When the Lithuanian National Drama Theater returns to its premises after reconstruction, the audience's favorite "Talks NOT about the theater" returns to the lobby of LNDT. This year they will be moderated by LRT journalist, foreign news editor, documentary filmmaker Ieva Balsiūnaitė. The theater invites you to the first meeting already on November 7, Monday, at 18:XNUMX, then the talks will take place at the same time every first Monday of the month.
in 2016 the interview cycle that started and was later stopped due to reconstruction took place once a month. These open discussions in the theater were moderated by film director Karolis Kaupinis, philosopher Kristupas Sabolius and publicist Donatas Puslys. "Conversations NOT about theater", as the title of the series indicates, invited the audience to discuss topics that go beyond theater and raise questions and problems that are relevant to our society here and now.
In the one-and-a-half-hour meetings, the chosen topic was discussed in various sections by the conversation moderator with several invited interlocutors, but the aim was always to create an open and friendly space for everyone to join the conversation, share thoughts and encounter different points of view. "We hope that there will be no shortage of people who want to experience the spirit of the agora this season," says Agnė Pulokaitė, the curator of this series.
"It seems surreal that just a couple of years ago we were arguing about the capital of the sandy beach Lukiškiai square. The world we live in has been creating new discourses of everyday life for some time now. As a foreign news editor, it seems to me that sometimes they change faster than we can catch up with them - the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, crisis on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, riots, tests of emotional health, trees falling under the feet of the bureaucracy. Now we want to stop for a moment, look at ourselves and the issues we care about more slowly, without rushing anywhere. The past years have shown how important communication is, the ability to listen. I believe this is where we can all draw strength, both as individuals and as a society that cares. In my eyes, "Talks NOT about theater" is precisely the space for that," says I. Balsiūnaitė, moderator of the third season's conversations.
November 7 of the first interview. topic - "Soft weapon of war - what to do with Russian art and culture?". This talk will ask how historical events such as war change culture and our relationship to it. What new frontiers are being drawn? Are there topics you can't talk about? And finally, what to do with Russian culture and art now? Dr. will participate in the conversation. Natalija Arlauskaitė, professor at VU TSPMI, researching cinema, the Soviet era, feminism, etc. and dr. Inga Vidugirytė-Pakerienė, head of the research group of Comparative Literature Studies at VU Philology Faculty, former cultural attaché of Lithuania in Russia.
December 5 during the Advent period. the theater will invite you to talk about empathy and whether we are determined to continue paying the same price for support to the still devastated Ukraine when we start to feel the real financial consequences of the war. In the conversation "Does empathy have an expiration date?" we ask, can empathy remain unconditional and how can Europe not lose solidarity as it tries to survive the coming winter? How can we not forget that the war is on our side as time passes? Is there any antidote? Are we, Lithuanians, stronger on this issue than those living in Western Europe?
"As before, we will invite visitors to participate in the talks only live and will not broadcast them live, because the topics themselves and the opportunity to share thoughts and hear the competent opinion of interesting interlocutors are no less important than live communication and fellowship, which in the background of the war, it seems to me, is even more important strengthened. However, remembering the popularity of the previous talks and the frequent requests to listen to the discussions that have already taken place, we decided to make their audio recordings, which will be uploaded to the podcast listening platforms until the next meeting", says Agnė Pulokaitė, curator of the series of talks.
Ieva Balsiūnaitė is an LRT journalist, foreign news editor, and documentary filmmaker. Ieva is currently working on a documentary that examines ourselves through the phenomenon of Mexican telenovelas, during the great years of change in the last decade of the last century. Her previous documentary looked at the Litvak community living in PAR. Most of the time, Ieva's works are focused on topics related to human rights, migration, lately Ieva has been paying a lot of attention to war in Ukraine. Ieva holds a master's degree in human rights, studied at Paris Sciences Po and New York universities.
