- Place
- Marijampolė, Marijampolė Municipality
- Region
- Suvalkija
- Type
- part of Marijampolė Culture Centre, bringing together a professional company, community theatre, and touring events
- Address
- 2 P. Armino Street, LT-68297 Marijampolė
- Coordinates
- 54.55435, 23.34385
- Visit duration
- 20-30 minutes for the facade, or about 2-3 hours with a performance
- Best time
- at the time of a performance, tour, or other event checked in advance
Marijampolė Municipal Drama Theatre, Marijampolė Theatre, Kapsukas State Drama Theatre, Marijampolės dramos teatras
Today this is a working stage, not a theatre museum open every day
Since 22 October 2022, Marijampolė Drama Theatre has formed part of Marijampolė Culture Centre. The name now brings together the professional company assembled at the end of 2025, adult amateur, youth, puppet, and senior theatre groups, and visiting artists. 'Theatre' therefore refers both to an institution and to the specific event building on P. Armino Street.
The Big and Small Halls host the theatre's own professional and community work, visiting companies, concerts, and educational events. The offer changes with the date and season; the official pages do not advertise a permanent historical exhibition or daily self-guided interior access. The reliable way to see inside is to select a dated performance or a separately announced theatrical tour.
The map point at 54.5543486, 23.3438467 marks the official building address at 2 P. Armino Street, not an independently confirmed main-door or box-office point. The theatre's official contacts place its ticket office in a different building: Marijampolė Culture Centre at 2 Vilkaviškio Street.
The building began as a parish hall and became a theatre in stages
A local chronology published by the Marijampolė Tourism Information Centre traces the building to 1937, when the priest Antanas Kazlauskas initiated a hall for the Parish of St Michael the Archangel. Walls and a roof rose in 1938-1939; interior and heating work was still under way in 1940, when the unfinished building was nationalised after the Soviet occupation. It was therefore not conceived from its first line as a freestanding state theatre palace.
The dates 1937, 1942, and 1943 found in different accounts do not identify the same event. The municipality summarises the present building as constructed in 1942; the theatre's history says the company entered a new palace seating nearly 800 roughly half a year after its September 1942 opening, while a local tourism publication specifies 6 March 1943 for the hall. It is more accurate to describe stages of construction, takeover, adaptation, and opening between 1937 and 1943 than to force them into one uncontested construction year.
The facade retains a restrained symmetrical composition: a raised central block, groups of tall narrow windows, three main doors, and a broad stone staircase. Research did not locate a separate entry for this building in Lithuania's Register of Cultural Property, so this page does not assign it an unverified protected-monument status.
The public opening in 1942 and the two early theatre periods
The detailed local theatre chronicle dates the public opening to 12 September 1942. The ceremony presented it as Lithuania's fifth professional theatre. Its first company consisted of 20 actors and seven technical staff; J. Pileckis headed the theatre, K. Tumkevičius directed, V. Vijeikis designed sets, and J. Sodaitis administered it. The first premiere was Petras Vaičiūnas's Sudrumstoji ramybė.
VLE's broader survey dates the beginning of the Marijampolė theatre to 1941, whereas the institution's own chronicle precisely describes the public ceremony in September 1942. The safest approach is to keep the difference visible: 1941 may denote organisation or a precursor, but 12 September 1942 is the securely described public opening in the local account.
The first two seasons produced nine premieres before work stopped in autumn 1944. A state theatre reopened in 1945; under K. Tumkevičius, it mounted 12 premieres across three seasons. The Marijampolė stage closed in 1949, and its actors reinforced Šiauliai Drama Theatre.
The Kapsukas theatre, the municipal turn in 1992, and reorganisation in 2022
VLE and the Lithuanian Archives of Literature and Art document Kapsukas State Drama Theatre in 1956-1962; Kapsukas was Marijampolė's Soviet-era name. Lithuanian Conservatory graduates formed the company's core, joined by some Klaipėda actors. The archive collection ends in 1962, while other historical narratives carry the dispersal and transfer of the company into 1963, so this page does not manufacture a more exact single-day closure date.
The origin of today's municipal institution is clear. On 15 January 1992, after the ministry dissolved the state theatre, the city board established Marijampolė Drama Theatre in its place. Vytautas Dapšys served as artistic leader and director from 1992 to 2000, Stasys Večerskis became director in 1995, and Romualdas Kučiauskas led the theatre from 1 December 2000 until 21 October 2022.
On 22 October 2022, the theatre ceased to be a separate institution and became part of Marijampolė Culture Centre. That distinction matters when planning a visit: the programme is still published under the theatre's name, but contacts, the box office, and some organisational information are tied to the Culture Centre.
The renewed 2024 building and a new nine-actor company
The theatre returned to its building after reconstruction in October 2024, reopening with Arvydas Lebeliūnas's production of Įeina laisvas žmogus. The municipality records replaced electrical, water, and heating systems, new ventilation, roof work, insulated foundations, renewed interiors, and a lift for disabled visitors. The project cost approximately €2.8 million, about €1.6 million of it municipal funding.
In December 2025, the municipality announced a permanent creative team of nine professional actors. The official company page lists Jogaila Šimkus, Karolina Urbonė, Kristupas Biržietis, Paulius Kavoliūnas, Laurynas Luotė, Jūratė Martinaitytė, Mindaugas Minkevičius, Elzbieta Girkantaitė, and Kamilė Pilibaitytė. This marks a new phase of the present institution, not Marijampolė's first professional stage.
On 22 April 2026, the company's first premiere was Aš gydytojas, a comedy created from Molière and directed by Žilvinas Beniušis. Community ensembles and visiting events continue alongside it, so before buying a ticket check not only the title but also the company, hall, age guidance, and event organiser.
Tickets, the box office, accessibility, and a practical visit
The theatre's official contacts place its box office at Marijampolė Culture Centre, 2 Vilkaviškio Street, not at the theatre address on P. Armino Street. On 19 July 2026, the ticket page listed Tuesday 12:00-19:00, Wednesday 13:00-19:00, Thursday-Saturday 12:00-19:00, with a 15:00-16:00 break; Monday and Sunday were closed. It also said the office operates for one hour before an event held on a regular day off, but the wording does not safely promise that every such sale takes place at P. Armino Street. Telephone before travelling solely to buy a ticket.
Depending on the event, tickets may be sold through Paysera Tickets, Kakava.lt, or Bilietai.lt; there is no single permanent price. Box-office hours, platforms, refund terms, and even the venue attached to a listing can change. Treat the selected event page and official checkout as current, rather than an old programme screenshot, and arrive 20-30 minutes before the start.
Broad steps dominate the main facade. The municipality confirms that the 2024 works installed a lift for disabled visitors, but no official public diagram identifies the step-free route, exact door, or lift procedure; contact the theatre in advance. Research also found no confirmed dedicated visitor car park. The facade can be viewed from public space at a suitable time, while interior access should be planned around a dated event or tour.
