 center CUNY it looks like we are sliding slowly into the summer and it's a beautiful day again here in New York City after that really tough horrible winter and early spring would seem to be cold and and then not yet out there the signs on the streets are good people are walking around most actually with masks even so officially we do not have them they are the first performances that people can attend to and a hamburger just opened some of her productions again she was here with us on the on the seagull talk so this is great signs of life things in the parks are happening unorganized and and we all hope that this will be the turn of the con at least in the US we have devastating news of course from India as we heard last week and from from from other places and we do not know what will happen if the Broadway will open in this September if it's possible in such a short time but we all do think there will be again live performances here which had been all the time already in France Germany and other countries but not in the US was really really really close as Professor Marvin Carlson reminded us even in the time of Shakespeare when there was the plague London theatre companies could go outside London and perform in smaller towns this was not possible he is a complete shutdown has been unprecedented and we are still dealing with that and it has changed so much perhaps almost for two years there has been an interruption and going to theater thinking about theater and and as many artists said here it has also been important to have a time of reflection a time to understand where we come from where we are going to and it's now about what are we going to do what last two and what to do Lenin sat famously and this is now what we all have to think a new in the world we live in and and with us we have artists and they often and always I think on the right side of history and the right side of the struggle for freedom of democracy they live really in the moment and not in the past and anticipate often the future and what lies ahead combining is six existing traditional forms like performance theater music opera with new digital media the new media and then something happens and catastrophes like the corona time and are a part of what will bring change like and there's so many people said here of like after world war two when the Edinburgh festival got founded the theater festival in Avignon we hope this is also a time where things will change differently we are thinking and creating a park project an international festival here in New York City and we need a lot of help so we really want to listen and hear what's working what's not working from all around the world and today we have a very significant reason is a very significant region with us here a region that has been part of the world map of theater with a long a long tradition even so it was sailing under different flags often under Russian one and or Soviet Union one but now again under our own flags is the Baltic region which we have with us here today and so we welcome Anna Ablamonova and Dr. Gora Paris said both young emerging and mid-Korea artists and presenters who have done a remarkable job is stunning work in country Lithuania which has a long long insignificant history of theater and we do not know enough about we should know much more it's very alive and especially the opera scene so Anna and Jin welcome to the Seatle Talks hey hello hello it's all about listening we have to listen to the actors and then I go on and on and on but sometimes I think this is good because what I say is slightly boring perhaps and then it will create a bit more excitement when you finally come up where are you both and what time is it it's like seven four past seven and I'm in Kaunas which is the second biggest city in Lithuania I'm in Vilnius and it's the same time Vilnius is the first city capital yeah and I am at the very center of the city right now so it used to be Vilna now it's called Vilnos Vilna in the second world but now it's called Vilnos maybe Anna tell us a little bit about the city where is it located and a little bit about the history so we can get an idea where you guys are it's located in Lithuania and Lithuania is located beside the Baltic Sea close to Scandinavian countries and we have a lot of neighbors Belarusia a little bit of Russia Latvia so quite interesting region and talking about history maybe important to mention that in two years we will celebrate 700 years of the city so it's quite interesting interesting place with very interesting history interesting architecture Baroque architecture mostly and the very old university and very wide the performing guards scene I would say but maybe would be would be good to say that we have interesting scene not only in Vilnius but also in Kaunas which will be a European capital of culture next year we will celebrate another and other and create and have another big project so it's really nice tiny small country with very interesting things happening around and hesitate and let me just tell our views a little bit about both of you Anna is the founder and producer of opera manager opera mania yeah did I pronounce it opera mania opera mania yeah and it's a production house in Lithuania dedicated to the creation promotion of new music theater through cross disciplinary artistic collaborations and since 2008 she has produced over 50 50 contemporary operas and various artistic projects and these are all new operas a lot of them so something that would even make the mat very proud and my guess is she had more female computers there than the mat who made such a big big promotion that finally we have a living female for the first time ever at the mat and I thought it's nothing to be proud of I think the work of what you guys do is is of real importance so there are many many works for opera also with the Vilna Ghetto connected to site specific work and it is one of the leading international new music theater places in the Baltic region and importantly also for us since we are here at the Graduate Center CUNY the Great Graduate Center Anna also serves as the head of the art center at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater so this is a great way to connect if anybody wants to you know so this is great and then we have with us Gintara Jin Dr. Gora Parasit this is her working name her nom de gal nom de plume however you want it as an artist's name and she is a digital theater performance experimental film and music director she's a lecturer methodologist designer and a member of WIF a woman in film and part of the Lithuanian interdisciplinary artists organizations she has really an interest of what everybody kind of talks about and we all talk about interdisciplinary work combining new technologies and her artistic and aesthetical interests