Armenia’s oldest Stepan Alikhanyan theatre located in the city of Gyumri staged 80 guest performances last year on occasion of its 80th anniversary. Art Director and head of the theatre, Levon Baghdasaryan, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am correspondent. 

But the main event in honor of the theatre’s 80th anniversary wasn’t held in any specific place since the building of the theatre hasn’t yet been renovated. Apart from this, the Ministry of Culture hasn’t responded to their letter requesting to award the title of Honored Artist to the talented actors of the theatre.  Thus, they decided to hold the event next year, when the building is hopefully renovated and the artists are awarded the title which they deserve.

“The jubilee will be entitled “80+1.” We think this is an interesting solution,” Baghdasaryan said.

Referring to the performances staged last year, the director said they had an unusual staging. “This was the performance “Little Red Riding Hood” in Armenian and German. It turned out to be very interesting. The audience also took part in the performance: the children prompted the wolf the German words they had just learnt. The new character, the robot, speaks in Armenian and the wolf wants to turn it off, pushes a wrong button and the robot starts speaking in Armenian, and thus the audience “has to” translate for the wolf. Thanks to my modest knowledge of German, the text of the performance was written and the performance was staged before the arrival of the specialist from Germany. Consequently, he applauded to the theatre staff,” said Baghdasaryan.

The performance was written in cooperation with the German Embassy in Armenia and the Berlin Art Hotel. The initiative will continue in 2016. “Inspired with the success of the “Little Red Riding Hood,” we decided to stage a performance only in German and make a guest performance in Germany. To promote the Armenian culture and literature, we have chosen the tale “The tailless fox” by Hovhannes Tumanyan. The proceeds will be spent on the renovation of the theatre building with the help of German partners,” the director noted.