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The National Kaunas Drama Theatre, or Kaunas State Drama Theatre is a theatre and theatre company in Kaunas, Lithuania. The company is the oldest professional theatre troupe in Lithuania, founded in 1920, and moved to its current location, the building formerly housing the "Metropolitain" (or "Metropolitan") cinema, in 1959.
Kaunas became the temporary capital of Lithuania during the period of the First Republic after World War I. [1]
The company now known as National Kaunas Drama Theatre was founded on 19 December 1920, making it the oldest professional theatre in Lithuania. [2]
The first play performed by the Kaunas Drama Theatre was Hermann Sudermann's St. John's Day, directed by Juozas Vaičkus, premiering on 19 December 1920, in the former Russian City Theatre, in what is now the Kaunas State Musical Theatre. The company was the only professional theatre organisation in Lithuania until 1931, when its branch opened in Šiauliai.[ citation needed ]
Many of the actors initially came from Juozas Vaičkus' "Flying Theatre", founded in 1918 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dramas shared the house with opera.[ citation needed ] From 1925, ballet was also performed.[ citation needed ]
After some reforms, Konstantinas Glinskis became its new manager. In 1926 he was forced out by the new manager, Antanas Sutkus, along with many other actors. Sutkus brought in actors from the defunct Vilkolakis and Tautos theatres.[ citation needed ]
In 1928 Sutkus was replaced by Jurgis Savickis, who in 1929 invited Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas from the Moscow Art Theatre. Oleka-Žilinskas sought to improve performances using the methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, and as part of this goal, he invited the renowned Mikhail Chekhov to join the theatre. Together they trained young actors and established The Young Theatre; although their work was acclaimed by critics, the broader public showed little appreciation. Later Oleka-Žilinskas was forced to leave the theatre.[ citation needed ] The company was forced to implement the Socialist realist understanding of art and was forced to praise the new regime.[ citation needed ]
During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania during World War II, demands for the praise of that regime were also made. In 1947 a group of Lithuanian students went to GITIS, Russia, and when they returned after graduating in 1952, a new era began at the theatre.[ citation needed ]
In 1959, the drama and musical theatre companies separated: [1] the drama theatre and moved to its present location at Laisvės alėja 71, in the refurbished former "Metropolitan" (also spelt "Metropolitain") cinema [3] [2] [4] and the musical theatre company took up residence in the Kaunas City Theatre. [1]
Rasos Cemetery is the oldest and most famous cemetery in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is named after the Rasos district where it is located. It is separated into two parts, the old and the new cemeteries, by a narrow Sukilėliai Street. The total area is 10.8 ha. Since 1990 new burials are allowed only to family graves.
Donatas Banionis was a Soviet and Lithuanian stage and film actor and theatre director. He has more than 80 credited roles in cinema and is best known for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin. He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Jonas Vaitkus is a Lithuanian theatre and film director, and academic.
Daina Society was a Lithuanian cultural organization promoting Lithuanian folk traditions and songs. It was established as an illegal cultural society by the composer Juozas Naujalis and officially registered with the Tsarist authorities in 1905. Active from 1899 to 1944 in Kaunas, the society organized various events, concerts, amateur theater performances. In 1924, it initiated the first Lithuanian Song Festival.
Juozas Grušas was a Lithuanian writer, editor, dramatist and playwright.
The Kaunas State Musical Theatre, formerly Kaunas City Theatre, is a theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania. It is home to a musical theatre company of the same name, established on 27 November 1940 in the former State Theatre hall on the Laisvės Alėja.
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Žilinskas is the masculine form of a Lithuanian family name. Its feminine forms are: Žilinskienė and Žilinskaitė. It is a Lithuanized form of the Polish-language surname Żyliński. Another Lithuanization is Žilinskis. "Žilinskaitė" may be transliterated via Russian language as Zhilinskayte.
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Filomena Linčiūtė-Vaitiekūnienė is a Lithuanian set designer and painter.
Juozas is a Lithuanian masculine given name, a shortened version of Juozapas, which in turn is the equivalent of English Joseph.
Juozas Budraitis is a Lithuanian actor. He has appeared in more than 60 films and television shows since 1966. He starred in the Soviet film Wounded Game, which was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. Budraitis also played a minor role in the finale of the period drama miniseries The Queen's Gambit.
Stasys Ušinskas was a Lithuanian artist of multiple creative fields: modern painting, stained glass, scenography, animation, puppetry and decorative glass artworks. He is widely regarded as the "father of Lithuanian stained glass art".
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Rūta Society was a Lithuanian cultural society in Vilnius, then part of the Russian Empire, active from 1909 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It organized various events, including lectures, literary evenings, and musical performances, but it is most noted for its contribution to the development of the Lithuanian theater. In total, Rūta staged about 50 plays.
Šiauliai Julius Janonis Gymnasium is a public secondary school in Šiauliai, Lithuania. Established in 1851, it is one of the oldest schools in Lithuania and has educated many prominent figures in Lithuanian culture and politics. It was named in honor of Julius Janonis in 1946 and offers education for grades 9 through 12.
Potencija Pinkauskaitė was a leading character actress of interwar Lithuanian theater, representative of the first generation of professional Lithuanian theater actors.
Antanina Vainiūnaitė-Kubertavičienė was a Lithuanian stage actress. She was recognized as the People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR in 1956.
Marijampolė Realgymnasium was a private gymnasium in Marijampolė, Lithuania. Established at the end of 1918, it employed many teachers sympathetic to socialist and communist causes. The Communist Party of Lithuania and other communist organizations were outlawed and actively persecuted in interwar Lithuania. The school actively protested and resisted mandatory religious education and clashed with Lithuanian authorities. As such, the school was shut down by the Lithuanian government on 30 June 1925.
