Every time, waiting for a new premiere, the Alytus City Theater seems to be preparing for a new journey: full of new experiences for both the creators and those who are never seen on stage. This time our final stop is May 18th, where you, dear viewers, will be waiting for a special, sincere and endlessly musical meeting at the PREMIERE electro-folk performance-concert for the family “Voro wedding (Voro veseilia)” based on the poem of the same name by Justin Marcinkevičius.
About emotional and bringing back to childhood director, author of staging, lyrics and vocal parts Andra Kavaliauskaitė tells about the creative path.
„If you loved the performance/concert “Peace of Mushrooms”, I believe you will love “Spider’s Wedding” as well. – smiles the director and actress well known to Alytus theater lovers. In the play-concert, music is composed by Ukrainian Bogdan Lysenko, animation by Pius Čeikauskas, but more about them in other texts. Actors Vincas Vaičiulis, Vaidas Praspaliauskas, Erika Jasinskaitė-Salickienė, Dovydas Šernas, Eglė Juškaitė and Andra Kavaliauskaitė are performing in the performance-concert.
„On stage, you will see not only the same people who work in “Peace of Mushrooms”, but also another member of the team – David. I am very happy because his beautiful vocals will decorate our new track. At the moment, the actors and I are on the road where we sing, move, drum a lot day by day and look for ways to make the pieces sound more diverse, stronger and each one carries its own message. We are like the inhabitants of one island, where there is a lot of music and play. When preparing for rehearsals, I feel like I was a child: you plan in detail what you want to play with your friends in the yard the next day and already in the morning you wait for them to finally go out to the yard and you can implement those ideas, sometimes dreams, together. The further I go, the stronger I feel that the synthesis of vocals, movement and acting is my love. True, that love is not “caught” quickly for everyone, so you have to warm up, practice, and this is another beautiful experience. Although the creative process has only just begun, I can already hear and see the benefits of such rehearsals for the actors. This is also important. My motto: “let’s create something that would be good to show to the audience later”. Let’s create, fix, erase, let’s give up everything that makes us feel uncomfortable, and let’s leave only what makes us feel joy when we’re on stage. Because only in this case the best feeling can be conveyed to the viewer. I am one hundred percent sure of that. After all, you can’t give yourself light if you don’t feel it in yourself, right? Well, and of course, a lot of self-discipline is required. It is not enough to rehearse only in rehearsals. They only mark the road, and you have to learn how to drive it yourself. If you have received a song or a solo part, accept it as a gift and with all respect and love for it, learn it until you feel it is mine. What is foreign, untamed and will sound foreign to another. What does not bring joy will not bring joy to the viewer. And if it’s only for you, you’ll have at least tried,” Andra says.
In the new interpretation of J. Marcinkevičius’s poem “Voro vestuvės”, the creative team of the performance/concert pays great attention to the harmony (synthesis) of contemporary music and folklore. Songs are created to convey the work, connecting the entire narrative into a story – a musical allegory that highlights our own flaws and invites us to look together at where greed, selfishness and deception can sometimes lead. About why the director creates for children and teenagers (the upcoming premiere is for children aged 6 to 9), she reveals:
„The answer is very simple, because they are extremely good at creating and I see the point in that. I do all this with great warmth and love, with great responsibility. And that responsibility is bright. Clean. When creating for children or teenagers, you look even harder for a language that is acceptable to them. And it’s very interesting. This further incites curiosity and inquisitiveness. Willingly, generations change and each generation has its own specific spice. My duty as a creator is not to rebel against the existing language of the generation, but to get to know it, learn it, get comfortable and find ways to speak it. Only in its own way and the language of art. You know, when creating for children, you always feel infinite light, which is very lacking in a world that is going crazy, so the main goal is to bring a message, light, go with love, give love so that children want to come back to the theater. Your presence, an open and sincere handshake is important, and you understand the powerful power of music. This is the reason why I chose to speak to her again. This genre is not a dramatic work, it is a musical “storytelling” for children. Why? Because I care about the heart and those who come to us,” the director is confident.
There seems to be no shortage of interpretations of J. Marcinkevičius’s poem “SPIDER WEDDING”, but the director is convinced that this is only an advantage.
