Teatro tema Vilniaus laikinosios archeologijos komisijos narių ir Vilniaus senienų muziejaus kūrėjų veikloje

ENHaving secured itself a position of socially significant cultural activity by the middle of the 19th century, the theatre in Lithuania was an important part of life of quite many intellectuals. Among the members of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission and the founders of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities, there were several whose cultural and scientific activity was closely related with the theatre: the plays by Władysław Syrokomla, alias Ludwik Kondratowicz (1823-1862), were produced at the Vilnius City Theatre, cantatas that were close to a theatrical genre were created after the poetic trilogy Anafielas by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887) who also worked as the head manager of the Zhitomyr Theatre, Pavel Kukolnik (Павел Кукольник, 1795-1884) created several tragedies, Ignacy Chodźko (vel Chodźko-Borejko, 1794-1861) promoted the publication of memoirs of Vilnius actors, and Adam Honory Kirkor (1818-1886) expressed his attention to the theatre in various forms. The members of the Commission, music patrons and sponsors Ireneusz Kleofas Ogiński (1808-1863) and Rajnold Tyzenhauz (1830-1880) initiated important music and stage projects. In addition to others, these experiences and competences were important in fostering the vision of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities and defining the directions of its activity. It could be asserted that the approach to the theatre in Lithuania as an object of cultural heritage of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania became distinct in the activity of the members of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission and the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities who were in charge of this field (without forgetting that the work based on this approach had started already before the official establishment of these institutions). The need to write a history of theatre in Lithuania arose, and the first publications of this nature came out.With the aim to preserve the theatrical heritage for the future generations, collections of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities were rapidly supplemented with theatrical exhibits, which were sought outside Lithuania as well. To the founder of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission and the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities, Eustachy Tyszkiewicz (1814-1873), the theatre was both a hobby (he played in amateur performances) and a citizens duty (he collected information related with the multifaceted theatre activity in Lithuania and prepared a study covering the history of the theatre since the early times). The discovered new archival sources could help us verify the presumptions regarding the authorship of some publications established in historiography: some of them could be reliably attributed to Tyszkiewicz. The theme of the theatre is reflected in some way in Tyszkiewiczs (printed and manuscript) essays: in one case, he analyses a biography which is related to stage work (Wincenty Marewicz: study urn obyczajowe, 1870), and in another case, it is picturesque narrative scenes or insertions helping him build or recreate the general image (several essays from Obrazy domowego pożycia na Litwie). In addition to scholarly or creative theatre-related work, Tyszkiewicz contributed to the emergence of a new tradition - by initiating public greetings for actors, he contributed to the formation of a more liberal, contemporary and respectful attitude to the actor’s profession. The realised value of the theatre art is revealed by Tyszkiewicz’s manuscript outline for an autobiography, whose contents include a chapter titled “Theatre”.The attention to the theatre and its history naturally became part of the wide-scale activity of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission and the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. Kraszewski, Kirkor, Tyszkiewicz, Syrokomla, Kukolnik, Ignacy Chodźko and Dominik Cezary Chodźko (1796-1863), Wincenty Korotyński (1831-1891) and others left some works important for the history of theatre in Lithuania. The factual material accumulated by them was used by Polish theatre historians of the beginning and first half of the 20th century in their studies devoted to Lithuanian theatre and their publications of memoirs of Vilnius actors. [From the publication]