Creators
The concept of the show
What was there before the beginning?
“Prologue. First Light” is a visual and musical narrative rooted in the metaphysical moment before our world came to be: an imagined state in which neither language nor imagery yet existed. Weaving together Christian, philosophical and poetic imagery, it rethinks the first line of the Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word”, and asks what came before the Word, in the absolute silence where the idea of Creation ripens.
This is not another story about an imagined beginning of the world. It is a ritual, meditative account of matter coming into being: zero time, light bursting through the vaults, the sound of the universe, and a person opening their eyes, head tilted back, gazing upward.
Dalius Abaris
Director and scenographer
Dalius Abaris, the author of the concept and the director of its imagery, brings music, architecture, light and technology together into a whole that draws the viewer in and changes how the surroundings are perceived.
The director has a record of realising ideas that go beyond the traditional stage. In the videographic concert “Dangaus konstruktorius” (The Sky Constructor) he joined music, dance, video projections and the space of the Kaunas sports hall. The television recording of that work reached the final of the international Prix Italia competition.
In “Prologue. First Light”, created in Palanga, D. Abaris goes further: light becomes the main character, and the whole space of the church becomes the work. Vaults, walls and columns merge into a story about the birth of light, the beginning of the world and a person’s gaze turned upward. Here Kipras Mašanauskas’s music acts as an equal partner to the light, creating rhythm, tension and moments of respite.
Visitors will feel images and sounds enveloping them from every side, and a shifting sense of the depth and height of the space. It will be 25 minutes of a chance to stop and step away from everyday life for a while. Restraint matters to the director: at times a barely perceptible flicker of light can affect more than an elaborate effect. So the visitor is invited to come with an open heart, to listen, to allow themselves to be surprised and to find their own meaning. D. Abaris’s aim is for people to take away a feeling that outlasts the images they saw and prompts them to look at a familiar space anew, more sensitively.
Kipras Mašanauskas
Composer
Wherever it sounds, the music of composer Kipras Mašanauskas is always more than a background of sound. What sets him apart is the ability to tell a story through music and give an emotional direction to what the audience sees and experiences. On stage, his music becomes a storyteller alongside the actors. In films it plays on the audience’s feelings like strings, and at events it gathers crowds into one shared sensation.
A laureate of the Golden Stage Cross and the Silver Crane, he finds a distinctive sound every time, one that seems made for that very action, space or image. He is a creator with long experience of unusual projects. K. Mašanauskas has worked with spatial sound since 1994. His range shows in music for feature films, musicals and the videographic concert “Dangaus konstruktorius” (The Sky Constructor). Such work calls for hearing the whole: how sound joins the image, how it changes the feel of a space, when it builds tension and when it lets you breathe. This experience makes K. Mašanauskas a composer for whom an unconventional idea is a creative opportunity.
Visitors to Light Waves will hear music that helps them become involved, awakens the imagination and heightens what they see. K. Mašanauskas’s experience ensures a close bond between the sound and the idea of the project. For the visitor it is an invitation to listen closely: to notice how the music shapes the mood, changes the meaning of what is seen and helps build a personal relationship with an experience that can open up differently for everyone.
