The international educational festival “Don’t go to the theater” will be held this year at the National Kaunas Drama Theater (NKDT) for the fourteenth time. In his program from April 25. until June 14 – half a dozen educations, two premieres, eight performances – four by foreign troupes, and the entire theatrical event is dedicated to interactivity suitable for viewers of any age.
Participate and create
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 will be 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 contributed to the program, Káva Dramas / Head of the Theater Education Association, actor, drama teacher. For the last 20 years, he has been creating a democratic theater genre, whose main concepts are 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 your experience. 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 is on April 25. On this occasion, there will be a performance by the dance company “Ulna” and a free tour from 12:30 p.m. until 3 p.m., inviting you to different theater spaces. You will have a unique opportunity to walk around the huge performing arts factory, see its backstage spaces, equipment and techniques, and watch the employees of various departments at 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.
Near the theater and in the underpass, it will be possible to interactively test the festival’s attribute – a washing machine activated by bicycle pedals.
Some performances will invite you to play, others – to share your experience. The experience of the interactive performance will be completely unique – after all, you yourself created it here and now.
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: “Mama and Genie” and “Borka” (Káva Drama / Theater, Hungary), “The Ship That Sailed on Land and Sea” (K:13 Troupe, Norway), “The Crowd” (Teater Leichus, 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 whose mother is addicted to alcohol. 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 built using TIE (Theater in Education) principles, when works of high artistic quality develop children’s and youth’s understanding of the world and provide an opportunity to learn in a different way.
The Norwegian play Minia examines how we exist in a crowd. Through headphones, viewers will hear texts about loneliness and the joy they experience when they are in certain groups of people on a 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 is intended for audiences from the age of twelve.
The Norwegian company K:13, using the well-known Norwegian folk tale about Askelad and the good helpers, will tell eight-to-twelve-year-old viewers about social phenomena and issues that affect the everyday lives of young people.
For the youngest (0-5 years old), the play “Borka” by the Hungarian troupe is dedicated to the playful interaction of a mother with her little one.
Two premieres
The festival program includes even two premieres: a sensory, interactive performance based on Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’s work “Čiurlionis Peizažai: Jūra”. Director Milda Mičiulytė, 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 Sofijas Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė. The show is also suitable for visually impaired viewers. Premiere – May 9-11. On the small stage.
The second interactive premiere under the name “Akys” is scheduled for June 12, 13. This is the work of creators awarded with the “Golden Cross of the Stage” – director Mantas Jančiauskas and playwright Rimantas Ribačiauskas – which 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 place of the performance – interactive journey is very unconventional and unexpected – shopping and entertainment center “Akropolis”. During the trip, participants will be equipped with smart devices and decide the action themselves.
Education for all
In a month and a half, 50 educations will take place in different theater spaces for participants of various smaller festivals. Some are intended for groups of students, others for families with children, individual theater lovers. Educational programs were prepared by NKDT actors Artūras Suziedėlis, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Gintautas Bejeris, Ugnė Žirgulė, Andrius Gaučas, Eugenija Bendoriūtė. Actors from other theaters will participate in the festival for the first time: Kamilė Galkutė from the Juoz Miltinis Drama Theater, who prepared education according to Aristotle; Eglė Jackaitė, Klaipėda drama theater actress, TV and radio host, who will talk about self-disclosure and overcoming fears; actress and radio presenter Kristina Savickytė will lead education for families with small children; The actors of the Alytus City Theater will invite you to the discussion performance “px| before the crossroads”.
Theater “Dansema” prepared a humorous education for grandparents with grandchildren. Directors also participated in 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.
During the festival, a workshop for theater teachers will be held with actors from the Norwegian “K:13” and the Hungarian “Káva Drama”. Audio-sensory library of Lithuania will introduce audio films and tactile books.
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 will also organize an opening event where they will present an audiovisual installation, organize so-called blind dates, sustainable workshops on the topic of used clothes, and game nights.
Tags: Dive theater interactivity age restrictions
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