Birutė Mar (Marcinkevičiūtė) was born on March 23, 1969, in Kaunas, Lithuania. She studied at the Juozas Naujalis Secondary School of Arts in Kaunas, specializing in piano. From 1988 to 1993, she studied at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK, Russia), where she received a diploma in theatre and film acting in 1991 and a diploma in theatre directing in 1993. Her graduation directing project was Samuel Beckett’s play “Happy Days”, staged at the Kaunas State Drama Theatre in 1993. Her acting debut in Lithuania was the role of Polina in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Gambler” at the Lithuanian State Russian Drama Theatre in 1991.
From 1994 to 2025, Birutė Mar was an actress of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre ensemble, performing in productions by directors such as Jonas Vaitkus, Rimas Tuminas, Irena Bučienė, Kazimiera Kymantaitė, Lino Zappia, Vytautas V. Landsbergis, Cezaris Graužinis, and others. In 1995, she published her first poetry collection, “Unsent Letters”.
In 1997–1998, after receiving the Bunkacho scholarship (Japan), Birutė Mar studied traditional Japanese Nihon-Buyo dance, contemporary Butoh dance, and Noh theatre techniques in Tokyo. After returning to Lithuania, she published the travel diary book “Kokoro: Japanese Moments”, which won the short prose competition organized by the Vaga publishing house in 1999. Her later creative work was also influenced by an internship at the international theatre research center in Holstebro, Denmark, founded by Danish director Eugenio Barba, as well as seminars and internships in ancient theatre in Greece and Cyprus, and studies of Rudolf Laban’s dance philosophy and practice in London.
From the very beginning of her creative career, Birutė Mar distinguished herself through a subtle and poetic theatrical language. She sought an authentic stage expression that combined text, theatre, music, and dance. Her first experimental dance-theatre projects, in which she also debuted as a choreographer, “Train People” (1996), “Airplane People” (1997), and “Antigone and Birds” (1998), were presented at the first contemporary dance festivals organized in Lithuania at the time. These works also attracted the attention of international festivals and were presented in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.
The first solo performance by Birutė Mar, “Words in the Sand”, based on Samuel Beckett’s play “Happy Days”, was created in 1998 on the small stage of the Academic Drama Theatre (now the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre). For this debut solo performance, the young actress was nominated for the St. Christopher Award as “Best Young Artist.” “Words in the Sand” marked the beginning of Birutė Mar’s international and distinctive theatrical journey. After winning awards at several international solo performance festivals in 1998–1999, the production began a theatrical voyage that lasted for more than two decades across international theatre festivals. Thus, beneath the roof of the then Academic Drama Theatre, Birutė Mar’s quietly and consistently developed authorial theatre was born. The success of “Words in the Sand” was followed by later solo performances such as “The Lover” based on the novel by Marguerite Duras and “Antigone” based on Sophocles, which continued to receive awards at European and international chamber theatre festivals. These productions earned the actress and creator recognition as a unique solo performance artist, and at international theatre festivals she began to be referred to as the “queen of solo theatre.” Over more than thirty years of creative work, Birutė Mar’s performances have been presented in over thirty countries worldwide. In 2010, the book “Birutė Mar. Bez maski. Be kaukės. Unmasked” by L. Armonaitė was published in Wrocław, Poland, in Polish, English, and Lithuanian, presenting the creative work of the Lithuanian actress. In 2014, Birutė Mar received the prestigious award from the International Theatre Institute (ITI) and the Fujairah International Monodrama Festival (United Arab Emirates) “for contribution to the development of one-person theatre.”
In 2018, Birutė Mar together with fellow artists founded the independent Solo Theatre, where she revived significant performances previously created at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and developed new productions based on her own dramaturgy, inspired by the destinies of historical figures and unique documentary material. Solo Theatre is a creative laboratory in which, according to Birutė Mar, “the actor performs the solo part as the most important instrument in the orchestra of a performance.”
Today, the motto of Solo Theatre could be “THEATRE AS LIVING HISTORY” – on stage, Birutė Mar vividly brings to life the destinies of historical figures, including Lithuanian writers Salomėja Nėris, Jonas Biliūnas, Marija Pečkauskaitė-Šatrijos Ragana, actresses Unė Babickaitė and Monika Mironaitė, as well as European artists such as George Sand, Frédéric Chopin, and Clara Schumann. Solo Theatre also continues to present the autobiographical performance “Ice Children”, which has become a classic of Lithuanian chamber theatre. The production, which premiered at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in 2014, was created based on the memories of the author’s parents and other Lithuanian deportees in Siberia.
Today, the repertoire of Solo Theatre includes fifteen productions. Birutė Mar collaborates with renowned Lithuanian artists and talented actors. A distinctive and unique feature of the founder’s theatrical work is the longevity of the performances. Feeling the pulse of a constantly changing present, the author continually renews dramaturgy, directing, and acting accents, searching for connections between history and contemporary reality, and creating an intense theatrical experience that exists here and now together with the audience.
Birutė Mar also collaborates with a number of other cultural organizations. She performs roles at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, acts in films, directs operas, writes librettos and publications for the Lithuanian cultural press on theatre, dance, and cinema, as well as travel essays. She has published ten books, including poetry, essays, and prose for children, and has participated in international literary events and festivals in Latvia, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, the United States, Ireland, Estonia, and Sweden. She has been a member of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union since 2000, a member of the Lithuanian Actors Guild, and a member of the Lithuanian Contemporary Dance Association. She also holds the official status of an artist in Lithuania.
Major awards in Lithuania: the Medal of the Order for Merits to Lithuania awarded by the Republic of Lithuania (2018), the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Prize for Culture and Art (2020), and the highest award of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, “Carry Your Light and Believe” (2021).
More about the creative work of Birutė Mar: www.birutemar.lt