(Vilnius) Owl Drūlija 1

Musical performance for children

"Owl Drūlija" is the first series of the "Lietuva" ensemble's musical performance, which won the hearts of many children and their parents, and later encouraged the continuation of the entire trilogy.

Owl Drūlija is a character created by therapeutic storyteller Inga Narijauskienė, who only much later, after the Lithuanian author became an early childhood education specialist and a grandmother, was written down and released to live her own authentic life through stories told at home. Today, Drūlija is considered one of the most successful and beloved characters of the younger generation, both in children's literature and on the musical theater stage.

The first part is based on one of the writer's fairy tales, "How Owl Drūlija searched for patience." One morning, Owl Drūlija tastes peas and wants to grow them, but only after planting them does she learn that for peas to grow big and juicy, patience is required. Not knowing what patience is or where to get it, the Owl goes into the forest to look for it. In the performance, Drūlija meets characters already familiar to children – a caterpillar, little woodpeckers, Taputapu the elephant, and Umba the Squirrel – all of them are waiting for something and all find different ways to do it without getting bored – "When you play and wait,/ It's not hard to wait,/ Time flows quickly/ With a little motor."

Character creator I. Narijauskienė, who studied early childhood development for a long time, personifies the owl by transferring to her not only a playful but also a complex world of children. The witty and multi-layered story allows not only for identification with the described character but also for finding a way out of sometimes not-so-simple stages of child development, both for the little ones and their parents. The author provides tools to solve problems in a playful and creative way.

The forest, which will allow Drūlija to discover patience in the performance, will sound distinctly Lithuanian. It will interweave instruments such as the birbynė, kanklės, and skrabalai. And the story itself will incorporate Lithuanian folk games, sutartinės (multipart songs), and the sensitive and magical relationship with nature that is dear to all of us Lithuanians. By fostering stage-based Lithuanian folk art, we aim to educate the identity of the younger generation in a relevant and inspiring way – that which our grandparents grew up with, our parents, we grew up with, and our children will grow up with.

"The 'Lietuva' ensemble has long been carrying out this mission – to introduce children to national art. And not only through performances for children, but also through educational programs, which a large number of Lithuanian schools attend. And the appearance of this Owl is special; I knew the writer Inga Narijauskienė very well because I attended her classes for toddlers with my daughter. Inga, while raising her son Pijus, began telling stories about Owl Drūlija, so the character's stories have been growing for more than twenty years. The performance was also carried a lot at home – by me, while raising my daughter, by Inga, while raising her son, and by Pijus himself, while raising his son," says director Giedrė Kriaučionytė-Vosylienė, who works at the "Lietuva" ensemble.