Photo by Tomas Kauneckas

Teklė Kavtaradzė (b. 1990) is a playwright and screenwriter. She graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The author’s first book was published while she was still at school, while her first finished play Namisėda, arba Kambarys pilnas personažų (Homebody, or a Room Full of Characters) won the Versmė competition in 2011 and was staged at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre (directed by G. Tuminaitė in 2012). The author prefers the topics of adolescence, the spirit of youthful rebellion, and characters who are growing up and searching for themselves. Since 2017, Kavtaradzė has been working with young Lithuanian theatre directors: she created the dramaturgy of the play Apie baimes (About Fears, the State Youth Theatre) with Olga Lapina, and “translated” Danguolė Kandrotienė’s Spintos istorijos (Wardrobe Stories) and Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio into the language of contemporary theatre (the plays Kaime nėra Wi-Fi – No Wi-Fi in the Village and Pinocchio, Vilnius Lėlė Theatre) with Šarūnas Datenis. She also worked as a playwright for the theatre performance Sapnavau sapnavau (I Dreamt, I Dreamt) which explores the lives of prisoners. 

The play Keletas pokalbių apie (Kristų) (A Few Conversations About (Christ), written in 2013 for the Versmė competition, is the playwright’s second dramatic work. It has been presented not only in Lithuania but also in Latvia. The play is composed solely of dialogues and monologues, analysing the relationships of contemporary young people and their attempt at intimacy. The characters of the play are lost between knowledge and ignorance, faith and unfaithfulness, closeness and longing… Directed by Tadas Montrimas, the play had a long run at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.