An exhibition dedicated to the birthday of the professional puppet theater was opened in the shed of the Pakruai firemen’s association. The exhibition exhibits puppets from various performances of the Alytus puppet theater “Aitvaras”, created by artist-puppeteer Loreta Skruibienė.
On May 6, 1936, the audience saw the marionettes of Stasios Ušinskas in the performance “Silvestras dūdelė” (dir. A. Gustaitis) – since then, the birthday of the Lithuanian professional puppet theater has been celebrated. The birthday of the Lithuanian professional puppet theater has been celebrated for the eleventh year in Pakruojja.
Alytus Puppet Theater began its history in 1986 in the creative studio of L. Stirbytė-Skruibienė. In 1988, the premiere of the first play “The Shepherd and the Chimney Sweep” (H. Ch. Andersen) took place.
The theater existed until 1991, and in the same year it became the studio of the Alytus Theater and with the first premiere “Imperatorius Jonas Beširdis” (O. Milašius) took part in the puppet days in Kaunas. Later, the theater studio became the Alytus City Theatre.
Alytus Puppet Theater, already as a public organization, was revived in 1996 at the initiative of L. Skruibienė.
In 2005, the Ministry of Culture granted the “Aitvaras” theater the status of a professional theater. In Alytus, the theater has rooms for performances, and a puppet museum named “Puppet Room” was also established there.
The theater has created over 50 performances for children, since 2003 it has been running regional educational programs, since 1999 it has been organizing the international puppet theater festival-competition “Aitvaras”.
The Puppet Theater belongs to the national international association of puppeteers UNIMA and the international organization of children’s and youth theaters ASITEJ. L. Skruibienė is currently a member of the UNIMA Council.
The exhibition can be viewed in the shed of the Pakruoj firemen’s association until June 4.
