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YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. Humans have always been attracted to the tricks of light and shadow. Historical sources witness that there were not few Armenian actors in the 17th century shadow theaters popular in the Ottoman Empire. There is a group of people committed to this who became captured by shadow theater 35 year ago. To this day they have been preserving the heritage of our ancestors and developing it.
“Ayrogi” shadow theater staff is composed of members of “Ayrudzi” Riding Club founded in the early 80s. Ashot Sargsyan prefers to introduce himself as commander of “Ayrudzi”.
“The riding club was created in the years of Ethnography awakening when many groups were created. But our aim was different we were neither ethnographers, nor singers, nor dancers. We wanted to practice equestrianism, restore equestrian games and find samples of a forgotten culture. The main staff was made of boys from the Polytechnic Institute; there were also representatives from the Institute of Theatre. In 1984 the Polytechnic Institute purchased horses and a horse riding club was founded in Balahovit. National Center of Aesthetics of Henrik Igityan, as well as some ethnographers also made efforts to restore shadow theater. And we were troubadours; we needed neither stage, nor ticket sales. We were good with a curtain at a barn.”
After a pause of 25 years “Ayrogi” again shows performances based on Armenian folktales.
Some Armenian shadow theater performances of the 19th century are included in the repertoire of “Ayrogi”. They were preserved and restored in Armenia in 1960s by Khachatur Tumasyan and Melkonyan Hovhannes. Part of theater puppets are the duplicates of Khachatur Tumasyan puppets. The latter continue playing the sketches created by their master. Currently the original puppets are in Sardarapat Museum.
By Anahit Minasyan