Legendary actor Sos Sargsyan was greeted with warm rounds of applause during a meeting with the new generation of actors at the "Narekatsi" cultural center. Sargsyan's first advice to them was to be honest and sincere in theater and life and to develop the right taste.
"Intellectuals must play a role in society. Actors must know what to do. They must be goal-oriented, reserved and must take into account the example that they set for society. After all, there is a sense of taste and if there is such taste, there is also art," said Sargsyan.
As far as the current morals and manners in theater are concerned, Sos Sargsyan says that the reason for the current situation is that the new generation was not sufficiently educated.
"There are many young irresponsible artists today. They star in soap operas and I look at that as a way of making money. But actors who are always in the public eye must have a sense of responsibility and know how far they can go," said Sargsyan.
According to him, the new generation lacks the awareness that they are the proprietors of their country. Nevertheless, actors are optimistic because they see today's youth as progressive, knowledgeable and patriotic. Sargsyan only advised future actors to communicate with the world and take everything that is useful.
The great actor said that he was concerned about the lack of Armenian plays. "Unfortunately, we don't have playwrights like Sundukyan, Paronyan and Shirvanzade. I understand that dramaturgy is a difficult genre and that it requires a lot of time which current writers don't want to spend. But it is necessary to do everything to let Armenians see what Armenian national theater is," said Sos Sargsyan.
According to the actor, actors are not the only ones to blame because there is a lack of deserving audiences. "Once I said that Armenians don't love theater and people got offended. But that's the truth. Armenians today don't want to go through the trouble of sitting in a theater for two hours to see a play. It is boring for them. Being a spectator is also a profession. There is no connection if spectators don't have the same feeling as the actor does," said Sargsyan.
Sos Sargsyan said that 2009 was a successful year for his Pan-National Theater. "We put on 4 plays and we have more and more audiences," said Sargsyan.
In the end, the actor wished that the dreams of the new generation of actors come true in the year to come.
