The theme of loneliness is inextricably linked with children of bright and creative personalities, for whom their entire existence is a tribute to the high art of theater and cinema, and even the search for themselves and their place in life. Very often in such families it happens that parents are much happier than their children, many of which disappear in monotonous and unremarkable everyday life.
Family tree
The biography of Rokas Ramanauskas originates on the banks of the Venta River, where the small old Lithuanian town of Kursenai is located. On February 7, 1922, the future theater and film actor Antanas Gabrenas, the grandfather of Rokas, who looked like a grandson like two drops of water, was born in a modest house, comfortably nestled between two railway stations.
Genovait Tolkute-Gabrenene, who was born on December 23, 1923 in the city of Kaunas, at that time a former temporary capital of the Republic of Lithuania, was his only wife, a lady who was sophisticated and ambitious compared to a simple and modest husband from the hinterland.
She, like Antanas Gabrenas, was a theater and film actress, who later received the honorary title of Honored Artist of the Lithuanian SSR.
From their marriage, a daughter was born - actress Egle Gabrenaitė, the future mother of theater director Rokas Ramanauskas.
Mother
Despite the fact that the memorable roles in her creative life could be counted on the fingers of one hand, Egle herself always considered herself a happy actress. Even if only a few, but real and bright works - this is already a success, because many artists and this does not happen in their entire career.
Below on a photo - Egle Gabrenayte in youth.
Be that as it may, Egle became one of the most famous actresses in Lithuania and earned the title of People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR.
She was born on September 24, 1950 in Moscow. At that time, her parents were students of the Russian Institute of Theater Arts, young people who grew up in the profession and were always busy. Therefore, her grandfather and grandmother were engaged in the education of Egle. Those wonderful years were deposited in the memory of the actress, and the memories of already departed relatives bring an incomparable reassurance to her soul.
Father
Romualdas Ramanauskas woke up famous in 1980, as soon as the first episode of the legendary multi-part film “The Long Road in the Dunes” was released, in which he played the manufacturer Richard Lozberg.
The actor did not have any titles, which was more than compensated by the recognition of the audience and the peculiar "love" of the leadership. The thing is that, due to his appearance, high growth and innate officer bearing, he played mostly negative roles in films, most of which were screen images of fascists. Moreover, the Nazis in his performance turned out to be so convincing that, for example, after the release of Long Road in the Dunes, he was not the only one from the entire film crew to receive a prize. The management of the Riga film studio deleted his name from the accounting lists, stating:
Where has it been seen, so that bastards-manufacturers can give prizes! ..
Rokas Ramanauskas’s father was born on February 4, 1950 in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
He was brought up in an educated and intelligent family of a high-ranking parent who was in charge of communal services in the Vilnius City Council. Mom was a teacher and served in the local museum, from an early age instilling in her son a sense of beauty and aristocratic manners, later expressed in his cinematic images.
Romualdas from childhood did not like exact sciences and gravitated to the vocation of a journalist. However, the teacher, leading a group of amateur performances in which the future actor had already begun to stand out not only thanks to his outstanding growth, quickly set him on the right path, saying:
Romas, if you go against your stream of art, then you get stuck in the complex that you’re not living like that ...
A family
Romualdas Ramanauskas and Egle Gabrenaitė met during their student days at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, after which, in 1972, when they were husband and wife, they were accepted into the troupe of the National Drama Theater of Lithuania.
Here, in Vilnius, they weaved their family nest, which in 1970 their son Rokas made happy with his birth.
The boy grew up in a rather complicated creative atmosphere, repeating, in general, the most common destiny of acting children. It’s not for his son that his parents were completely out of business. No, of course they loved him very much. It’s just that they were never at home, and the education of little Rokas was mainly carried out by his grandfathers and grandmothers.
So ten years have passed.
Childhood and youth
Romualdas and Egle could not pass the ten-year crisis transitional age of their marriage. Their family life went wrong. Both of them were sought-after actors and sometimes did not see each other for months, each living their own life. In 1980, Romualdas left the family with one suitcase, leaving Egle an apartment and everything that they managed to amass during this time. He rarely saw his son Rokas. Their communication resumed only when his son grew up.
In the meantime, Rokas continued to be educated, on the one hand, in the acting and creative atmosphere created by grandmother Genovait and grandfather Antanas, and on the other, in the intelligent and sophisticated environment of his father and grandparents.
Egle Gabrenaite, in those infrequent days or even hours when she was free from ongoing work, tried to fill in all the gaps in her communication with her son. However, it was almost impossible to do this.
She was never the woman whose only calling was motherhood. Children were very tired and distracted from creativity. In addition, Rokas missed his father and sought communication with him, and she, his mother, seemed to fade into the background for him, which caused a certain jealousy on her part.
The profession of actress and mother has always been and remains practically incompatible.
Once, Egle accidentally overheard a conversation between Rokas and one of his classmates at a school holiday closer to graduation. Her son then said: "God, as I always wanted to have a mother who would always wait for him at home and bake pancakes. And for my mother, this is all foreign, because her life is a theater ..."
