The reason for this is simple – lack of funding. THE DAY found out about it more from Yaroslav FEDORYSHYN, founder and director of the international theater festival, art director of Lviv Academic Theater Voskresinnia. He told us: “It seems like no one needs the Golden Lion. We spoke with both city and oblast authorities and with the Ministry of Culture. They promise miserable funding of 20,000 to 80,000 hryvnias, while 1,600,000 is needed to hold forum. Recently I’ve been in meetings all the time in search of money and sponsors, but still nothing comes out of it. It is very sad that I’ve lived with Golden Lion 23 years and now it turns out that nobody needs it.”
Fedoryshyn has had all the documents ready long time ago and on paper it all looks good. This year he did titanic organizational work and planned to gather under his festival roof many interesting projects and original artists. Golden Lion 2012 is dedicated to the 125th birth anniversary of the legendary director Les Kurbas. According to the preliminary plan the festival would begin on September 27 and would last 10 days with participation of the theaters from Austria, Belarus, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Luhansk, and Kharkiv). Stage areas – Maria Zankovetska Theater, Les Kurbas Theater, First Ukrainian Theater for Children and Youth, and Theater Voskresinnia have already been assigned. The program also includes several street performances as well as fire installation and theatrical performance in memory of Les Kurbas. Will the audience see all this?
Meanwhile Theater Voskresinnia participated in festivals in Belgium, Germany, and Poland with performances of The Cherry Orchard and Meet Prospero. In every place Lviv artists were very well received. The theater plans trips to prestigious international festivals in Copenhagen and Prague, as well as performance in home country (in Zhytomyr, Donetsk, and Mariupol they will stage plays Gloria and Sleeping Princess) in the near future. Voskresinnia Theater is also preparing for the new theater season which begins on September 21. In this season the audience will see the premier of the play Locusts written by the modern Serbian playwright Biljana Srbljanovic. According to Fedoryshyn, the author in her play contemplates extremely simple and at the same time eternal themes: parents, children, God, land, hatred, and love.