lie in the depth of the net the internet the act of browsing in itself and in an infinite cognitive journey of collecting and identifying audiovisual experiences by which one learns about the world and through which they create a sense of self and a collective identity and she tends to combine performance, cinemas, theater, opera, neuroscience, digital culture in this expressive aesthetic language and that is screaming and foreign attention and our daily lives visually overloaded the additional reality she tries to compress that in her work and I think it is interesting it's stunning it is new work she has won many awards just recently one of the best music videos she put out she got a big award and so thank you both again for being with us and so Jen tell us a little bit about your town Anna said it's also culturally on the map yeah it is culturally on the map it's a small it's the smallest town in Vilnius and as Anna mentioned we are European culture capital in 2022 yeah and so we're gonna have lots of things happening so historically architecture is beautiful we have lots of medieval architecture also as Vilnius also Anna mentioned Baroque but we have medieval beauties churches like and so in Vilnius we have this we built this church so I don't know so I'll tell you population it's a beautiful city worth visiting and the culture is getting really really strong here I love Columbus very much so I was born here in this really old Jewish hospital in 1984 and since then I'm totally dedicated to the city yeah so fantastic and it's a big deal to be a European capital cultural capital of the year I think it was Madeira in Italy before and the wind is a very significant thing how is how is it going how is the situation with corona at the moment it's getting better Anna yes I must yeah it's getting better though statistics are not so good as we had at the same time last year but we are much more brave than previous year and despite all these statistics we have possibility to make events already and to have some spectators we have restrictions but still we can have around 30 percent of the capacity of the venues we can make performances outside and so it's slightly moving forward and I hope it will get better because the vaccination process is quite fast I would say here in in Louisiana so numbers are worse than last year but people are getting vaccinated and theaters are open since when 30 percent uh since uh maybe yeah since maybe since the very end of April something like that we started our events about one week ago so and that's opening of the venues was quite unpredictable just government announced that you can make events starting from next Monday but nobody was prepared for that so it took some time to organize everything to plan to plan schedules to sell tickets and that's why all that movement of events started maybe at the beginning of May the second week of May yeah and it's getting better I would say that is so how does it work can you afford it can you play for 30 percent I think that most of most of non-commercial artists they can do this because they cover all their expenses having support from the government party and another party ticket sales so we do not have to rely on ticket sales only that is a European system we have some support from the government and that helps us to to keep going and to perform our events our performances for such a small audience yeah but of course those who organize some big events in arenas and they do not have government support they are struggling they are still struggling someone said it's only war is more expensive than opera and of course we love opera so um do you think does it the moment right now will it be much more complicated for you to do work or do you think once it's over let's say everybody's vaccinated you will go on like it was will there be changes I think there will be changes there are already some changes I think most of the changes happened in our heads because I started thinking if we should do so many work if maybe we should do less and to think to think a lot about what we are doing because I think it was uh market the theater market was overdosed with all kinds kind of arts I think we should do less and to think more about quality about what we are doing what we are offering so it was a very interesting time of challenges uh challenges dealing with the all the restrictions with the covid with everything but besides that was a good time to think about what we are doing in general yeah and I think it will make a difference in the it already makes different difference question to you before we also go to Jen we are very concerned what will happen will people come when you opened you know you said a week ago did people come did take it sell or people hesitant um what is the experience actually I discovered our audience again and I'm in love with our audience because I think that that was a huge support for us they they bought all the tickets we were selling so it's not a problem people want to have that real experience of performing arts and they uh they buy tickets of course habits are a bit different they're not buying tickets uh several months in in advance normally it happens now like one week or 10 days in advance or like five days and it it uh and due to this reason it is complicated for us to plan everything for instance to plan more events we have to be fast in our reactions but in general this pandemic helped me to rediscover our audience and to understand that they are really interested in this art that we are producing creating and yeah I think nothing changed maybe even we are much more in love if I can say so with the audience that's fantastic um Jen um how did you experience this last year the moment as an artist uh it was interesting because I am as an artist I can take a lot and maybe it's bad or good I don't know but uh I also experience pandemic has also experienced overload of work so I don't really know I can't decide was I really in quarantine or was I working over too much you know is it online digital work in the studio work everything to arrange around so the performance happens you know in Lephania we had less restrictions than in Germany and other countries in summer then we had massive restriction really strong and strict in in winter and again we kind of allowing people to come to performances so we had a chance to show a couple of works and end of the summer in Berlin outdoors in the Lido like in the next to the lake and then one outdoors in in Lephania you know but the work becomes much harder in sense of organizing everything and thinking is it gonna happen one actor is gonna get sick then the whole crew can't perform you know and then you're looking for different means of telling the story instead of showing the live performance so the second show with