Contemporary drama in Lithuania
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Dokumentinis teatras; Dramaturgai; Dramaturgija; Lietuvos drama; Performansas; Šiuolaikinė drama; Contemporary drama; Documentary theatre; Dramatists; Dramaturgy; Lithuania; Lithuanian drama; Performance.
ENIn Lithuania, authors of contemporary drama represent two generations. The older of these, including Sigitas Parulskis (b. 1965), Gintaras Grajauskas (b.1966), Tomas Šinkariukas (b. 1971), Marius Ivaškevičius (b. 1973), Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė (b. 1976) and others, grewup and studied at the turn of the era, at the fall of the Soviet empire and the years of restored independence in Lithuania. This generation of writers returned Lithuanian dramaturgy to the theatre after a decade-long crisis that began in 1988 when the most famous Soviet Lithuanian playwrights and public authorities, Justinas Marcinkevičius, Kazys Saja, and Saulius Šaltenis, became active members of the Lithuanian Reform Movement. Works by the younger generation of writers represented a new approach to drama, seeking to renew the theatrical language. Poet S. Parulskis used the sources of Lithuanian mythology (in 1995 Vytautas V. Landsbergis directed the play From the Souls of Life based on a drama by S. Parulskis), personal experiences of life in the Soviet school and army (in 1997, Oskaras Koršunovas directed the play by Parulskis P.S. File O.K.). In 1998, prose writer Marius Ivaškevičius made his debut in dramaturgy with the play The Neighbour in which he discussed the past and present problems of multinational Lithuania. The experience of the younger generation of playwrights, Marius Macevičius (b. 1978), Gabrielė Labanauskaitė (b. 1980), Justas Tertelis (b. 1981), Mindaugas Nastaravičius (b. 1984), Teklė Kavtaradze (b. 1991), Birutė Kapustinkaitė (b. 1991), and others, was formed in the already independent Lithuania. Playwrights of the older generation first became well-known prose writers or poets and only then turned to dramaturgy, while the younger ones began writing plays right after their studies. [From the publication]
