By Gayane Harutyunyan

I was studying photography and law 16 years ago. I didn’t become a lawyer, but I kept photographing until now. Yet once Elbakyans  offered me to work at the theater as a sound operator. I was always thinking I wouldn’t probably stay at the theater long, but five years ago I discovered that I stayed.

 


Ruben Abrahamyan, 39, during the performance. Ruben has worked at the theater as an actor and a staging manager since 2000. Now he is the director of the Theater of Marionettes.

 


The marionette Steve.

 


Mara Mkhitaryan, 59, has been a master actress of the Marionette State Theater since 1987.

 


Martiros Badalyan, 65, is the head artist of the Marionette State Theater for 29 years.

 


Rima Israyelyan, 77, has been the ticketing cashier of the Marionette State Theater since 2000.

 


Samvel Muradyan, 59, is a skilled operator of light equipment. He has worked at the Russian theater after Stanislavski in Yerevan and at the State Theater after Sundukyan. He has been the light equipment operator at the Marionette Theater since 2016.

 


Tsovinar Manukyan, 59, has been the sentry of the theater since 2008.

 


Gayane Harutyunyan, 41, has worked at the theater as an audio equipment operator since 2002.

 

 


Nelli Tadevosyan, 77, is one of the theater puppet artists for 23 years already. She tailors clothes for the marionettes and dresses them.

 


Yughik Malkhasyan, 68, is the theater cleaner more than 30 years.

 


Anna Elbakyan, 54, is the artistic director of the Marionette State Theater. She has had her great and unique share at the theater since 2000.

 


Susanna Tonoyan, 69, is the puppet artist of the theater for 10 years now. It is her hands that draw and sculpt the marionettes.

 


Gayane Simonyan, 60, is the head accountant of the theater for 24 years now.

 


Karapet Antonyan, 79, is the senior master puppet artist for ten years now. It’s due to his skills that the bodies, eyes and hands of the marionettes move.

 


Silva Sahakyan, 52, is at the theater more than 25 years. She is an HR inspector.

 


The marionettes Booch, Mr Kerl, Peggy, Steve, Miss Quickly, Mr Hestings and Roosevelt at the performance “You are Entering the World”, 2006.

 

The Marionette State Theater – founded in 1987- is operating more than thirty years now. Our theater is a family, we know the difficulties of one another, we are next to each other. It’s not us that are good or bad, it’s the smallness of the theater. It is a place where people do not demand things which are not possible to fulfil. People just love each other, spend time together. Sometimes the performance is so interestingly created that you want to stay, to become a part of the atmosphere.

That very atmosphere made me take up the project of making the portraits of the veterans of the Marionnette State Theater, who are real devotees.