the TikTok Shakespeare in Lephania we filmed the whole performance on the video and we showed it on a LED screen but the actors were present next to the stage and if any of them would get sick or would not be available to be a part of the presence next to the stage they would be present online next to the stage next to the LED screen so I guess instead of thinking because we are not institutional artists I'm not I'm not working for a national theater or opera houses so for us it's a little bit different because we always experiencing this coming in doing the show wrapping everything up and leaving you know so we always on this kind of a traveling mode and not knowing what's what's gonna happen you're gonna get project funded or not so it's in that in that terms nothing really changed they're just slow slow down the things and you started to think and appreciate time more and what Anna says it's a really good thing I really started to appreciate time I really want to devote more time for the art I do and this period just made me to think about it so much and yes I think theater was overloaded with all sorts of projects and which sadly to say some of them don't really have like some strong value you know and I think time is a key for all of it regarding our audience yeah everything changed it's different for example I'm doing show now in comas in September and we have to do more shows than one or two because the audience is divided to smaller groups so you are you are you're doing more premieres than you used to before because to take the whole number of the audience that it used to be to come to the one or two shows before the pandemics so and yeah I guess I guess it it felt but it also it was overload of everything internet also thinking about this digital transition we talked with Anna before about this presence online to be always online okay you're off the line but maybe if you have your opera mania you know running your company which has to be reach the audience all the time do you need to be on instagram on facebook all the time I like to do these things sometimes I always get tired but I know many people like truly don't like this online presence and that's the key question do we transition to online or not and I think that was like kind of forced moment for artists to think about this transitional technological moment because we will have to think about this eventually because it's taking over everything and we have to know the tools in order to know what we're fighting with what we have to deal in the future with I think so this was a lot of information I kind of was capable to take in on myself and still think which way to go and what's the best way and finding the you know the the niche for this for example we're doing a premiere in mars in two months we're doing a performance show in mars in br and I found very fascinating the whole idea of this yeah yeah it's virtual reality you know this all astros thing you know these monopolies taking over you know all the all the space you know why we as an artist can take a bit of it you know and you know this kind of fiction that fake it till you make it and I want to be part of this you know why not just to play around all of this so yeah there's lots of things at the same time this constant idea of like countries who are not able to perform well in order to say make people secure and safe you know like brazil and and many other countries you know and so so many many many thoughts you know lots of responsibilities future thinking past thinking that is that is truly interesting that you develop work that somehow no place on mars said not only you leave your local or the global community even so they are both connected to now and you say let's go interstellar and do what the big companies think about on nasa though so let me go back to your opera box you said you project you had the live opera the actors were in the room but if someone got sick is his or her part would be projectives it's not an opera first it's it's a theatrical play it's Shakespeare the the comedy of errors you said Shakespeare a tick tock yes tick tock Shakespeare we were we were researching tick tock platform and the parents of it you know and how it affects us and our reign and how we can transform to these artificial in artificial intelligence or like algorithms to off tick tock some of the uh traditional theater kind of but uh it needs time for this we have to make a big research because this this platform is nasty and it's so smart in a sense and and it's not pleasant to work with you know constantly actors got really tired but the idea of your question was the screen and the presence the actor in the theater play have to be present on the stage while with all these uh insecurities about getting sick even you know running nose or getting fever even though it's not covered you know you have uh you have to close all the team until you get the results of the actor or someone from the team you know negative answer from the from the lab so and it was uh fair of me because we planned the whole you know rehearsals and and and the premiere all the money is there and the dates and I was we were very scared that someone might get ill and then we transformed the whole play on the screen uh and the screen reflected a mobile screen it was vertical not horizontal so it was um and the actors were present next to the stage all the time online uh projecting life of them being next to the next to the performance and we thought about this idea if someone gets sick they will still be present next stage online in ipad or computer or mobile they will be somewhere at home but present online so that was the transition between the digital theater to from the theater to the digital theater so actions on stage but also on a big projection in landscape format at the same time they could choose yeah how did that how did that work uh all it worked you know the the the play was on the screen you know and the actors were present on the stage that was that kind of a performative like very open transition between the theater and digital theater it needs development I guess you know you can play with us a lot I mean there's so much theater plays online people got so created during the COVID you can see the whole Shakespearean plays you know people doing it on zoom all the orchestra doing their performances on some you know so it's not only you know there was so much development in this you know so uh just an example that people can adapt and transform and you know all this into disciplinarity and I think um it was just a playground you know to try out if it works you know but I think in Lithuania it was very important moment where the their traditional theater kind of got shook a bit you know and started to kind of question okay maybe that's the time to accept