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The VII Leonid Yengibaryan International Mime Festival was cancelled this year amid lack of financial support from Armenia’s Ministry of Culture.

Speaking at a news conference on 27 August, Minister of Culture Lilit Makunts said an agreement had been reached between Founder and Artistic Director of Yerevan State Pantomime Theater Zhirayr Dadasyan and former Culture Minister Armen Amiryan to hold the festival every two years since the annual financial support to the festival had been cut down to 8 million drams from 16 million.  

“This has been their joint agreement. This was the year when the festival was not to take place,” she said.

The theatre head, however, states no such agreement exists between the Pantomime Theater and the ex-minister. “We have not had such a deal. We have reached an agreement with Mr. Armen Amiryan to organize the festival with 8 million drams in 2017 by pressing its program. Mr. Amiryan promised for his part it would be organized in full in 2018,” he stressed.

Dadasyan stated when they realized the ministry did not plan to finance this year’s Yengibaryan International Mime Festival, they proposed to cancel it in order to ensure its proper conduct next year, at least.

He also commented on Minister Makunts’s proposal to rent the building of Metro Theater located in Yerevan’s remote district to present their performances, stressing it will further aggravate their situation, since the majority of the theater’s audience are foreign tourists, and the theatre should be in the central part of the city.

Founded in 1974, Yerevan Pantomime Theater gained a status of the state theatre in 1983. Lacking its own building, the theater offers performances in Yerevan State Youth Theatre on lease basis.