“For tailors’ days in Silmači” – 120th celebrations in Gulbene region for a month / Article

After its premiere at the beginning of the last century, “Skroderdienas Silmači” was rejected by spectators and theater critics, but has now become the most beloved play on the Latvian stage. This year, its anniversary is celebrated in Gulbene region for almost a month.

Seventeen evenings, seventeen places in Gulbene region, which are traveled by a cinema bus with a traveling exhibition and a recording of the first open-air performance – this year the 120th anniversary of the play “Skroderdienas Silmači” and the 35th anniversary of the open-air performance are celebrated.

Dārta Vilne, a representative of the Gulbene Region Culture Department, explains: “This year, we are trying to pay more educational added value. By organizing an information campaign, creating surveys about Silmači, going cyclically through all the periods, from Blaumanis’ play to the time when the show reached Druviena Silmači. ”

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“Every evening there are more and more visitors,” reveals Valda Putene, the head of the Druviena Culture House. “It was nice in Daukste, there were people in the nursing home who were already old. As the picture showed to the audience, they were looking for themselves because it is the time of their youth. ”

Local amateur groups also came to the aid of this production. Druvēniete, participant of the 1986 show Ineta says: “I was ten years old. Then when my older sister and I were offered to participate, go sing with great aunts, in that crowd, it was a joy that you were participating, a feeling of pride. ”

From 1986 to 1991, the Latvian National Theater in Druviena played 10 performances and they were watched by more than 100,000 spectators. It was a time of the Third Awakening, so it became an important cultural event of its time. However, later, due to both financial considerations and stage wear and tear, the National Theater stopped regular performances, returning to Druviena only in 2016, but productions of other theaters were also performed periodically in Silmači.

The head of Druviena Culture House says: “The topic is topical. At least the same happiness in the sauna. Now the young parents are already wondering what will grow from their first child. These jokes are close. About smoking first – who is not close? About what parents put. Skroderzellis already says that those cunning parents make you study. ”

The culmination of the festival is, of course, expected on June 23 in Druviena. If the epidemiological situation allows, in addition to the exhibition and the recording of the show, thematic activities are planned throughout the day, while at night in Magmači there will be magical light games.

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