PILIES THEATRE (CASTLE THEATRE)
KLAIPĖDA PILIES THEATRE (that operated as a Theatre Studio at 68 Liepų Street until 1995) was founded in 1985. Founder: Director Alvydas Vizgirda, patron: Klaipėda City Municipality.
There are two groups of actors at Klaipėda Pilies Theatre: a professional performing arts group and a group for street events. The professional actors create productions for the stage, while the team for street performances and events involves a large group of musicians, dancers, and students of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre Klaipėda Facultie. During the 30 years of its creative activities, the theatre has staged over sixty performances and organised hundreds of events both inside and outside Lithuania.
Klaipėda Pilies Theatre is an important dominant of the cultural life of Klaipėda. The team of professionals of the Pilies Theatre is continuously engaged in the creation of new productions, while the street theatre group is creating performances, actions, improvisations and theatrical parades for street events.
(...) The group led by Alvydas Vizgirda always remains faithful to its role: to let enter their theatre but not to get too close.
(...) Pilies Theatre likes shocking the audience. And it is not that the performances are dominated by physical stunts (although these can be seen as well) but by real psychological terror: in his performances, the director makes us gaze at the abyss of the human soul...
(...) There is a clear carnivalization tendency in the performances of the Pilies Theatre. A carnival is a spectacle without a ramp and without a division into performers and spectators. A carnival has philosophy dressed in variegated clothing of a hetaera...
(...) The open-ended questions are not characteristic of productions by A. Vizgirda - the answer is given - the hero often deliberately puts on a clown’s mask and accepts ridicule and humiliation, and that is when the intended carnivalized reversal of the world takes place: the treatment of the clown by the defenders of morality shows the immorality hidden in them...
The following directors have created at the Pilies Theatre: Alvydas Vizgirda, Kęstutis Rupulevičius, Olegas Kesminas, Vilija Trečiokaitė, Marius Matulevičius, Audronė Kalvaitytė, Darius Rabašauskas, Rūta Bunikytė, Liudas Vyšniauskas and Marius Pažereckas.
Artists: Gintautas Stasiulis, Vytas Aleknavičius, Raimonda Balandytė, Vidas Bizauskas, Nadežda Gultiajeva, Anatolijus Klemencovas, Aina Zinčiukaitė and Marta Vosyliūtė.
Composers: Saulius Šiaučiulis,Virgilijus Bublys, Algirdas Remesa, Gintaras Kizevičius, Haroldas Šlikas, Jonas Jurkūnas, Giedrius Puskunigis and Edvinas Vasiljevas.
Choreographers: Mikola Zinčiuk, Gitana Puzinienė, Irma Stonienė, Rolandas Stonys, Agnija Šeiko, Aistė Abromavičiūtė and Arūnas Peštenis.
Currently the repertoire of the theatre includes:
Mergers (2012)
The poetic performance is a hymn based on Maironis' poetry
Author and director of the staging Alvydas Vizgirda.
Starring Regina Šaltenytė, Vilija Gruodytė, Vilma Ptašinskaitė, Ramūnas Šeputis and Donatas Žilinskas
Toy Gun (2013)
The romantic story of Tamar Bartaja
Director - Alvydas Vizgirda.
Starring: Vilija Gruodytė, Vilma Ptašinskaitė, Ramūnas Šeputis and Donatas Žilinskas
"Mr. Širvys, you are absolutely right" (2014)
Performance based on Arvydas Dashkus' play "Such a Devilish One"
Director Alvydas Vizgirda.
Starring Vilma Ptašinskaitė, Vilhelmina Jašinskaitė, Vilija Gruodytė, Marius Pažereckas, Donatas Žilinskas and Ramūnas Šeputis
„Warsaw Melody“ (2016) – a play by Leonid Zorin.
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Lina Rastokaitė and Gabrielius Zapalskis
"Singles" (2017)- a play by Hanoch Levin
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Sigutė Gaudušytė, Renata Idzelytė, Vaidotas Jočys, Ramūnas Šeputis and Liudas Vyšniauskas
"Fabijonas" (2018) - monodrama by Rimantas Šavelis
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Aurimas Pintulis
"Two Little Ladies Head North" (2018) - comedy by Pierre Notte
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Toma Gailiutė and Renata Idzelytė
"Widow, Shorty, Seal and others" (2019) - a play by Keren Klimovsky
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Vilija Gruodytė, Ramūnas Šeputis, Kamilė Andriuškaitė and Jonas Viršilas
"The Story Of Mr Sommer" (2019) - a play based on the novel by Patrick Süskind
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Aurimas Pintulis
"Easy Dating" (2020) - a play by Valentin Krasnogorov
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Lina Rastokaitė and Aurimas Pintulis
"Sebastian" (2022) - comedy based on play by Tennessee Williams "Suddenly Last Summer“
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Vilija Gruodytė-Šeputienė, Auksė Naujokienė, Aurimas Pintulis, Vilma Ptašinskaitė, Ramūnas Šeputis and Pijus Šiaulys
"The Great Law at the Burning Grapes" (2022) - Theatre concert based on the poetry of Donaldas Kajokas
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Regina Šaltenytė, Vilija Gruodytė-Šeputienė, Ramūnas Šeputis and Jonas Baltokas
"David and Edward" (2023) - The play by Lionel Goldstein
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Vaidas Jočys and Aurimas Pintulis
"You Are Blocking My Ocean" (2024) - The play by Keren Klimovsky
Director Alvydas Vizgirda
Starring Jonas Baranauskas, Vilija Gruodytė, Vaidas Jočys, Viktorija Miliauskaitė, Auksė Naujokienė,
Ramūnas Šeputis
"Gardens Of Versailles"
The idea of „Gardens of Versailles“ was inspired by the book about Madamede Pompadour, the official favourite of Louis
XV, King of France and of Navarre. The performance does not fallow historical events. The real story is only the mean to intrigue spectators and public.The libretto is captured on fantasy and real events are pointing by excogitations. Versailles... Versailles... Versailles... Luxurious coaches, silk stocking ladies, assiduous cavaliers...Crowd of faces, beauty of costumes, smell of luxury, countless of intrigues in the palace... This time it isn‘t a story about fairy gardens. Let‘slook at one and only woman, artist, singer. Listen to sweet remembrances that visited her this night: passing youth and reckless days. The life goes to the end...
“The Dance Of Semiramide“ (2023) - street performance
Direction by Alvydas Vizgirda
Cast: Vytas Aleknavičius, Živilė Chankevič, Neringa Gerasimova, Šarūnė Kazlauskė, Emilė Kniuliūtė, Auksė Naujokienė, Vilhelmina Paniuškienė, Vilma Ptašinskaitė, Kęstutis Rimeišis, Pijus Šiaulys
