International Theater Festival "COM•MEDIA"

The Alytus City Theater is quite young and located in the region where were no theatrical traditions before its establishment. So the Theater brought together the creators of stage art and took an important task in this region - to educate the audience, to teach theatrical language, to develop the habit of visiting the theater. For that purpose, in 2012 the festival "Tegyvuoja komedija" was initiated. The chosen uniqueness of the genre - a comedy festival - determined its appeal to a relatively narrow segment of the audience. The festival became a favorit of the middle generation.

Due to the definition of the festival's genre and the lack of budget performances of high artistic level and performances from abroad were not presented to the cultural audience. This has drawn criticism from more intelligent theater fans and in 2017 the festival underwent significant structural transformations in its program and communication strategy. This affected its name as well - from now it is called COM•MEDIA.

A number of a high artistic level performances are created every year, but they reach only a very small part of the regional audience.

Alytus City Theater organizes the theater festival COM•MEDIA to promote the accessibility of performing arts and introduce the theater audience to the latest performances. That way theater aims not only to expand immediate audience, but also gradually turn it into its loyal audience.

Every November the Alytus City Theater becomes the epicenter of performing arts. Theater festival COM•MEDIA is the biggest autumn cultural event in the Southern Lithuania region, the main program of which consists of a dozen competitive performances.

Realizing the special importance of impeccable program content at the festival, since this is how a favorable relationship between the audience, the organizer and the participant is created, COM•MEDIA has been expanding the boundaries of the comedy genre for some time, not avoiding tragicomedies, farce or even "uncomfortable" theater with surrealism and absurdity elements, but looks for and invites performances from foreign countries that have already won recognition at European theater festivals.

Thanks to the high-value content of the program, a favorable relationship between the audience, the organizer and the participant is created. Understanding this, the COM•MEDIA festival has been expanding the boundaries of the comedy genre for some time (not avoiding tragicomedies, farce or even "uncomfortable" theater with elements of surrealism and absurdity), looking for and inviting performances from foreign countries that have already won recognition at European theater festivals.

After diversifying its activities a few years ago, the festival created separate youth and children's programs. COM•MOON•A - "partisan opposition to the classical theater", questioning the place of alternative stage art in postmodern and post-dramatic theater. During the night session of theatrical events, the spaces of the entire theater building, not bypassing the basements or the roof, are filled by young theater forces from Lithuania and abroad. Provocative performances, interactive creative workshops, readings, cultural (ex)courses, film sessions and other take place here. In the early morning live discussion named the "Critic's scrambled egg" invites the audience and sprinkles the pepper of criticism.

The expansion of the perimeter of COM•MEDIA festival products (programs for audiences of different ages and cultural experiences, diversity of genres, educational and experimental type activities, format) determines the processes of audience development and artistic education.

To establish and maintain long-term relations with the young audience (for what the quality of first contacts with art are extremely important ) is the most wished result. That’s why the little ones are invited to special program for children COM@, which has grown significantly and expanded to 3 days, where 3-4 performances, creative workshops and round table discussions "Apskrita COM@" take place every day.

Playwrights Competition and readings and the Republican Theater Poster Competition are gaining more and more quality by presenting new names and events to the locals and guests of Alytus.

By creating additional identity meanings for the region and the city, the COM•MEDIA festival is an important highlight of the cultural life of the region, looking for its niche in the sky of Lithuanian theatrical life and striving to be an outpost of contemporary theater in festival culture in the eyes of both older and younger viewers.