“Perhaps there can be a wider variety of theatres than sausages…”, said artistic director of the Puppet Theatre of Armenia Ruben Babayan and decided to found a new Union for Theatre Figures.
He’s certain that there has to be a variety of theatres, just like the stores and the variety of products today. “After all, we’re not suggesting that all political parties work as one, we’re not saying ‘let’s all live in one home, everyone cook his own food but let’s eat together,” says the director. He assures that when something new is done, that doesn’t mean that it’s being done to “hurt the other person”.
R. Babayan and the new union already have allies and one of them, Yervand Manaryan, thinks that it’s good to move forward and says that he’s not planning to join the union because that will simply be looked at as “silly” for someone his age. “You can’t do silly things in the 21st century. We are living in a time when everything is systemized; if you even sleep half a minute more, you’ll fall behind. Life is very short and you mustn’t waste time on stupid things.” Taking this into consideration, artistic director of the “Goy” theatre Armen Mazmanyan refused to join the new union. “I know that everyone’s going to say ‘they’re doing it for themselves’.” According to him, the system has started working and they are keeping in touch with foreign theatres via mail. He’s sure that they will get invitations and proposals, and there will also be the foundation of a law defense organization to protect the rights of actors and directors.
The ones responsible for coming up with the idea of founding a new union for theatre figures are Zhirair Dadasyan, Ara Yernjakyan, Armen Meliksetyan, Levon Abrahamyan, Arthur Ghukasyan: Rumors were flying around that Armen Elbakyan was also one of the founders, but during an interview Elbakyan said that in his opinion, all theatre unions and generally all similar organizations have already done their job. “As I see how the creative art unions are paid, it becomes clear that they can’t do any better,” he says. Elbakyan didn’t really like the comparison between theatres and sausages. “I’m not an expert in sausages,” he said.
It’s no doubt that the new union is going to need financial aid, but Ruben Babayan’s union still doesn’t have its own fund. In order to have a fund, the union has to go through legalities. “The union will organize discussions with all levels of society on theatre performances where there will be theatre critics, directors and actors. There were similar tries in Armenia 20 years ago, but today we only praise what we’ve had,” says R. Babayan, who says that Armenia needs the criticism of the art critics. The discussions and criticisms will help the theatre. “Otherwise, we’ll simply play in empty theatres,” he says. The elder actors/directors look at the foundation of this new union differently. In any case, let’s welcome the idea of founding a new union with the hope that it will be able to make more people go to the theatre.