„I don’t even doubt that our “Spider Wedding” will have its own special color, because the text is translated into the Dzuk dialect and all this will be told through musical language, electronics and folklore, taming what sometimes seems old. I am proud that Svetlana Žadeikienė, the wealth of this city and the treasure of the Dzuk dialect, as I say, agreed to translate “Voro’s wedding” into the Dzuk dialect. I look at this woman, I listen and I am constantly thankful that she exists. Only thanks to her, the work has its own tone, sound and architecture. Only thanks to it, we can learn not to lie about the dialect, but, above all, to learn to feel it (let’s not forget that the team includes the Lowlanders and the Highlanders, not only the Dzuks). And that dialect is so beautiful! It’s just a pity that everything you can’t fit it into one performance-concert, so I strongly feel that this is just the beginning of something beautiful.
It is even more amazing that the people of our city also touch the piece, because the details in the costumes are close to our elders. It is extremely gratifying that people happily gave divons, and they gradually “lay down” in their costumes. I laugh that my heart has never throbbed with responsibility like this before – you are holding a gift divon and you are afraid to make a mistake: what if you spoil it? I want to believe that there will be those who, when they come and see the result, will be happy with it, just like me and all the sewing women. By the way, I want to say a special “thank you” to her – our seamstress Dalia. We rarely talk about her, because it is her hand-drawn sketches that turn into what the viewer sees. And this time she has a not very easy task. Maybe it’s a bit selfish, but I’m glad that I have someone to share this responsibility with,” laughs Andra.
And the creators of special scents in this city, LIUR.parfum, join the team“. “Another people who radiate light and who absolutely love what they create. Creating a fragrance is a special art. I always admired him. This, by the way, is another island. And it smells great. But more on that a little later.”
“Spider’s Wedding” will combine different types of stage creation, will seek a synthesis between drama theater, musical theater, movement, animation and visual art. Great attention will be paid to the language of modern music (polyphonic, live vocals) in the performance. The director reveals the secret of what kind of music it is, what makes it unique and why, hopefully, it will capture the hearts of you, the audience?
„Before I started making music, I really knew that it would be a bit “electro-folk”, that it would have the voices of old people mixed with musical nuances that are still very popular today. If very briefly – modern music that merges with Lithuanian and ancient roots. But music is hard to talk about, you have to hear it. In general, the creative process of this performance is like an ocean with many islands: in one – music, in another – animation, in the third – literature, in the fourth – Dzuk dialect, in the fifth – nature, etc. Now all that remains is for them to become one. Bit. Patiently. And although I’m really looking forward to meeting the children, before that I still want to enjoy the process as much as possible and come to the audience swimming perfectly in that ocean. Sometimes wading. Or sometimes while standing, but confidently.
And as the spider would say: our wedding will be thicker and bigger than the spider’s belly. There won’t be just one spider, I can reveal, there will be as many as six. I believe that each of us at least at one stage of our lives is or has been that spider who, driven by selfishness, wants the sun, even though it does not belong to him alone and cannot belong to him.
On the other island of this creative process is the animator Pijus Čeikauskas, who creates the environment of Earth Man for the performance-concert. Although the Earth man is not in J. Marcinkevičius’ work, he appears in the director’s interpretation. The director reveals that there will be animation in the performance, the purpose of which is to help the audience identify with, as she says, “so that adults see their inner child or childhood, and children see themselves.”
When asked how she feels and how she evaluates the creative process, Andra is open: “Like a child. In general, it is difficult to speak before the premiere, because you don’t know how it will be, maybe you will manage to create something valuable and expensive, you will hit the target, or maybe you will ask, and everything will bring joy only to you. After all, it sometimes happens that those special, dear islands attract only you alone, right? But I learned not to be afraid, to make mistakes and to follow where my heart leads. I hope that that heart leads to where it can be good for others. Someone is currently looking for a trip to warm countries, someone wants to reach Africa or Japan. And maybe the day will come when someone will buy a ticket for a one-hour flight to childhood, on the route “Home – Alytus City Theater – Spider’s Wedding”. The spider is entertaining”… And more. We have an ode to mother in the theater – “Tylėja”, I have a feeling that this performance-concert will be an ode to Fathers all over the world. From a capital T. I would really like to see as many Dads and their little ones in the audience as possible.”
Premiere: 2024 May 18 Alytus city theater
Tickets here: https://kakava.lt/pirkti-bilietus/7935/14565
The performance is financed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture
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– 2024-04-17 09:52:50