you know these all individuals who working outside the theater and you know I think I don't know how far they've gone with the thought of the merging the artist not in not institutional but I think there will be some kind of more respect in the sense and talk and I think Anna even mentioned that there were talks about in the governmental kind of a section with with the funding what concerns those independent artists like you like a Parimania no um you know just governmental theaters they normally have support and ticket sales it is a small part of their incomes so they have they have money to do their work and as Indira mentioned those independent artists when they do work they always are in such situation where they do not know if they will have money to do the art but in context of pandemic it became clear that these independent artists need much more support than there was some program started for that so yeah I hope that that attention to independent scene will stay after pandemics so something is changing something was already as recognized and I'll be quiet and back to you Jen a question you worked in film and in the digital realm before you're interested in neuroscience the brain visual receptions and how did it prepare you for that time of corona did you continue what you were doing or did you discover something new yeah of course because the methodologies what I'm what I'm working with actors allows us to to work distantly we can work online we always were rehearsing online before pandemics and that's not a struggle to do this again just the question of representation if you do the live show before rehearsing online and doing like a few days a week before rehearsals of the live show you have to do it more on the screen you know or even adapt the whole play for the video you know so that's changed but everything that we kind of were doing and exploring and in your assignments which allows us to work online and there's no need of tactile experience with the director and actor you know so yeah mm-hmm so it it was just one step on a journey you were already on but kind of a confirmation that what you do actually has value is important significant and is being taken more serious I don't know how serious it is but I know that it helps me a lot now like it seems like it just came naturally you know the work online but I think many artists you know because we're so global you know and we we we sound to national in a sense Anna works with so much international so many international artists I'm sure there were few rehearsals that were kept online you know and you have to adapt this adaptation you know constant adaptation and it's just I never thought that I would experience theater changing so much and I always thought that I over lived this time but I'm experiencing it to be kind of a in a sense digitalized and changed and audiences also you know I you know who knows I hope there's not going to be another you know pandemic or but yeah and you worked all the you said I don't it didn't even feel the corona time I was not isolated I always work you if not it was even more work so for you it was a working a strong working experience that year yeah if it's not live so it's online you know there was I realized that there was so much projects that keep going after me that you have to really finish but I think the whole fair was parents and relatives and friends around you know and there's so much news online on the television that like really freaks people out and I've noticed my family members who watch as lots of TV they just become very paramount you know and I hate media I do hate it and yeah yeah so how so very different of an experience than from let's say New York artists and Anna let's talk a little bit about opera opera man manisha if I said right we hear so much about it it's such a life center what is your work about why is it different from others this is an independent I think we hear echo no this is an independent company which was founded 14 years ago and it's different because it is quite unique just imagine opera company which produced around 50 productions new operas and it has me and was new yes and we have me as a producer director and also a content manager and this is it what we have and for all the productions that we need we hire all the people who are needed for all the all different ideas and we collaborate with many independent artists so we are not connected with any venue we do not have any space we are not connected with any ensemble and in a way it's complicated to work this way but I feel a huge freedom in that and I think that it helps us to rethink opera genre to come back to opera's roots because if we remember etymology of the word opera what is opera it is work it is something something which is done by different people and so this is different because most of most of context where you can see opera normally it is opera house with existing stage orchestra, pete ensemble orchestra and it's something that that shows the path how to create opera when we do not have anything we can go anywhere and create our own operas maybe later we will we find the some specific titles for this pieces for instance comic strip opera which we have done with the gintari or dance opera or spatial opera in the dark or opera performance opera art installation or even we can avoid the word opera so I think it's very different company maybe for those who are familiar with the American performing arts scene it's something like Beth Morrison projects we are joking that opera mania it's lesbianian version of Beth Morrison projects and we work kind of similar way and the main the main aim of our work is artistic discovery to create something that was never created anywhere and I think sometimes we are struggling sometimes it is difficult but when we get those discoveries artistic discoveries that is the best motivation for us to keep going and to develop this field of art contemporary opera or new music theater yes and we started or 13 or already 14 years ago organizing a contemporary opera festival now in your production but when we were really a very young people a group of artists and me and later we started touring abroad and that helped us a lot because it was complicated to develop this genre and develop organization working in Lithuania only but now we are aiming on developing a repertoire locally to do some other works residencies release our recordings made even some books and that these activities are very wide yeah did I answer your question no perfect maybe say one or two or two or what are examples what did you do what was different like projects okay I will remember them in connection with the pandemics for instance we have produced opera for 10 singing cashiers supermarket sounds and piano opera is called have a good day it's in