Actress I. Labanauskaitė, who has long observed the war of words, decided to break the silence and look at everything with different eyes.
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She expressed her position on the social network “Facebook” and agreed to share the post with Žmonės.lt.
“I am an actress at the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre. During five years of working at the theatre, I have not experienced any mobbing. On the contrary – I have always felt a respectful, professional, and humane relationship from the theatre’s director Antanas Venckus.
I am amazed that those who, to put it mildly, do not stand out in their professional and “extracurricular” activities, speak the loudest about respect and professionalism towards the audience, colleagues, and the theatre community. Unless that respect is earned by arriving late to performances in which you act, without even notifying about it. Or maybe the respect that is so often talked about is created by making other colleagues wait during already scheduled rehearsals, taking advantage of the fact that the director is accommodating and lenient?
It is normal that in any workplace challenges arise regarding work organization, rest, and agreement on remuneration. Is it right to attack the theatre director and personally accuse him publicly of lack of dialogue? As far as I know, the evidence held by the theatre states otherwise.
It is frightening to see how easily a person’s reputation can be destroyed with the help of the media and opinion makers, a person who, in my opinion, quite patiently and understandingly, having evaluated all circumstances, tries to understand every stage professional.
I would like to ask everyone who is watching this situation from the outside not to rush to make far-reaching conclusions, blindly accuse the theatre management, or, even more so, bury the theatre itself.
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It’s a pity that there was no Facebook in Miltinis’ times…” – wrote I. Labanauskaitė.
Under this post, she received comments where people supported the actress for her courage.
“Respect for the courage, especially when on the other side of the barricades are experienced specialists who never get out of scandals or even courts, perfectly mastering the principle ‘he who shouts louder is right’,” wrote one woman.
“I have always admired you, Ieva! Thank you for your courage and tact!” – agreed another.
“Some neglected pain just burst out, gather yourselves, deal with your ego and decide whether the whole team stays in the theatre or becomes ‘free agents’ following basketball terminology. Administrators should understand this too. This situation is very unpleasant, but as a true theatre fan, I feel insulted by both sides of the conflict. You no longer love the theatre or us,” wrote a theatre fan with a different opinion.
We remind you that on Wednesday afternoon, on the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre’s Facebook page, it was announced that all performances of Aleksandr Shpilevoy’s famous play “Macbeth” were canceled. Although its premiere took place in 2024, the play was still drawing full houses, with all tickets sold out.
As actor T. Gryn told the portal Žmonės.lt, he left his full-time job at the Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre in July but wanted to continue acting in performances by simply changing the employment model. Unfortunately, according to him, he was unable to agree on a new contract with the management.
“I neither wanted to leave the play nor planned to do so. In fact, to be honest, I am a bit stunned that the theatre decided to cancel performances for which all tickets were sold out for all shows,” T. Gryn told Žmonės.lt.
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