At this moment, Egle Gabrenaite first realized how much her child had not received from her. Since then, her attitude to her own son has changed dramatically. Since the best maternal years were already lost, all that Egle could do for her son was to become his girlfriend. Which was also very good in fact, because in the life of the future theater director Rokas Ramanauskas, there have subsequently come more than once moments when he even thanked his mother for such their relationship. It is no secret that as a result of the constant absence of parents, he grew up a rather reserved and not particularly sociable person, being an absolute introvert, hard converging with other people. Therefore, it was quite valuable to have a girlfriend in the person of a mother whom you could trust some secrets, consult with her and get support.
True, he came to such a relationship with his parents only when he had already grown up and decided to connect his life with the theater.
Student
Despite the fascination with the theater from an early age, Rokas did not immediately make such a decision, because from this temple of Melpomene he got not only creative pleasure, but also loneliness. Therefore, first after graduating from high school, he enters the Faculty of Philosophy of the oldest and largest higher educational institution of Lithuania - Vilnius State University. However, during the training in it, Rokas realized that he could not forget the theater.
After graduating from the university in 1993, the young philosopher enters the theater directing department of the Lithuanian Academy of Music, Theater and Cinema, the former State Conservatory.
Creation
After graduating from the academy, a novice introvert director, immersed in his own world and still looking for himself, a man who at that time turned twenty-seven at the time of the late 90s, began his career with the theatrical production of “Tell me you're dying” based on works of Jerome Salinger.
Then Rokas tried his hand in the play "About the Sky", which he staged to participate in the 1997 international project "Observatory", after which he got a job at the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, in which he worked with his father Romualdas for several years. Here, under his direction, performances such as "Mikhail Ugarov" and "Winter" based on the play by E. Grishkovets are released.
In 1999, the audience staged his theatrical production “Romas and Arunas”, dedicated to his father Romualdas and the famous Lithuanian actor Arunas Sakalauskas, who played the main roles in this performance.
In the photo - Romualdas Ramanauskas and Arunas Sakalauskas in a scene from the play "Romas and Arunas".
In 2001, the director participated in the Teaterformen International Theater Festival, held in German Braunschweig. At the same time, on the stage of the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, he released his play "The Last Ribbon of Crapp" based on the drama of Samuel Becket.
Kaunas Drama Theater entered the biography of Rokas Ramanauskas in 2003 with his production of “Donja Rosita or Flower Language”.
The walls of this theater at different times include such directorial works of Ramanauskas as “Ten Little Indians” based on the work of the same name by Agatha Christie, “Tears of Peter von Kant” and many others.
Also in 2005, Rokas tried himself as an actor, starring in the short dramatic film "Lithuanian Beauty".
Personal life of Rokas Ramanauskas
In 1998, Rokas was overtaken by a big and bright love. He repeats the story of his parents, falling in love with a colleague in the shop. His chosen one was the honored artist of Russia Tatyana Lutaeva, who became famous after her debut role in the television series “Midshipmen, Go!” 1987 year.
Tatyana was 7 years older than Rokas and was already raising her daughter from her first marriage, Agniya Ditkovskite, who later became a popular film actress. Agnia’s relationship with Ramanauskas did not improve right away. For a long time, the girl did not even go near the new dad when he took her out of school, lagging behind him no less than 100 meters. However, the reason for this behavior of the child, as it turned out later, was only the winter hat of Rokas, which Agnia somehow did not like.
1999 brought the young family of Rokas Ramanauskas the son of Dominic, in his childhood very similar to the Little Prince from the legendary fairy tale Exupery.
However, after the birth of a son, at first the completely happy marriage of Rokas and Tatyana Lutaeva lasted only 5 years.
The young spectacular actress had many fans and was very much in demand in the movies. Here, in Lithuania, when she married the director, she, as it seemed to her, seemed to be in a cage, believing that her husband doubts her acting abilities. In addition, Rokas, who speaks Russian very poorly and could hardly change any situation, refused to move to Moscow, where his wife called him. Gradually, professional contradictions grew into personal ones, and in 2004 the couple broke up.
Our days
For many years, Rokas could not get rid of the memories of his once beloved wife. They parted quite badly, became almost enemies.
Only after 6 years he was able to afford for the first time after the divorce to meet with Tatyana and son Dominic. His former family all went well. Fame, fame, shooting and relevance.
In the photo - Dominic Ramanauskas with his mother Tatyana Lutaeva.
He continued his quiet measured life in his native Lithuania. He puts on plays, spending almost all his time in the theater. He became a real submarine, the Nautilus, on board which only his girlfriend Sofia (pictured below) and his parents were allowed access.
Looking at his son Dominic during their infrequent and short-lived meetings, he recalls himself at his age. His child is exactly the same introvert, like him, watching everyone from the side. Father is ready to give him everything he has, but Dominica no longer needs it.
Rokas understands that if another person becomes more important to you than your own son, then you once did something wrong.