corona time you continued producing in the time of corona and this is for 10 I I continued produce during times of corona but this specific piece was premiered much earlier and we have performed it in New York at here art center in the context of prototype festival and this piece is for just for 10 singers who act as cashiers at the supermarket there is also one pianist just pianist who acts as a security guard and supermarket sounds yes or is it in the supermarket side specific or on a stage normally it happens on the stage in the gallery white box or we perform it in the black box then you and we turn it into semi white box by the way in here art center all the space was painted white for us it was white yeah and this was that piece which opened up for us all the possibilities and the international market and we started touring and maybe important to mention that creators of this piece that was their first collaborative project first opera they did and second opera they created not in cooperation with our production house but still their second work opera performance son and see it was presented two years ago in venezuela and got a golden line so yeah you saw it yeah people were lying on the floor in kind of a fake beach pretending to have a beautiful but actually it was all fake environment you would be upstairs you know on a balcony looking down on people once in a while almost spontaneously starting to sing about the experience you would see dogs running around kids playing it was a very beautiful and also disturbing of things are amazing that you gave that company the first chance yeah fantastic and you did also something yeah go on and we are still we are still touring with that have a good day opera you know it was performed already for 70 times and it's quite a number for contemporary opera in this union context and what is also interesting to mention for instance last year it was of course sold out especially after veneziaan ally golden line all the performances of opera have a good day are sold out just in few moments you put tickets for performances online and it is sold out and after we got sold out we had to cancel performances we postponed them to september and in september we had new regulations we had to have one or two i don't remember how many meters in between spectators so we had to add additional performances to communicate with all the spectators who already bought tickets and to make five operas performances in 27 hours that was that was quite a challenge and but we survived so that was the reality of the pandemics and for instance another show we did together with Gintari it's called the comic strip opera alpha for two singers one actor dr gorah paris it was doctor Gintari sorry dr gorah paris it who who who acts in that opera as director set designer costume designer and all possible all other possible designers yeah and it was and it is still very interesting connection between opera and comic strips both genres which are very expressive and we had very interesting result and we are going with this performance to Prague to Czech Republic so we hope that this tour will not be cancelled and we will keep going with the performances and with tours and and other different productions quite different to what I have mentioned it is a comic not comic but sonic experience in the former Vilna ghetto it's called glazed us in English we call it filler and this performance is designed for five spectators only which are going through the ghetto together with two guides and they have only headphones and natural cinematography cinematography of the city which still have some left over from the from the ghetto times and by the way this format of this performance was very good for the pandemics and we had chance last year to perform it for more than 100 times and already started doing it this year yeah so these are performances we do they are quite different and we have much more different performances but it's yeah we need time to to talk about them it's good yeah I think we had Lucian with us who runs the invisible dog at Brooklyn arts and nonesat you know like in the old fables from La Fontaine a big tree in her storm might fall faster you know than the than the reef or the grass the grass can move you know if those was the movement and you go we'll be there and what we are seeing here in New York they fell out or we haven't heard anything really on the stages of Lincoln Center for example the opera why isn't there anything happening even in a small way and then we don't understand and we also all a little bit shocked by it but we hear they make fundraising for we love that of course the Lincoln Center it's an important place and it's I'm just mentioning also for many others and but it's we wonder how much care did they take of the artist and the institution comes first I guess and also in fundraising but something is wrong and a small company a small unit a mobile unit is a vision and experience how to make sense of you you did something and it was fantastic and Jen I or Jen Tari or Dr. Gora Parasit all of you three you also did work in the wellness ghetto I understand right how was that first how did that go what did you do and how did it was perceived in Vilnius ghetto we no we didn't do it's it's it's a new annus production that's that's been successful in show before first pandemic right Anna and we just premiered it before the pandemic but it was very perfect it was perfect timing for the premiere but we didn't do it especially for the pandemic yeah I thought you did a video project or you filmed or you did some work also we did in in in museum in 9th 4th encounters music video of a hip hop band in Lithuania talking about the victims of the Second World War through the hip hop it was a big adventure in the sense of a choice of the music and the medium to talk through and the place to shoot the music video in the sense I was very when I came back after living in London for 10 years I came back to Lithuania and I that place in Kaunas the museum of Humberkhaus was always you know like a place of my memory when I was a child because we used to go there with the school and teacher used to tell us the stories and so on and so forth and they used to stay with me and I feel very big responsibility because I lived in the city and when I came back I was just talking with few young actors and I realized they don't know the history at all and no one speaks and we call it sensitive theme in a sense and I took this bold decision to make the music video and the music video track was talking about death and the place limbo between the deaf and live and we decided to shoot it in there in the in the museum outside with the with a special decision not to play music to do it in very silent mode we had a workshop a week in my home with the actors talking