On March 2 “‘Theatre-X’ annual festival is launched in Armenia for the third time and this year the festival is notable for the number of participating theatres.

The festival will last till March 28 and within the framework of the festival every performance will be followed by open public discussions, between artists and audience, where leading specialists of the sphere and journalists will take part. Twenty five Armenian theatres with 26 performances will participate in the festival, whereas last year only 16 and in 2008 – eight theatres were involved in the festival.

Ruben Babayan, art director of the festival, says this year all provinces (six provinces of Armenia, as well as the theatrical troupe of Shushi, Nagorno-Karabakh) of Armenia which have theatres, participate in it.

“There is an essential difference between the cultural life of provinces of Armenia and the capital city, that is why, we do not bring provincial theatres to Yerevan; therefore, the festival will be held in provinces, too,” Chairman of ‘Theatre-X’ festival Ara Khzmalyan Khzmalyan says.

The Gagik Tsarukyan Charitable Foundation is the sponsor of the festival; the foundation defined three prizes for the best theatres, correspondingly one million, 500,000, and 300,000 drams (about $ 2,500, $1,300, and $780).

The festival will feature performances that gained popularity in Armenia, such as “C’est La Vie” staged by Narek Duryan in Yerevan’s Puppet Theatre, “It does not matter, with whom?” staged in Yerevan State Chamber Theatre and others.