Versmė 2021
Transitions of “Versmė”
This year, “Versmė” is different. With the addition of Marius Ivaškevičius, a playwright from the Lithuanian National Drama Theater (LNDT), to the festival’s artistic team, the festival’s structure and activities have begun to change. We will continue to develop national playwriting, promote its dissemination, and introduce Lithuanian audiences to trends in contemporary playwriting, but we will do so in a slightly different way, more ambitiously.
Each year, the festival turns its attention to a guest country and presents translations of its plays in readings. From now on, we intend to launch a reciprocal collaboration – a play exchange. This means that theaters in the guest country will host readings of Lithuanian plays. This season, the exchange initiative is being developed with the Finnish National Theater. We hope this will be yet another way to introduce Lithuanian playwrights to the international theater scene, promote the dissemination of Lithuanian dramaturgy, and encourage translations of Lithuanian plays. And who knows, perhaps some of these readings will become full-scale productions in the future.
The biggest change will take place around the competition. Until now, we have invited young playwrights to an annual competition, the winners of which had the opportunity to spend half a year in a mentorship program with Lithuanian or foreign playwrights, developing their plays. The completed works were presented at the festival. From now on, a national playwriting competition will be organized, inviting not only young creators but also experienced playwrights who have been keeping their ideas “in a drawer.”
Not only has the festival’s usual concept changed, but so has its content. This year, instead of a specific theme, we reflected on dramaturgy in general – how dramaturgy differs from a play, and a dramaturge from playwright; how do the principles of writing these two types of texts differ? That is why this year’s program features three dramaturgies developed according to slightly different principles and three translated Finnish plays.
Dramaturge Virginija Rimkaitė is preparing a reading of the play “Patina” together with director Paulius Ignatavičius. By participating in rehearsals for the upcoming reading, the dramaturge helps the director and actors understand what she had in mind when writing a specific line for a character or developing a particular plot line.
In collaboration with the “Utopia” Theater, the LNDT is presenting a sketch of the upcoming production “Boxing,” created by director Antanas Obcarskas and playwright Laurynas Adomaitis. This time, Antanas Obcarskas is not only the director but also a co-author of the play.
This year, we are highlighting the connection between Lithuanian creators, both those working in Lithuania and abroad, who have received critical acclaim through a reading of Rasa Bugavičutė-Pēcė’s play “I Had a Cousin”, which will be presented by director Aleksandras Špilevojus.
We present Finnish theater with Elli Salo’s play “Alina,” directed by Laura Kutkaitė; Mika Myllyaho’s “Garage”, for which Motiejus Ivanauskas is exploring staging solutions; and Tuomas Timonen’s play “Stabbed for Complaining About the Noise”, a reading of which is being organized by Ieva Kaniušaitė. An article titled “The Changing Topography of Finnish Dramaturgy,” written specifically for the “Versmė” catalog by Linnea Stara, director of the Finnish Theater Information Center (TINFO), provides a more in-depth introduction to Finnish dramaturgy.
We are delighted that this year’s “Versmė” once again features many young voices that will resonate throughout the spaces of the theater’s newly opened lobby. We hope that these voices will not only be heard but also truly be listened to.
See you there!
Rasa Kregždaitė and Rimgailė Renevytė