“Didelė lietuviška pasaka”. Photo by Šiauliai drama theatre archive 

The young director Eglė Kižaitė (b. 1991) studied theatre directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre from where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in 2014. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree. Together with her colleagues, she founded, and between 2012-2017 was a member of, Bad Rabbits, a syndicate of a broad artistic profile, embodied roles in the performances of this movement and directed performances. However, eventually, she decided to dedicate herself to creating theatre for the youngest audiences. In 2017, Kižaitė founded the Vėjų theatre (Wind Theatre), where she creates performances for children of all ages. Also, since 2019 she has been organising the children’s and youth literature festival Vaikų knygų sala (Children’s Book Island) of which she is an artistic director.

There are already two dozen drama, street and musical theatre performances in Kižaitė’s creative biography. About half of them are for children and young people. The director’s performances created in Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai are dedicated to young audiences of all ages: Kižaitė’s repertoire includes performances for both babies and young adults. Her performance for children Eglė the Queen of Serpents based on a Lithuanian folk tale, created at the Keistuolių theatre, received the award for the best directing at the international festival for theatre school students in Georgia.

Kižaitė has been acting in the performances of Bad Rabbits and Keistuolių theatre and regularly participating in educational activities.

One of Kižaitė’s latest works is the performance Didelė lietuviška pasaka (A Big Lithuanian Fairy Tale, 2019) created at the Šiauliai State Drama Theatre for children aged 5-10. Based on Monika Baranauskaitė’s play The Grandparents’ Tale, the performance combines the elements of such Lithuanian folk tales as Eglė the Queen of serpents, The twelve brothers, twelve black ravens, The sky is falling, How a Man Deceived the Devil, Three Brothers, A Flying Ship and Lukošiukas, and talks about the relationship between children and grandparents and its importance, as well as encourages children not to be afraid of sadness, anger and other emotions.