Black Box

The platform named Black Box for enhancing and propagating creativity of young artists aims to establish ongoing cooperation with various creatively promising young theatre creators and to implement their innovative creative ideas. Black Box is understood as a primary classical theatre matrix with clear boundaries and rules, yet open to experiment and artistic risk; it can become a space for various stage-art acts – plays, interactive projects, installations, performances. The Black Box concept, as it is defined, offers young artists the freedom to transform space through creative process.

In December of 2023, the new audiovisual project The Story of One Sound II, inspired by authentic experiences of actors in the theatre and beyond, will be presented by composer Arturas Bumšteinas, who has been in residence at the Youth Theater for several years. Two directors, Justinas Vinciūnas and Jonas Kuprevičius, who have recently graduated from the LMTA and made a memorable debut on professional stage, will be residents at the theater in the upcoming years and create new works.

Earlier Projects:

Dust, based on Kazimierz Sakowicz’s book The Paneriai Journal, 1941 – 1943, (2023) director Justinas Vinciūnas

The End of Eddy, based on Édouard Louis’ novel of the same title, (2022) director Naubertas Jasinskas

Mama, a play by Asya Voloshina (2021), director Ieva Kaniušaitė

The Urbantschitsch Method, based Thomas Bernhard’s book The Lime Works (2020), director Arturas Bumšteinas

Brother of Sleep, based on a book by Robert Schneider (2020), director Adomas Juška

Man Out of Fish, a play by Asya Voloshina (2020), director Eglė Švedkauskaitė

Audio performance I Dreamt I Dreamt, (2019), director Kamilė Gudmonaitė

In 2020s, a joint project called Baltic Transfer was developed on the Black Box platform together with the internationally renowned theatres TR Warszawa and Volksbühne Berlin, as well as with partners from the Baltic countries – the Latvian New Theatre Institute and the Estonian Vaba Lava Theatre. The project was aimed at achieving, through creative workshops and/or promotive co-productions, a greater international visibility for young Lithuanian talents as well as encouraging their active participation in the international theatre community while exploring urgent topics of today.

In the spring of 2020, the Berlin Volksbühne Theater held the POSTWEST festival dedicated to works of young artists from East European countries. It featured the production of The Man of Fish, a play by the young-generation Russian playwright Asya Voloshina, the adaptation of which with German actors was initiated by director Eglė Švedkauskaitė. In 2021, at the BALTIC TRANSFER festival organized by the Warsaw theatre TR Warszawa, next to the works of young Latvian and Estonian stage artists were shown the productions of the Black Box project I Dreamt I Dreamt (dir. Kamilė Gudmonaitė), Brother of Sleep (dir. Adomas Juška) and The Urbantschitsch Method (dir. Arturas Bumšteinas).