Actors of ‘Goy’ Theater Dismissed Along with Entire Staff; Arthur Sahakyan Remarks on Closure of Arts During Current Regime

Samvel Topalyan, an actor at the Armenian National Experimental Center-Theater named after Armen Mazmanyan, has been dismissed from his position. He made this announcement on his Facebook page, stating, “I’m at GOY… during the presentation of LONDON BLUES… I had no idea I was a first-class actor until I received the dismissal letter yesterday and it mentioned that I am first-class, so is that good or bad...)))) especially since I found out I was being dismissed when I wasn’t even interested before…))”

It turns out that not only Samvel Topalyan has been dismissed, but also the entire staff of the theater. In a conversation with 168.am, the artistic director and director of the ‘Goy’ Theater, Arthur Sahakyan, revealed that all employees were dismissed from the Gabriel Sundukyan Academic Theater to create new work agreements, yet the theater staff is refusing to go.

“We were offered to go sign new contracts whereby we would enter the Sundukyan Theater's composition, but no one has gone, thus all the contracts were terminated. None of us is signing a new contract; our previous statements are not lies. We have a stance, we have our hearth, which, faced with this government, is trying to swallow us for political reasons. Our only staff member, the cleaner, who also worked at the Sundukyan Theater part-time, is the only one who went to sign a new contract, since she had previously worked there part-time,” said Arthur Sahakyan.

He further noted that previously the staff had attempted to visit the Sundukyan Theater twice with media participation to discuss the issue within specified deadlines, but they were not allowed to enter the theater.

“We went twice to try and discuss the issue at the theater to perhaps understand, but we were not allowed to enter. Currently, some individuals from the theater are negotiating with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports to keep ‘Goy’ as a separate entity because it is a national entity, and that 'national' word affects this government; they want to close this national hearth. I personally am not negotiating; there are individuals in the theater with stronger nerves who are negotiating. We received a letter from the Sundukyan Theater, and we do not recognize the sender – neither in art nor in life, there is no such person for us. Frankly, it is monotonous to talk about the theater in all this; they’ve closed Artsakh with a key, what’s one theater that they wouldn’t close?” emphasized Arthur Sahakyan.

It should be noted that last spring, following a government meeting, it was announced that the state non-commercial organization ‘Armen Mazmanyan's National Experimental Center-Theater’ would be merged with the Gabriel Sundukyan Academic Theater. This decision sparked significant dissatisfaction at the ‘Goy’ Theater, leading them to pursue legal challenges against the decision.