Director's Word
I am Paulius Ignatavičius, Lithuanian theatre
director. Together with Klaipėda Youth Theatre now we are making new performance
based on Vladimir Sorokin novel “Ice”. In the city of Klaipėda I found a group
of wonderful people. They are young, dashing, creative and what is most
important - open minded people. We are working all together and feeling a real
joy of the process. For me in any creative work it's really important to enjoy
life and the creativity which comes from it.
In the early beginning of my works I was analyzing a
person as a slave of his own illusion. I thought that a person is what he
hasn’t done; he is his own dreams, he is what he believed in and wanted. True
face of the man for me was a compound of his unfulfilled dreams and fantasies.
Now I am interested in the question: why these dreams are not becoming reality?
Why a person can’t be what he wants to be? Why he can’t live always following
his heart? Why, instead of living he only exists? Why he is following norms of
society, religion, family and becoming hostage and slave of it? Why he dies too
early? These questions are essential in my creative works as well as in this
production of “Ice”.
About The Performance
In a way, this upcoming show is an ironic utopia about
elected race which live in a world full of people who are alive, but dead
inside. This race is searching for relative souls and trying to awake them from
their useless life to start a new, real life, where people are communicating
using the language of hearts. However, final goal of this race is to disappear
in the eternal light. Vladimir Sorokin wrote this novel not because of the
disappointment of intellectual life, but because of frustration of
civilization, modern people, whom forgot the real language of hearts. This
novel doesn't try to prove some recipe to fulfilling life therefore we don't
want to moralize nor to tell how people should live. In this utopian world of
"Ice" a person becomes awakened when he is hit to the chest with an
ice hammer. If he is not a "walking corpse", this procedure is enough
to hear his real name and person is ready to start live a fulfilling and happy
life while understanding the language of hearts. Oh, how nice it would be, if
that would be enough to "awake"? Unfortunately that's only an ironic
fiction, which asks: are we really alive or maybe our hearts are just
sleeping? We are trying to ask spectators this essential question;
we don't want to teach them. I think that everybody should find their own
personal "Ice". I hope that after the show this search will be at
least a little bit easier.
What We Need & Why
Funding which we got from Lithuania
Ministry of Culture is not enough. We need 3000 dollars in order to accomplish
our ideas. We have to buy all the decorations needed - now we have 2/3 of it.
Also we have to finish sewing all of the costumes. Furthermore, we have to pay all
the people who are helping with production: designer, sound engineer, light
operator. As well we need to pay to Vladimir Sorokin who wants money in advance
for copyrights. We really want to fulfill all of our ideas and to show
audiences fully fledged, we want to fully dress actors and make all of the
decorations needed, we seek for the dialogue with audience.
For all of this we really need your support. You could be part of it.
If you can't contribute, we hope you'll help spread the word through social media.
Thank you for attention.
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CREW:
Director - Paulius Ignatavičius
Set designer - Neli Ivančik
Light designer - Julius Kuršys
Sound director - Edgaras Žaltauskas
Actors - Klaipeda Youth Theatre
Based on a novel by Vladimir Sorokin
Song arranged by Lebanon Hanover, performed by ICE BAND
