Karolis Kaupinis won the LNDT International Playwrights Residency competition Culture

This year, the project continues with the addition of another partner – the Zagreb Youth Theater.

This week it became clear that director and screenwriter Karolis Kaupinis will represent the Lithuanian National Drama Theater this year. He won the competition, which received applications from 16 participants.

Aleksandras Aleksandravičius photo/Karolis Kaupinis

The ideas submitted by the playwrights were evaluated by a commission, which included: Eglė Švedkauskaitė, one of the artistic directors of LNDT, theater expert Rimgailė Renevytė, cultural projects manager of LNDT, Vidas Bizunevičius, one of the creators of this program, director Augustas Gornatkevičius and manager of LNDT cultural projects, Agnė Pulokaitė, curator of the European residency program.

“When choosing the winner, we engaged in very interesting and difficult discussions. They were provoked not only by the applications of the participants, but also by the (under)estimation of dramaturgy, as an extremely important craft in the creative process of the theater, which caused an echo in the public space. The committee voted by awarding points, but we talked not only regarding those who collected the most points – we had to discuss and reconsider the ambition of the competition – to invest in the education of beginning playwrights, to find the idea that most accurately corresponds to the artistic program of the theater or to reward the best idea.

Karolis Kaupinis’ proposal appeared to us to be the best developed and in line with the theme of this year’s competition. By observing the works of this creator, we hope that the presentation of a relevant and important text is waiting for the “Versmė” festival next fall. We will also try to find ways to cooperate with other participants who submitted applications, whose professional growth we want to support”, says one of the members of the commission, Eglė Švedkauskaitė.

This year, playwrights were invited to submit ideas on the theme “And the light following darkness”. “This is not a naive invitation to close our eyes to reality, hoping that by not seeing the evils they will cease to exist.

Rather, it is an invitation to rethink the “everything goes to hell” attitude from a different perspective, raising the question: everything is going to hell, but where in this trajectory is the opportunity to act and change the final stop? Where is that space between cynicism and naivety? Therefore, in times of darkness, we urge you to look for glimmers of light, hope, empowerment to act, resistance to despair, strength in individuals, communities, the past, here and there”, said Agnė Pulokaitė regarding the topic.

The commission evaluated the artistic and cultural value of the ideas presented by the contestants, the originality and relevance of the ideas, the correspondence to the topic, motivation, the candidate’s professionalism and experience.

Karolis Kaupinis, who won the competition, focuses on the feelings caused by contemporary issues in his work: “For me, the most interesting aspiration in the theater is trying to touch eternity, because by its nature this branch of art is the most ephemeral.

It is the basic human desire to surpass the temporary self. And the temporality of everything is now my essential feeling. I have a feeling it’s not just mine. It seems to me that fear of extinction (namely collective extinction, not just individual death) is now the elephant in the crystal room. So where, if not in a temporary theater, should you try to talk regarding that feeling.”

LNDT representative Karolis Kaupinis has as many as 4 dramaturgy residencies, the first of which will take place in Madrid in April. In June, all authors of this year will meet in Brussels, in August – in Berlin, and in November – in Vilnius.

During the residency, the text created by Karolis Kaupinis will be presented in autumn at the dramaturgy festival “Versmė” organized by LNDT. Karolis Kaupinis (b. 1987) – film director, screenwriter, journalist.

Completed master’s studies in comparative politics at Vilnius University. After completing his studies, he worked as a foreign news editor at the Lithuanian National Radio and Television, hosted and produced the program “Pasaulio Panorama”. Karolis Kaupinis’ first short film “Triukšmadarys” was selected for the competition program of the Locarno International Film Festival and won the “Silver Crane” award as the best film of 2015. short movie.

The director’s debut feature film “Nova Lituania”, for which he also wrote the script, was released in 2019. was selected for the “East of the West” program of the Karlovy Vary festival, won the Athens and Riga film festivals, and in 2021 At the National Film Awards, the film was nominated in 12 categories and won a total of nine awards, including Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay.

He debuted on the stage as a director with the piece “Radvila Darius, Vytauto” – a lively dialogue between music performed live by four instrumentalists and LRT video archives. in 2022 in autumn, the work was shown in the program of the “Sirenas” theater festival, in 2023. – in the “Jeunes scenes europeennes” program of the Maillon theater in Strasbourg.

K. Kaupini’s second feature film as director and screenwriter “Breakfast of the Starving” will be released soon. For the past few years, K.Kaupinis has worked as the director of the permanent exhibition in the Town Hall section of the Kaunas City Museum, which will open in 2024.