Contemporary Playwriting Festival
April 24-28
Oct. 12, 2017
Play reading festival “Dramokratija” this year invites playwrights to write, talk and discuss propaganda. Also it offers three workshops for the participants and first of them has already taken place. Now participants and organizers are looking forward to meet Russian playwright and scriptwriter Mikhail Durnenkov who will visit Vilnius on 20th-24th of October and will help partcipants of the fourth “Dramokratija” to perfect their plays.
Plays, written specially for the upcoming edition of “Dramokratija” will be publicly read next spring but preparation process has started this September. On 25th-29th of September there was the first workshop with a playwright from Germany Theresia Walser. After week’s work young playwrights are rectifying their ideas and stories.
For the most of the participants this is the first writing for theatre experience and they are very happy to be able to experiment, discuss and collaborate with other writers. Gintarė Ilginytė, participant of the workshops, says that it helped her to better comprehend the idea of propaganda and improve her writing. Actor Justas Tertelis, who is taking part in “Dramokratija” for the second time, was glad to gain this experience: “For me propaganda is a huge multileveled thing but it all comes to oner word – lie. Propaganda is a conscious lying to make some profit or to harm others.”
Relevance of the subject is also reflected in recent events when an artist is not allowed to leave his native country. Organizers of “Dramokratija” also have faced it – the upcomimng workshop will be lectured not by Mikhail Ugarov but by other Russian playwright and screenwriter Mikhail Durnenkov which was recommended by M. Ugarov when it turned out that the latter is on the list of people who can’t leave Russia. Workshop with M. Durnenkov will take place on č0th-čėth of October in Goethe institute in Vilnius.
Mikhail Durnenkov is a daring, modern, manifold writer whose works often feature a dash of dark humor. He has worked in “Teatr.doc” theatre in Moscow which was estrablished by M. Ugarov and his wife J. Gremina. M. Durnenkov also is interested in classic and has written a contemporary adaptation of F. Dostoyevsky’s “Gambler” which portrays women living in a cruel gambling world full of hustles, drinking, blasphemy and dancing and who don’t apologise for anything.
M. Durnenkov’s plays are being produced not only in Russia but in all Europe: Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, Belarus and other countries. In 2016 Yana Ross has produced his play “Lake” which was shown in theatre festival “Sirens” in Vilnius. The playwright has been awarded multiple times in various festivals and workshops. Before he started his carrer as a writer M. Durnenkov has tried himslef in plumbing, engineering, TV journalism. These experiences help him to create such different characters, from Stanislavky himself in “I don’t believe” to Arctic explorers in “At the End of the World”.
For participants of „Dramokratija“ the workshop with Mikhail Durnenkov will not be the last. On 4th-8th of December they will continue work of their plays with Lithuanian playwright, poetess, writer, “Dramokratija’s” heart and soul Gabrielė Labanauskaitė.
Festival is sponsored by Embassy of Germany, Gothe institute.
Festival’s partners: LMTA, LMTA SA, Theatre union.
