good 10 minutes had passed: “Come on, let’s shoot tomorrow” That’s how we met, “laughs M. Stonkus. It is true, instead of R. Adomaitis de Mantas ‘suggestion, the character of Regimantas’ son, Gediminas, appeared on the “Bicycle Show”.

To this day, in his memory, Mantas remembers that extremely miniature cabinet with three tables for each head and for another reason. While still a student, he often came here to talk about his own problems, roles, or to say hello. Lately, only Vitautas and Haris have been sitting there. Now …

Larisa Kalpokaitė also visited this office. The actress laughs when she remembers the first time Vitautas saw her lose a lot of weight, and those cunning demons appeared in her eyes more often. “Apparently he really liked the image he saw,” Larisa laughs. “He was very naughty, but very discreet.”

L. Kalpokaitė remembers the same room near Lukiškės, then visited new facilities in Antakalnis, but the trio always worked separately and did not interfere with the process itself. This is only a matter for the actor and director, because according to Arūnas, neither of them thought they were competent enough to direct first-class actors to work on the show all the time. It is true that sometimes they put their noses in the makeup room, greeted each other and took a couple of words.

“By the way, I turned my head once and saw it in the mirror with slippers (Larisa continues the story, laughing), and they were made of felt, made by our gloomy Jolanta, and she and my husband had made them. I turned it in the mirror and I see him with those felts and demons in sight … Oooo, I mean, Jolanta works … She says: “It is warmer to sit down. He sits and sits ”… Yes, he was, as a very rare person, very decent. It’s all three … But it is. It seems to me that it was the fingerboard of the entire trio ”, recalls the actress with a lump in her throat. She learned of the death of V.Šerėnas in May 2019 with her husband Jonas Braškis while in Italy, and a coincidence still makes her breathe.

Vitautas was the tone of the entire trio.

G.Ruplėnas farm parties and the last cello

Before the death of another very talented person, Gintaras Ruplėnas, everyone had gathered at the Gintaras farm. Here, the entire creative team often came to close the season, sometimes waiting at a cafe on Kalinauskas Street.

As Larisa says, Gintaras was not a speaker, more precisely, he did not like to talk about anything, waste unnecessary words, and that time, that closing night, Larisa remembers how Gintaras approached the two of them with John and spoke, spoke, spoke for a long time. He soon left for Jordan with family and friends, where he died in June 2014 of cardiac arrest. A very similar memory appears when Larisa talks about the death of Vitautas. The farewell night also took place at the Antakalnis office, she planned to have a brief visit with Jonas, but Vytautas says to Jonas: “Sit down, and you, Larisa, wait a little.”

Just don’t think about anything. This tradition of men, drinking the last cherry whiskey in two, was a tradition that lasted for several years. According to Larisa, after Amber’s death, Vytautas apparently had a great need for company, they and Jonas were of a similar age, and since Larisa did not drink alcohol, she did not join the men’s company. Then Vitautas and Jonas sat on the couch, drank the last cup and ran away. The two soon flew to Italy, and here in Lithuania, spring again, another painful loss.

On the farms of G.Ruplėnas and H.Mackevičius, all the actors who played “Dviračio šou” remember the fun with a smile on their faces. Both Edmundas Jakilaitis and Jogaila Morkūnas remember the laughter, the guests arrived, they got naughty, they had fun, but they always lost their minds.

“Frankly, I miss Vitautas. It’s horrible now … It’s a shame those young men, even two of us on the team. It hurts a lot,” says Pilypukas.

“Vytautas is a big part of me. I always remember him By the way, they were born one day with my oldest son, only Vitautas was born 30 years earlier, but the son’s first birthday was his birthday. And as I always said: there were three Vitautas the Great in their genres. I think everyone has left the impression that they will always be great for us, “says A. Valinskas.