Young Armenian actors back from intn’l festival with prize for most original play

Armenian students who recently took part in the 29th international film festival “Stage Lightening” (in France), have returned with a prize for the most active and original performance.

The young actors, who are senior students at the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinematography, won the award for the performance “The Capture of Tmuk Fortress” (by Hovhannes Tumanyan).

Also, a recent graduate, Alen Malatyan, was recently honored with a presidential award for the film “Girl on the Moon”, the institute’s pro-rector, Narine Sargsyan, told a news conference on Tuesday.

“The educational and creative processes in our institution are absolutely accomplished, so we can join international competitions and return with a victory,” she said.

Ruben Babayan, an artistic director at the Hovhannes Tumanyan Puppet Theater, said their performance was rated as the best among all the plays selected for the festival. He said the shortage of financial means restricted the choice of transport to only a minirobus which, however, enabled the group to see eight different countries. “There was a great assistance by the Ministry of Culture and the Puppet Theater. And we were also able to collect some money,” he added. 

“A good job is the underlying reason of everything. If not the interesting and unique performance, all our efforts would have been no use. This also additionally proves another very important thing: that we have very good works because we are able to make them presentable. To have something good is not enough; it is important to also have the talent to present it. Judging by our theater’s experience, I can say that we do really have the right to talk to the world on a peer-to-peer basis,” he said, extending further his gratitude to the French-Armenian community for support.

Noting that participation alone is already a considerable achievements in creative art, Babayan said he finds that the award brought from the festival demonstrates that their work was very actual and demanded.

Artashes Babayan, a student who was involved in the organizational activities, noted that Armenia was one of the nine participating states selected from a list 100 countries that had applied for the festival. He added that the French side had partially covered the food and accommodation fees of the Armenian actors.