ALEXANDR GRIGORIAN: STATE OF THEATRE WOULD BE IDEAL IN CASE OF GOOD
STATE FINANCING ADDED TO CREATIVE FREEDOM

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. During the March 26 meeting at the
Tesaket Club, Vladimir Msrian, actor of the H. Ghaplanian Dramatic
Theatre, and Alexandr Grigorian, artistic director of the
K. Stanislavski Russian Dramatic Theatre, shared their ideas on the
modern Armenian theatre with reporters.

In the opinion of V. Msrian, cultural policy is above all other
policies in the world. "I can’s just imagine the existence of the
Armenian nation without the theatre. All rumors that the Armenian
theatre is now in a crisis are invented. The theatre is fully
functioning today," the famous actor stated.

In his words, every artist, be he an actor or director, cannot stay
outside politics: "We with our roles and plays are in politics."

Addressing the subject of the Artsakh war, V. Msrian noted that
people of the theatre "have a duty with respect to soldiers who died
for freedom of their homeland. Yet so far no valuable theatrical work
on this subject has been created."

According to A. Grigorian, in the Soviet time theatres were in the
slavery of repertoire plays, while now they are in an economic
slavery. "Today theatres are free. This freedom is wonderful from the
creative point of view. However, if we received good state financing
in addition to this freedom, our state would be ideal," he underlined.

He also spoke about mass and cheap shows which bring large
revenues. "In this sense the theatre has receded into the
background. We cannot betray our principles and stage such
performances. Our duty is to propagandize universal values by
presenting classic works of playwrights," he said.

According to the artists, it seems that the problem of generation
shift has been solved: both theatres have actors who will replace the
old generation in the future.