©Miško Motė

 A week of fantastic experiences and a dose of professional development. This is how the “School of Performing Arts” organized by Alytus City Theater is described by its employees who participated in creative trainings.

The School of Performing Arts was the first activity of the international project „Building Bridges: Development of Tourism and Culture in the Sovetsk and Alytus Regions” to open its doors, says Inesa Pilvelytė, the local coordinator of this project.

Specialists of Alytus City Theater, project partners – the Kaliningrad Region Youth Theater „Molodyozhnyj” troupe, stage lights and sound specialists raised their skills and qualifications in this school of performing arts. As Sovetsk colleagues, due to coronavirus, participated in the training at a distance, the opportunity to improve the performing skills together with the Alytus Theater Troupe was given to the youth of the city’s theater studios.

Professionals in the field shared their experience and professional knowledge with the actors: the subtleties of stage language, the importance of voice in acting and the ability to control it on stage were revealed by a teacher, lecturer, director of the Russian Drama Theater, LMTA teacher Olga Polevikova, stage movement workshop leader, choreographer, dancer Marius Pinigis, and the secrets of theatrical improvisations were shared by actor, director, improvisation virtuoso Kirill Glushayev.

„Each actor brought his own impressions from the creative school, there was no shortage of creative emotions and discoveries,” says Andra Kavaliauskaitė, the artistic director of the theater. „Once again, we are convinced of how broad and sensitive our specialty is”. She stressed that the acquired knowledge is applied in the daily rehearsal work of actors, and the need for improvement has become even more sustainable.

The lecturers were impressed by the stage professionals and the young participants of the school who were eager to gain the new knowledge.

At the School of Creativity, professional skills were improved by audio, video and light specialists from Alytus and Sovetsk theaters.

As you know, when the spectator comes to the theater, he sees the actor on the stage, and the technical staff remains „behind the scenes”. Tomas Kunčinas, the project’s technical support manager, smiles and says that „as long as the technicians are working well – no one notices them, when something happens – everyone sight turns to them”.

The School of Performing Arts was very valuable not only in terms of improvement but also in terms of contacts. „It is already clear that the knowledge and practical training provided by the lecturers was useful not only for us, but also for the employees of Tilsit Theater. Both the lecturers and the learners stated that now, when professional issues arise, they can cooperate and solve the problem here and now”, says T. Kunčinas.

©Miško Motė

Following the successful implementation of the set goals and the challenges posed by the coronavirus in the organization of the School of Performing Arts, preparations for the next project activity are already on its way. “After closing the doors of the school of performing arts, the project activities did not stop. We are preparing for the 30th anniversary of Alytus City Theater in October, so thanks to this project, a film about the theater will be made and a book will be published. We hope that in October we will be able to present an exhibition of photographs by the Alytus Theater troupe”, -I. Pilvelytė shares her plans, mentioning that the international project provides opportunities to implement ideas more widely and with higher quality.

Bridges of cooperation have been built and the links between project partners, theater troupes, technical staff and, finally, the creative youth involved in the project will be even stronger. All this will be seen and felt by theater lovers through creative activities. In the future, the audience will be introduced to two performances created by professionals, there also will be exchange with the creative experiments of young people’s, culture days will be organized by the partner.

©Miško Motė

The project LT-RU-2-063 „Building Bridges: Development of Tourism and Culture in Sovetsk and Alytus Regions“ is funded by the European Union. The total budget of the project is EUR 573,856.81, the share of Alytus City Theater in the budget is EUR 267951.84. Project duration – 24 months.

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Alytus City Theater and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.