Why don’t Armenians love theater?

"A1+"
December 26, 2009

Legendary actor Sos Sargsyan was greeted with warm rounds of applause
during a meeting with the new generation of actors at the "Narekatsi"
cultural center. Sargsyan’s first advice to them was to be honest and
sincere in theater and life and to develop the right taste.

"Intellectuals must play a role in society. Actors must know what to
do. They must be goal-oriented, reserved and must take into account
the example that they set for society. After all, there is a sense of
taste and if there is such taste, there is also art," said Sargsyan.

As far as the current morals and manners in theater are concerned, Sos
Sargsyan says that the reason for the current situation is that the
new generation was not sufficiently educated.

"There are many young irresponsible artists today. They star in soap
operas and I look at that as a way of making money. But actors who are
always in the public eye must have a sense of responsibility and know
how far they can go," said Sargsyan.

According to him, the new generation lacks the awareness that they are
the proprietors of their country. Nevertheless, actors are optimistic
because they see today’s youth as progressive, knowledgeable and
patriotic. Sargsyan only advised future actors to communicate with the
world and take everything that is useful.

The great actor said that he was concerned about the lack of Armenian
plays. "Unfortunately, we don’t have playwrights like Sundukyan,
Paronyan and Shirvanzade. I understand that dramaturgy is a difficult
genre and that it requires a lot of time which current writers don’t
want to spend. But it is necessary to do everything to let Armenians
see what Armenian national theater is," said Sos Sargsyan.

According to the actor, actors are not the only ones to blame because
there is a lack of deserving audiences. "Once I said that Armenians
don’t love theater and people got offended. But that’s the truth.
Armenians today don’t want to go through the trouble of sitting in a
theater for two hours to see a play. It is boring for them. Being a
spectator is also a profession. There is no connection if spectators
don’t have the same feeling as the actor does," said Sargsyan.

Sos Sargsyan said that 2009 was a successful year for his Pan-National
Theater. "We put on 4 plays and we have more and more audiences," said
Sargsyan.

In the end, the actor wished that the dreams of the new generation of
actors come true in the year to come.