about death and the history facts and going for lots of methodology of what death means to you and even we found this website where you can just put your your date of birth and you you can know when you're going to die and there was a choice of many not to and we were speaking about this human condition created by humans and why it's happening and I think the whole experience was very important in a sense there was lots of controversial ideas of people who saw and they said how dare you play it with the hip hop music but I say is it classical or hip hop it doesn't matter it really matters how much people are being reached and who is who is going to be reached and what you're talking about so yeah so that was a project that was a long time ago it was like 2015 maybe and it is not so long ago but it seems such a long time ago what are you watching let's say in your region a bit more what what interesting things are happening what do you hear from from from Latvia, Romania, from Russia, Belarus and what artists you follow maybe you tell us a little bit about your region what who else you are in contact with for example me at the moment we are we kind of making a project between Germany, Belarus, Lithuania, Greece I think other countries are combining in and we're talking about the idea of the European center what is this European center because as we know there's lots of cities in Europe that has European center and we here as an artist opt to decide which is the actual center and we think about this project of traveling through the cities and so we always meet and we talk about the difficult situations in Belarus you know and you know so but as for art we I just don't know I just watch things online you know there's so much you know all the institutional houses that raised all the material online which is wonderful it used to be before but if you have a chance to see it live you're gonna see it live if not then you see it online so but art wise we're gonna probably see artists because I'm into disciplinary artists I'm going to see lots of artists in art villainous we have this art fair in in in September so we you meet lots of galleries and lots of artists there so I think that's going to be first time after a long time meeting all this diverse community you know not online maybe come back Anna what do you what inspires you what did you see what is there something in your region but maybe even around the world what what do you're saying what moved you were in this last year what you saw what inspired you to be honest I I try to to avoid this stream of live streams because for me it's exhausting and for me the most inspiring thing what what is happening around in the world and they think that the biggest theater performance that we have for now it's what is happening outside the theater on the streets or just watch the news each day it's the biggest inspiration which inspires me to think about and I see that it also affects the works I produce I don't know if it is connected but most of works that I have produced recently they are connected with documentary materials whether these are interviews with Litwax who survived holocaust and we did audio work with that whether it is documentary video materials from vithyanian national tv during the times where where Soviet Union collapsed yeah now now we are developing one of the productions which is connected with the Giuseppe Verdi's opera traviata because last year we had one centenary of Lithuanian professional opera culture and we have tradition in all the state theaters which stage or perform traviata on december 2031st and they have it as the biggest fun uh and the biggest feast just to go and see Verdi's traviata although it's a really tragic story about Kurtisan about prostitutes but people have fun and connected with champagne and whatever so I was very much confused well when all the theaters decided to make premiers of traviata last december it doesn't happen due to corona but it inspired me to think why why we are doing this it's about the about prostitutes and it's really sad story but we are celebrating new year and having fun with beautiful dresses drinking champagne so I really try to avoid the stream of of performing arts I try to observe what is happening around in our lives and and I find the reactions through the performances to the facts which are happening in our lives the most meaningful just for for now it's the most interesting and inspiring for me so do you read books or go to a museum or no I read books yeah I recently I repeated Stefan Zweig uh European's diary and felt some parallels which were in that book with nowadays yeah I I do that but somehow real life is much more impressive and inspiring it forces me to question all the things which are happening around and to talk about those things through through the arts with the help of artists in collaboration with artists how about you Jin um what what did what did you do to what inspiration what did you look towards films I can watch like 10 films a day uh manga anime I watched lots of anime it's amazing Japanese Japanese anima I picked so much amazing methodology for for acquisition of the movement of the actor it's incredible I mean there are scenes like the act of the animated anime character comes in into the room and there's no open window I don't know that's so weird and then because he has a very good haircut there's a wind blows from somewhere from left to right and then the haircut looks incredible but there's no like open space for the window it's incredible it's fantastic so I picked up all these beautiful bits with no logic you know considering the situation of now that we live in total this logic you know but but you know I thought about this situation sorry for talking over uh about this pandemic situation this is scary and it's tragic for the whole world but at the same time you know this lockdown situation this mentally lockdown situation I am as an artist experiencing constantly always all these thoughts about these apocalyptic you know world changes and so on and so it's every day with me you know so I thought okay now welcome you know many of you to think you know about this existential things you know constantly every day and we forced to do this you know so all these illogical irrational movie scenes you know anything that I read online I made this big collection that I really like and make these connections with what's happening now you know and what is you know asking myself is this all right to go all these digital way you know what's happening with this digital art that takes over all the internet is so successful people selling so much the effort for so much you know all these cryptocurrencies and you know it's a big question like what's going to happen next where all these forces come in today I read