“Golden crosses of the stage” without playwrights? The representatives of the performing arts addressed the Minister of Culture and the evaluators of the performing arts

After the announcement of the list of nominations for the highest Lithuanian performing arts awards – “Golden Crosses of the Stage” – on March 12, there is no nomination for the dramaturg of the play for another year. Despite the fact that dramaturgical courses and dramaturgy competitions are held every year in Lithuania, which encourage and publicize the work of authors, the work of playwrights is not evaluated with awards.

In order to avoid a quickly subsiding wave of public outrages on social accounts, playwright Gabrielė Labanauskaitė, theater actress Ieva Brikė and playwright, director, theater and film actor Justas Tertelis initiated a public appeal to the Minister of Culture Simonas Kairis and the panel of professional performing arts evaluators.

It is hoped that this gesture will stimulate further discussions and changes leading to the evaluation of the work of the playwright as a full-fledged creator of stage art.

“It is disappointing that next to the other necessary elements of the play – acting and directing – there is no permanent, annual and consistent award for national dramaturgy. In Lithuania, there are more and more playwrights and playwrights who write professional plays and otherwise contribute to the production process, so ignoring their work at the state level is no longer possible,” said Gabrielė Labanauskaitė, the initiator of the petition.

The open appeal reads:

“There is no performance without dramaturgy – whether it is an author’s creation, according to which the performance is staged, or the dramaturgy of the entire performance is created together with the team. It is difficult to find theater, opera, dance or any other performance that does not use dramaturgy or its tools.

Therefore, we – playwrights, directors, actresses, set designers, composers, performing arts critics – and other people related to performing arts wish that every year the “Golden stage crosses” nomination list would include a national dramaturgy nomination, along with other prizes for directing, acting, costume design, scenography, music composers and other theater arts professionals.

Every year, many plays based on Lithuanian dramaturgy are created in Lithuania, which are widely attended and loved by the audience. This is also confirmed by LATGA, which collects a lot of income for the authors’ work. The non-inclusion of dramaturgy in the list of “Golden Crosses of the Stage” nominations shows the reluctance of the professional stage art assessment committee to nurture or the inability to distinguish the elements that make up a work of stage art, an unethical and disrespectful attitude towards colleagues representing the profession of dramaturgy and violates the fundamental values ​​declared by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, which nurture national creativity, including dramaturgy created in Lithuania.

We understand that art evaluation is a very delicate process that requires an in-depth look at various aspects of the work being evaluated, but the refusal to notice dramaturgy as a full-fledged creative element of the performance makes us doubt the professionalism of the commission itself, shows a reluctance to strengthen the traditions and development of this creative field in our country, creates a distorted view of the performing arts perception of creative processes, disappoints dramaturgy professionals and their colleagues.

Therefore, we ask that from 2025, consistently and annually, the category of dramaturgy be included in the nominations of the “Golden Stage Crosses” awards, thus promoting the development and dissemination of national dramaturgy.”

The appeal has already been signed by over two hundred members of the theater community, including playwrights, actors, directors, performing arts managers, circus artists, dancers and other performing arts professionals. Signatures are collected until March 27, after which the open appeal will be sent to the Minister of Culture Simon Kairis and the professional performing arts evaluation commission.