The stage of the theater has been dismantled

ArmInfo.  The space created for the creative activities of the <GOY> Theater has been converted into a venue for other purposes. This was reported on his Facebook page by director and chairman of the board of the <GOY> Theater Sargis Arzumanyan.

He said that the stage of the <GOY> Theater had been dismantled, and that a new venue called the <Free Stage> was being opened in its place.

<And here the issue is no longer the name or the opening of a new cultural venue, but what happened to the promises made over the course of several months by the government, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, and the management of the Sundukyan Theater>, the director asked.

He recalled that the authorities had said that the <GOY> Theater was not being closed, but would remain in its place and continue operating. However, the reality they had to face was entirely different.

<If the <GOY> Theater has not been closed, then where is the stage of the <GOY> Theater? If <GOY> is to <continue operating in its place>, then why was its stage dismantled and the space converted? This is no longer a matter of comments, but of facts.

And there is another significant circumstance here.  The court proceedings concerning the <GOY> Theater have not yet been completed. There is no final judicial act that would definitively close the legal chapter of this dispute. At the same time, the proceedings concerning the contested decisions and the registrations carried out on their basis should also be considered precisely in the context of these unfinished court proceedings.

Therefore, it is more than strange that while the court proceedings are still ongoing, the <GOY> space is already effectively being converted and presented as another theater venue. It is precisely this reality that society should see>, Arzumanyan noted.

Let us recall that in May 2023, the Government of Armenia decided to include the Armen Mazmanyan National Experimental Center of Performing Arts <Goy> in the structure of the G.  Sundukyan National Academic Theater as a division.

The explanatory justification for this decision stated that the reorganization of the theater would contribute to the concentration of professional resources and the development of the potential of the organizations in question, as well as stimulate an increase in financial resources.  The decision was aimed at making more effective and targeted use of the creative potential of the <Goy> Theater. The government also noted that the reports of the "Goy" Center for recent years showed that the failure to meet financial and non-financial indicators had become a regular occurrence.

The <Goy> Theater does not agree with the government’s decision and is challenging it in court.

If necessary, representatives of the Theater said they intended to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

In addition, the Theater’s collective expressed no confidence in Karen Simonyan, the acting director appointed by the relevant ministry. The decision was recorded in the minutes adopted during the Theater’s general meeting. In particular, the Assembly decided not to recognize Karen Simonyan as the acting director of the Theater, given that the latter’s actions were unlawful and did not proceed from the interests of the entire collective.

At the same time, the Assembly decided to establish a Management Council, which is authorized to approve the organization’s activity programs and internal regulatory documents, and to exercise other powers that do not contradict the law of the Republic of Armenia.

Since October 2024, members of Goy have been holding protests and spending several nights in their home theater, demanding that the authorized bodies resolve the situation. And already in early November, the Goy Theater issued a statement saying that the Ministry of Justice had effectively established that the theater’s activities had been illegally suspended for nine months. <Therefore, starting November 4 at 11:00, the "GOY" Theater will resume normal operations until the final court decision in this case. We hope that the director of the G.  Sundukyan National Academic Theater will not obstruct these intentions and will comply with the requirements of the law>, the statement said.

However, speaking with journalists that same day, Sundukyan Theater Director Vardan Mkrtchyan noted that no decision had been made to resume the theater’s operations. He emphasized that such a decision could be made exclusively by the court.

In December 2024, in order to protect the theater’s cultural heritage, members of Goy initiated the signing of a petition aimed at forcing state bodies to reconsider their decisions and ensure the uninterrupted operation of the Theater. The collective statement said that the <Goy> Theater had for many years been an important center of laboratory­experimental art, becoming a platform for self-expression for many actors, directors and other creative people. <We cannot afford to lose this valuable cultural center.  Your support can change the situation>, the statement read.