about US military developing drones for oiling the eggs of the birds around the aircraft territories so I thought you know birds are going to definitely fight for their nest so there's going to be a war between the birds and drones you know I want to see the scene in a sense of my imagination but it's horrible so you know yeah that's going to be a drone that will detect the eggs and nest and they will oil the eggs so that they lose the pores and the the the the bird inside dies or it doesn't get you know even progress into the any kind of a bodily shape yeah so it's yeah I imagine this apocalyptic scene you know we fight already with machines and there's a bird fighting with drones you know I was thinking about it like a year and a half ago and here you go yeah so we have this all this artificial intelligence you know the spirit of singularity you know that all the machines are going to take over and this fear of you know so in a German magazine they pointed out that the very first time someone tried to write a poem a novel just through an interface you know that was connected you know to it sounds like science fiction but someone was paralyzed who cannot communicate and it did work and it's in the very very beginning but it's the very first time that letters could be combined yeah we're thinking I mean this is just a stunning a stunning development and we are so close maybe we don't understand only later on one will know what really happened in this time and but you know what I think there is a there is a theory of the time because if you if you have a clock which shows exact very very exact time it could use as lots of material from air like lots of burns lots of energy so the time needs to go a little bit off in order to keep the whole planet safe you know so I'm thinking you know AI will it will get it right you know it will maybe eventually in five years we'll write a novel book you know like a novel prize it's going to be so right that it's not going to be right anymore you know and all these micro decisions that we as an artist can make people you know in the sense they will never be able to catch it up you know and that's how we will be able to trick out the AI you know in the in the sense I don't know we just need to have the tools an army of young intelligent coders I don't know I'm thinking of my sister but yeah yeah you have belief in the army of young intelligent coders who will help us yeah hopefully yeah yeah and it's not just what we observe I think there was the famous Wittgenstein experiment there was a philosophy movement it was they said what you cannot really observe doesn't really exist it was very serious in Vienna and one day he came to the meeting had a big clock and then he put a cardboard in front of it said can you see the clock now and they said no but he said does time still pass and they said yes and that was the end of the movement you know it was quite quite something so now see what is really happening actually what happens it is what we don't see is more significant what we see what we are aware of for both of you what did you learn what are the big lessons of this corona time what will you change in your artistic and aesthetic practice Anna maybe you start what did you learn what will you change I learned really a lot of things as many people I think but what I understood that I need some change because how we lived before the pandemics that was nightmare I think at least how I lived and we need to change something I need to change something maybe I should do less and to to dedicate much more time to to good ideas best ideas yeah of course this pandemic time also offered some new ideas which are not connected with pandemic for instance our organization started collaboration with Lithuania National Opera and Ballet Theatre we are going to make co-productions with them together and we already did an open call for independent artists and I think it is quite a it is quite a big deal in our performing arts scene when independent small production house cooperates with the biggest national opera house so I am looking forward what will come out of this and many things are still going on I develop our organization but I really know that I will need to change something maybe in my personal life my my attitude my my my tempo maybe of doing things yeah so I will change something for sure maybe even this year me there's a good saying in Lithuania very old saying my sister told me she is like six years old it's about tomorrow that it never exists and everyone believes in it it's about tomorrow she said I guess what I'm talking about and she says it never exists and everyone believes in it you know it's tomorrow it's very old saying yeah yeah so I've learned to appreciate time for all this period personally as a human being and I really love time I really like to devote time for things separately as Anna says not to rush you know it's horrible to rush it's it's such a luxury that you can give to yourself it's time and you can always find it you know and it's so important and everything needs time that's what I discovered and in art wise I probably I'm not going to change you know I will do the same what I do you know and the whole idea of this is the disciplinary technological change doesn't scare me it's going to take years on soon it's going to change the new generation the generation alpha is going to adapt it very easily it's going to be very dry and technologically based so they're not going to be scared you know and yeah I think it's going to be great you know I just hope this war between the someone is going to change to finish soon because I feel somehow that there is an invisible war happening and we will have more and more viruses coming in the sense that's what I'm scared of you know but this political change but I'm trying not to think about it too much you know it's this conspiracy ideas you know that can overload and artists we're going to adapt we're going to find a way you know cinema is thriving netflix is thriving so much we're gonna we're gonna find a way you know to find the channels of the of the art and we're gonna somehow reinvent the connection between the audiences at performance you know eventually in the different ways so yeah it's a it's a time of change we will have next week a talk of contemporary theater in chile and in chile something stunning happened it was just the vote was done a couple of days ago there will be rewriting a constitution for the country there's a landslide victory of kind of the liberal left forces after you know dictatorship and perhaps since the time of all you and it will be for the very first time a change where we might think you know this is a very good one it's a very optimistic something unthinkable last december when the police were still shooting at the eyes of