Kaunas State Drama Theatre

The Kaunas State Drama Theatre is the biggest theatre in Kaunas, and one of the oldest functioning theatres in Lithuania. There are six different creative spaces for events in the Kaunas Drama Theatre.

Its beginnings date to the 1920s, when the Lithuanian Artists' Association established drama and opera playhouses. The first play performed by the Kaunas Drama Theatre was Hermann Sudermann's St. John's Day, directed by Juozas Vaičkus, premiering on December 19, 1920, in the former Russian City Theatre, in what is now the Kaunas State Musical Theatre. The company was the only professional theatre organization in Lithuania until 1931, when its branch opened in Šiauliai.

Dramas shared the house with opera, and in 1925 they were joined by ballet. At that time the theatre was renamed "State Theatre". Most of the actors initially came from Juozas Vaičkus' Flying Theatre, founded in 1918 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

After some reforms, Konstantinas Glinskis became its new manager. In 1926 he was forced out by the new manager, Antanas Sutkus, along with many other actors. Sutkus brought in actors from the defunct Vilkolakis and Tautos theatres.

In 1928 Sutkus was replaced by Jurgis Savickis, who in 1929 invited Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas from the Moscow Art Theatre. Oleka-Žilinskas sought to improve performances using the methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, and as part of this goal, he invited the renowned Mikhail Chekhov to join the theater. Together they trained young actors and established The Young Theatre; although their work was acclaimed by critics, the broader public showed little appreciation. Later Oleka-Žilinskas was forced to leave the theatre.

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