Vahan Badalyan: "Our theatres keep pace with our lives." Today is World Theatre Day

World Theatre Day is the creation of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on the 27th March by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. The first World Theatre Day International Message was written by Jean Cocteau (France) in 1962.

It was first in Helsinki, and then in Vienna at the 9th World Congress of the ITI in June 1961 that President Arvi Kivimaa proposed on behalf of the Finnish Centre of the International Theatre Institute that a World Theatre Day be instituted.

The proposal, backed by the Scandinavian centres, was carried with acclamation. Ever since, each year on the 27th March (date of the opening of the 1962 "Theatre of Nations" season in Paris), World Theatre Day has been celebrated in many and varied ways by ITI National Centres of which there are now almost 100 throughout the world.

Reporter of Lurer.comr talked to artistic director of Small Theatre of the National Art Center Vahan Badalyan about Theatre Day and in general, problems of the theatre.

"What do you think why the theater is not claimed today. What's the reason?"

"Our theaters keep pace with our lives and on the needs of our audience, on the other hand, in recent years our life has become so gray that I think no theater will not be able to save it. Somewhere there is a fault of our artistic directors, because they choose wrong performance, not the language that will be of interest to our viewers."

"Small Theatre has a unique place among the theaters in Yerevan. Are there any principles, any formula to keep the rhythm of the theater?

"To maintain the rhythm we always follow the pulse of life and try to present them as possible sincere in our performances. I think that in our creative work sincerity lacks at our Armenian film directors and actors. Sometimes their work is calculated, sometimes it is done on purpose in order to enjoy the audience."

"How do you assess the creative perspective of our generation?"

"Each child is given a creative thinking, creativity by nature, but we just need to find the right key and the release of these abilities. Children enter our theatre at will, I do not check their acting skills as well as my 14 years of experience shows that there are children who at first glance, seem quite far from the stage, but then they suddenly open and appear in such an interesting part that I sometimes wonder."

"The main problems of the Small theater ..."

"We have a lot of problems, but I have never talked about them, because it will not change anything. We pulled ourselves out of the swamp by hair, as Munchausen claimed."

"What would you wish on the International Theatre Day?"

"I wish people- theatre, wish they have more opportunities for self-realization. People like me can not live without theater. I wish that all were eager to learn, since learning is never too late.

"On the International Day of Theatre the Small Theatre ..."

"Be sure it will mark ... (smiles...).

Lia Tahmazyan

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