protesters intentionally to shut their eyes out and to calm them down the same police that a couple of months later shut down the city again with a curfew but to be particular only here to protect you for corona so this is something stunning and to close down our section what are your projects maybe both of you say what are you working on and what are you excited about what what will you do anna maybe you start um we have repair 12 for now repair two uh of eight uh yeah eight performances and we're developing around five works you can do at any time you have a total incredible yes and and most most of them touring performances but some are not touring because they call them real estate performances which are connected with places for instance sonic experience that they will not get because it's created specifically for concrete space beside that we are developing around five new productions uh we are doing projects project together with lithuanian national opera and belly house which will bring also i think around maybe three or five new productions we are releasing new lps vinyls and we are planning new tours which hopefully will start in september we are going to munich then hopefully to prog then hopefully again to germany to talia theater in hamburg it's very yes yeah and hopefully next year we will organize our eighth contemporary opera festival noah so we have many huge and ambitious plans and i hope that it will happen yeah that's great people can travel and experience a country of country to your city and next year um what about jinn jinn tarah dr gora paris i think the most exciting very soon project now it's exciting as any other projects that's premiere in mars we'll see how it's gonna go i'm very interested in two months i think we'll see how the digital uh virtual reality is going to be able to how will people hide out about this how can they participate online online i will i will i will i will have event created online and we will have live streaming so people can wear vr or they don't need to wear vr and they can be actually on mars on the mount olympus the virtual reality headset you can experience with the virtual reality headset but even without on the screen so you can if the world doesn't work anymore we can go to one yeah why not you know like to see the performance um so that is interesting experiment that we collaborate and another like quite a big project in heartwood university in fall in october i think twenty fifth or coleticus uh yeah yeah and yeah and i'm doing exhibition of five large video projects of pagan gods uh uh kind of referring on the phania and kind of identity search for nostalgia you know for the historical events that never happened in this in the particular generations you know like going into the uh paganism and doing other many things establishing into your routine in search of the identity as a phania it's a big theme it's very sensitive theme for us so i'm developing six of five pagan gods the picture of five big five pagan gods uh video video portraits yes video portraits of five pagan gods so it's kind of a modernized version you know and it'll be very big screens where you created visually changing material that discuss the identity of thing that happened okay no performance not a performance no it's going to be exhibition of five portraits and we will we will do a lecture also it's like a collaborative work between university and me and i will lecture and i will work closely with the actors and different other departments just again experience this interdisciplinarity work while creating this video projects so that's that and uh in le phania there's going to be very interesting project in september in kaunas we there's a very interesting festival that i kind of got to know this year it's called house so the festival chooses one small old house with the historical kind of a factor and they recreate you know different performances in the house so this year that chose me and i will recreate this whole idea of being um female in the world and experiencing from the female eyes and uh i will recreate these ghosts of mine all these bad and good thoughts into the portraits of latex vacuum and they will stand as a ghost in different rooms of the house so i'm looking forward for this very much so and uh we're developing a few other ideas but uh you know i could go on and on so incredible incredible what's happening there we are all so focused on here all we hear from germany on united france uh in london but you know the world is because there are great great traditions out there and great work what you guys do the baltic region at the moment in new york also gundiga laivina is visiting from latvia she's a curator they kept a festival open to corona she does extremely important work so um it is truly a region um we all should know more about it and we should um focus on it so really um thank you uh um all for for um for joining us and for being with us it's an important moment to really hear more and to be aware of of theater in the world globally it is so vastly different to hear that you all keep on working um that you are able to do all this this is just um this is just stunning and we really am happy that um that we could get some messages from the planet earth during the times of corona and and i think it is inspiring um and what you what you do so um i hope all of us you will join you will join us tomorrow and on friday here on seagull talks we will continue to hear from around the world and we look forward to continuing our relationship most probably also over the summer with howl around and they have been such a great partner and an important partner um for us so um i think uh it is a contribution to that discussion as we heard today something we would not know um because we will have karry perlov the great american director legend as a producer um and uh also um as a directing artist one of the very few women who work in the field successfully over the over decades and have put an imprint really on on the american theater so this is a great thing to hear um about changes that are happening a long time ago in times when also things looked difficult dangerous and i can't wait to hear what she thinks how she's experiencing um this time and um and uh what she what she will tell us about and then we will hear from chile as i said on on friday and this will be an important update from playwrights and producers and what we are what we are um what we are doing here and so i think you all will be able to join us and it will be with martin baldes and um and his collaborators um in chile he's working for milo rau and for um the um um so um i talk to you too soon and i thank you to everybody thank you for listening and um all my best and thank you to listeners for taking the time to be with us thank you thank you