Saulius Mykolaitis (January 15, 1966 – February 18, 2006) was a Lithuanian director, actor, and singer-songwriter (

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

Life

Saulius Mykolaitis was born in

Ramygala Ramygala (, literally "quiet end") is a town in Lithuania. It is located some south from Panevėžys on the banks of the Upytė River, a tributary to the Nevėžis River. According to 2017 estimate, it had 1,440 residents. Etymology The name R ...

, a small town in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. His parents died while he was still studying at school. Saulius was raised by two older brothers Sigitas and Darius who bought him his first guitar when he was just seven years old. Saulius Mykolaitis started singing and creating songs at school. After graduating he entered Music Academy of Lithuania in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. Initially he studied singing, but soon moved to acting. From 1988 to 1992, Saulius Mykolaitis studied at the Music Academy of Lithuania under Professor Dalia Tamulevičiūtė and received a Bachelor's degree in Scene Art (Acting). In 1995 he decided to study for a Master's degree and in 1996 acquired qualification as theatre director. Mykolaitis committed suicide in 2006 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Theatrical career

From 1992 to 1994, Mykolaitis worked in Vilnius' National Mažasis (The Small) Theatre. From 1994 until the end of his life Saulius Mykolaitis was a member of Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and also collaborated with Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre. Through the years Mykolaitis created over 20 roles. The most famous were

Mercutio Mercutio ( , ) is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, ''Romeo and Juliet''. He is a close friend to Romeo and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, Mercutio is one of the named characters in the ...

in K. Antanėlis' musical "Love and Death in Verona" (director Eimuntas Nekrošius), Roberto Zucco in

Bernard-Marie Koltès Bernard-Marie Koltès (; ; 9 April 1948 – 15 April 1989) was a French playwright and theatre director best known for his plays ''La Nuit juste avant les Forêts'' (''The Night Just Before the Forests'', 1976), ''Sallinger'' (1977) and ''Dans ...

' eponymous play (director Oskaras Koršunovas), Azzazelo in

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( ; rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright. His novel ''The M ...

's "

The Master and Margarita ''The Master and Margarita'' () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in ''Moscow (magazine), Moscow'' magazine in ...

" (director Oskaras Koršunovas), The Painter in

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist, writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the ...

's "Europeans" (director Lary Zappia).

Directed plays

Mykolaitis was not only performing in other directors' plays. He directed – and received renown for – several productions himself, the most important being (in which he also played leads), "Stop Machine" and "The City". "Stop Machine" was based on Russian satirist's Daniil Charms' life and short stories, a performance that combined physical and psychological theatre. "Once Petrushevsky broke his watch and asked to call Pushkin. Pushkin came, took a look at Petrushevsky's watch and put it back on the chair. "So what do you say, brother Pushkin?" – asked Petrushevsky. "Stop machine," – said Pushkin." (Anecdotes from the life of Pushkin) * Daniil Charms. Stop Machine (Stop Mašina). LNDT, 2000 *

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Ivanov Ivanov, Ivanoff or Ivanow (masculine, , Sometimes the stress is on Ива́нов in Bulgarian if it is a middle name, or in Russian as a rare variant of pronunciation), or Ivanova (feminine, , ) is one of the most common surnames in Russia and Bu ...

(Ivanovas). LNDT, 2002 *

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

. Winnie The Pooh (Mikė Pūkuotukas). Keistuolių theatre, 2003 * Yevgeni Grishkovets. The City (Miestas). OKT (Theatre of Oskaras Koršunovas), 2005 *

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...

. The Little Prince (Mažasis Princas). LNDT, 2006

Film and music

Aside from theatre, Mykolaitis had three supporting film

role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indi ...

s. The last one was in "Dievų miškas" ( Forest of the Gods) (2005), a feature directed by Algimantas Puipa. Saulius Mykolaitis also wrote and performed songs in the genre of

sung poetry Sung poetry is a broad and imprecise music genre widespread in European countries, such as Poland and the Baltic States, especially Poland and Lithuania, to describe songs consisting of a poem (most often a ballad) and music written especially ...

, playing the guitar. His first album "Nieko Nepasakyta" ("Nothing's Said") was released in autumn 2005. Posthumously his songs for children's plays were collected in an album called "Nupiešti Pasaulį" ("To Draw the World") (2006), followed by a compilation "Debesys" ("The Clouds") (2007), consisting of non-professional live recordings.

References

External links

Official site of Saulius Mykolaitis (Lithuanian)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100313031827/http://www.teatras.lt/person_item.php?strid=1031&id=1654&1099=1101 Saulius Mykolaitis page at Lithuanian National Drama Theatre site (Lithuanian)
Watch "Roberto Zucco" online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mykolaitis, Saulius 1966 births 20th-century Lithuanian male singers Suicides in Lithuania People from Ramygala Musicians from Vilnius Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni 2006 suicides 2006 deaths Lithuanian guitarists