This year, the international educational festival “Don’t go to the theater” will be held at the Kaunas National Drama Theater for the 14th time and will continue from April 25. until June 14. The program includes fifty educations, two premieres, eight performances – four by foreign troupes, and the entire theatrical event is dedicated to interactivity suitable for viewers of any age.
Lots of action and interactivity
This year’s festival offers an extremely wide program, so it was decided not to show educations and performances over four intensive days, as before, but to extend the festival’s time until the summer. In this way, it is more convenient for families and schools to plan their visit to the theater, and for the organizers to develop a rich program.
The festival also has a unique theme – interactivity (last year’s festival was dominated by sound). By 2024 Hungarian theater artist Gábor Takács, head of the Káva Drama/Theater in Education Association, actor, drama teacher contributed to the creation of the program. For the past 20 years, he has been creating a democratic theater genre based on interactivity, partnership, diversity of themes, participation, criticism and questioning.
“The basis of interactive theater is the viewer as a co-author, influencing the content and/or form of the performance. However, the purpose of each performance in our program is different. Some performances will invite you to play, others – to share experiences. The experience of the interactive performance will be completely unique, because you yourself created it here and now”, says its coordinator Valdonė Talutytė-Masienė, who lives in anticipation of the festival.
The opening of the festival will take place on April 25, and on this occasion there will be a performance by the dance company “Ulna” and a free tour from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m., inviting you to different spaces of the theater. You will have a unique opportunity to walk around the huge performing arts factory, see its backstage spaces, equipment and techniques, and observe the employees of various departments during their work. The tour will be accompanied by video and audio resolution, a set production workshop, make-up rooms and a barbell show will be held on the big stage.
Also during the festival, near the theater and in the underpass, it will be possible to interactively test the attribute of the festival – a washing machine “started” by bicycle pedals.
Plenty of shows
Eight plays for children and young people will be shown to the audience in a month and a half. The audience will see two Hungarian theater productions: “Mother and Genie” and “Borka” (Káva Drama/Theater, Hungary), “The Ship That Sailed on Land and Sea” (K:13 Troupe, Norway), “The Crowd” ( Teater Leikhus, Norway), “I Tried” (No Shoes Theater, Lithuania), “The Great Teleportation to the Game World” (dir. Mantas Verbiejus). The program also includes two NKDT performances: the interactive adventure “Tower of Babel: Planet Earth/Game Over/Reset” (dir. Hilde Brinchmann) and the musical performance “About fish, ears and mother” (dir. Eglė Kižaitė).
Guest performances will address social themes. The Hungarian “Mom and Gin” tells the story of a teenage girl with an alcoholic mother. An abandoned and lonely girl creates her own world of illusions in which she tries to hide from the reality of life.
A serious and painful topic is explored without losing humor and the play of a child’s imagination. The show is staged using the principles of TIE (Theatre in Education), where high artistic quality works develop children’s and youth’s understanding of the world and provide an opportunity to learn in a different way.
Another performance coming from Norway, Minia, examines how we exist in the crowd. With the help of headphones, viewers will hear texts about loneliness and the joy they experience when they are in certain groups of people on the bus, at the beach, at a concert, at the cinema. Perhaps “The Crowd” can be compared to a theatrical version of a silent disco? The performance will be held in English and will be intended for viewers from the age of 12.
The Norwegian company “K:13”, using the well-known Norwegian folk tale about Askelad and the good helpers, will tell viewers aged 8-12 about social phenomena and problems that affect the everyday life of young people.
For the youngest (0-5 years), the play “Borka” by the Hungarian troupe is dedicated to the playful interaction of a mother with her little one.
Two interactive premieres
The festival program includes even two premieres: a sensory, interactive performance based on the work of MK Čiurlionis “Landscapes of Čiurlionis: the sea”. Director Milda Mičiulytė and actors Miglė Navasaitytė and Deividas Breivė will invite you to a performance where music, text and sound merge into a seamless flight of imagination. It will be accompanied not only by the sounds of music, but also by the texts of MK Čiurlionis and S. Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė. The show is also suitable for visually impaired viewers. Premiere – May 9-11. On the small stage.
The second interactive premiere entitled “eyes” expected on June 12, 13. This is the creator of the “Golden Cross of the Stage”; the director Mantos Jančiauskas and playwright Rimantas Ribačiauskasa work that raises questions, how much of our privacy are we ready to give up in order to live more comfortably and safely? Is it still possible to remain undetected? The location of the performance – an interactive journey – is very unconventional and unexpected – the shopping and entertainment center “Akropolis”. During the trip, participants will be equipped with smart devices and decide the action themselves.
Inclusive education for all age groups
In a month and a half, as many as 50 educations will take place in different theater spaces for the participants of various smaller festivals. Some are intended for groups of students, others for families, with children, and individual theater lovers. Educational programs were prepared by the actors of the National Kaunas Drama Theater Artūras Suziedėlis, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Gintautas Bejeris, Ugnė Žirgulė, Andrius Gaučas, Eugenija Bendoriūtė.
Actors from other theaters will also take part in the festival for the first time: Kamilė Galkutė from the Juoz Miltinis Drama Theater, who prepared an education based on Aristotle, Eglė Jackaitė, an actress of the Klaipėda Drama Theater, TV and radio presenter, who will talk about self-disclosure and overcoming fears, and an actress who will provide education for families with small children and radio presenter Kristina Savickytė, and the actors of the Alytus City Theater will invite you to the discussion performance “px|preis krizkelė”.
Theater “Dansema” prepared a humorous education for grandparents with grandchildren. Directors have also joined the program: director Augustas Gornatkevičius will meet high school students in education, and director Loreta Vaskova will be able to meet in “Tautų paskas” education.
Also during the festival, a workshop for theater teachers will be held with Norwegian “K:13” and Hungarian “Káva Drama” actors. Audio-sensory library of Lithuania will introduce audio films and tactile books.
Restless youth zone
The festival aims to involve as many young people as possible in the theater activities, therefore the program called “Youth Zone” created by theater ambassadors and “Kylantis Kaunas” enthusiasts is boldly trusted. Active young people will not only settle in a cozy space in the courtyard of Small Stages. But they will also organize an opening event where they will present an audiovisual installation, organize “blind dates”, sustainable workshops on the topic of used clothes, game nights.
You can find out about all the events at ww.nerkas.lt.
NKDT information
Tags: #14th Dont Theater dedicated interactivity suitable viewers ages
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