Artist in Lithuanian theatre (1919-1925)

Straipsnyje analizuojamas dailininko vaidmuo besikuriančiame Lietuvos profesionalų teatre. Siekiama jvertinti, kaip modernaus dailininko savybės - išradingumas ir originalumas - koregavo tradicinę scenografijos sampratą ir padėjo dailininkui įsitvirtinti tarp teatro kūrėjų.In the early 1920s, Lithuanian artists began to discuss the peculiarities of collective creation and to understand the principles of dialogue characteristic to creative collaboration. At the time, those artists were well known creators, distinguished for their achievements in the professional field, for their practical, although not extensive, theatrical experience and their education in theatrical art. In the 1920s, the organization and structure of theatre did not support the use of artists' knowledge and skills. The hierarchic traditions of theatre impeded the beginning of a creative partnership with modern art. At the beginning, while Lithuanian theatre was forming, artists began working in pairs. They were responsible for separate areas of stage design, the set and costumes, and searched inventively for a practical connection between theatrical components. The merging of both the symbolic and practical elements of stage design entered into the polemics with the text; a scene could arouse associations and render the artists' original solution of a complicated situation. This was a real proof of the artists' creative partnership. The artists invoked their imaginative prowess as they connected the costumes and the set as material evidence of their creative process. They sought impromptu creation and performed the role of assistants, both to the director and to the actors, and proposed to reconsider the conception of theatre as a temple. Inventiveness was also put into practise when the characters with their unique characteristics connected costume and set design into a total whole. The director and the dramatic interpretation of the actors legitimated the artists' ideas, which contributed to the subsequent consolidation of intellectual theatre in Lithuania. In the 1920s, artists influenced directly the important development of the autonomy of theatre in Lithuania. The long process of the integration of the artists' works revealed the peculiarities of Lithuanian theatre and its inherent conservativeness, which took time to overcome