BIOGRAPHY
The actress was born in 1984 in Vilnius.
Elze graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre obtaining Bachelor’s degree in 2009 and Master’s degree in 2011 (taught by theatre director Gintaras Varnas).
In 2013, she started a full-time PhD in Theatre and Film Art (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre).
Since 2007, Elze performed in various Lithuanian theatres: Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Kaunas State Drama Theatre, Vilnius “Lėlė” Theatre, Arts Printing House, Youth Theatre and “Keistuoliai” Theatre.
Since 2008, she also worked in Gintaras Varnas’ Utopia Theatre, was involved with the movement of the “No Theatre”, and created roles in film and television. She participated in various international theatre festivals in Europe.
In 2012, Elze was granted the status of artist by the Ministry of Culture, was accepted to Lithuanian Theatre Union, and became a member of AGATA Association (Lithuanian Related Rights Association).
In 2013, she became a member of LiKA (Lithuanian Film Academy).
Since 2013, she has been employed as an actress at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.
In 2014-2015, she was invited to work with Schlosspark Theater in Berlin where she created a role of Olga in Dear Treasure (original title Geliebter Schatz).
GALLERY PORTRAIT FILM AND THEATRE
PRESS EXTRACTS FROM INTERVIEWS EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS
Each role unlocks something in your consciousness
“I wouldn`t want any of my characters` destinies... They are too painful. If I had a possibility, I would like to stand face to face with them and ask why Olga has been reduced to London`s dregs and how Zara who`s killed someone can still foster some hope of salvation… However, it is impossible – they only live in my imagination. This is what makes theatre so marvellous and magic. All characters that have ever been created live their lives in the thoughts of an actor and the audience watches them on stage.
Each role unlocks something new in your consciousness. It makes you realise that you can be both very kind and humble but also demonic and savage at the same time. Then you stop being afraid of various sides of yourself and, this way, get to know yourself better.”
Rūta Šetikaitė “Kiekvienas vaidmuo kažką atrakina sąmonėje” [Each Role Unlocks Something in Your Consciousness]. Atgimimas, 22/Jun/2012
Actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė: “it is important to come to terms with uncertainty”
“In each new job, you are constantly searching for something valuable to you as a human being. In order to enable yourself to change and discover yourself anew. I remember that in the academy years being on the stage itself, the intention of entering, was particularly important. We were simply burning with it. I don`t want to lose this feeling that it is so important. If it loses its importance, then why should one go up on stage at all?
Before each performance I ask myself what is important to me this evening and why am I going up on stage.
I think that theatre should speak about the fullness of life. Why are spectators going to the theatre, after all? They want to be tricked, they want to believe in illusion, to welcome and see the birth of a specific thought or emotion of the character. And this is what we must give to the spectator.”
Aurimas Minsevičius “Aktorė Elzė Gudavičiūtė: svarbu išmokti susigyventi su neužtikrintumu” [Actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė: It Is Important to Come to Terms with Uncertainty]. 370.diena.lt, 20/May/2012
E. Gudavičiūtė: “I chose a different way of life and I am happy with it”
“I think that through work and willpower people can achieve a lot, so I try to improve my acting skills and move forward all the time. I have always maintained that you must bring only big emotions to stage. The reflection of the great critical emotions is what constitutes the essence of creation. I try to delve into it myself and search because it is interesting to me.
I agree that theatre and cinema are different. But both in theatre and cinema I am searching for the artistic truth and the moment of experience. Therefore, it is equally important to me irrespective of whether I am standing on the stage or in front of the camera.”
Edita Maželytė “E. Gudavičiūtė: pasirinkau kitokį gyvenimo kelią ir tuo džiaugiuosi” [E. Gudavičiūtė: “I Chose a Different Way of Life and I am Happy with It”]. Vakaro Žinios, 08/Apr/2012
Elzė Gudavičiūtė: “to get to know and value the past”
“I cannot imagine theatre without humour. I believe that the stage must display this combination, this balancing when one moment the audience laughs, next moment they cry or resent. When I discover laughter through tears or anger through mercy in the theatre, it fascinates and excites me. This is a living theatre.
It is the theatre that should control the public and not vice versa. Naturally, theatre should not be deaf to social life, the present and the past but at the moment I see the theatre increasingly focusing on form and entertainment. Actors become dependent on entrepreneurs rather than limited by artistic control. It looks as if we are destroying the spirit of art ourselves because now people are calling everything art if they like it.”
Monika Jašinskaitė “Elzė Gudavičiūtė: pažinti ir vertinti praeitį” [Elzė Gudavičiūtė: To Get to Know and Value the Past]. Literatūra ir Menas, 28/Oct/2011
Actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė: “while filming The Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies I discovered in me a desire to paint”
“This movie is about women. When creating Eglė`s character, I wanted to show that sometimes people can be ruined by the simple conjunction of social circumstances and unfortunate accidents rather than by their own fault. I raised a question to myself and to the character being created: are you doomed to suffer what is happening to you or is it possible to fight and reach your freedom and happiness…?”
Audrė Domeikaitė “Aktorė Elzė Gudavičiūtė: besifilmuodama “Miegančių drugelių tvirtovėje” atradau norą tapyti” [Actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė: While Filming “The Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies” I Discovered in Me a Desire to Paint]. 15min.lt, 19/Sep/2011
Since last summer, actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė has been living between Vilnius and Berlin. Every month she performs in about ten performances in Schlosspark Theater Berlin and in about ten more when she returns here. The actress of Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, also acting in cinema, who has created more than twenty characters on stage, and is the doctoral student of Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Elzė dreams of acting in every language she knows. Both on stage and in life, she finds the challenges that force her to move forward to be interesting. Just like in one of her first performances, she still sticks to the idea that if you have nothing to say, don`t go up on stage.
Gintarė Čiuladaitė “E. Gudavičiūtė: “Jei reikia iššūkių, leidiesi jų pasitikti”” [E. Gudavičiūtė: “If You Need Challenges, You Start Off to Meet Them”]. Lietuvos Žinios, 24/Jan/2015
“What really moves us in this performance is the truth and a feeling suddenly emerging out of (auto)biographic stories. I must bow low before Gudavičiūtė who truly succeeded in manoeuvring between being and acting on stage. The story about one night in a bar told by her in absolutely ordinary manner really became such a generalised description of woman`s life/work in the theatre that it could make one feel uneasy.
In the beginning of the performance, young actress reading the book Realism of Experiences by Agnė Marcinkevičiūtė about theatre director Dalia Tamulevičiūtė consistently and using small details creates a portrait of a woman who completely devoted herself to theatre and whose experience and stature is sometimes even equal to those of Eglė Gabrėnaitė.”
Sigita Ivaškaitė “Ofelija spendė spąstus” [Ophelia Laying a Snare]. Lietuvos Rytas, 12/Dec/2012
“Elzė Gudavičiūtė is a young actress of exceptional psychophysical abilities whose presence on stage is characterised by extreme emotionalism and the sense of precise and dynamic grotesque expression which is rarely seen in female Lithuanian actresses. Having created the roles of Olga and Zara (Purge directed by Jonas Jurašas, KVDT) in the recently ended theatrical season, Gudavičiūtė has proved that she is not an actress of a narrow characteristic range, but rather a stage artist with much wider possibilities who has mastered the expression of both comedy and drama. Irrespective of the fact that both Expulsion and Purge have “squeezed” the actress into a role of raunchy Russian-speaking commoner, Gudavičiūtė managed to find, even in this seemingly very restricted framework, the most important thing that makes any role (and theatre in general) lively and interesting – that is she discovered a paradox. Even though in these performances she already managed to become an equal stage partner to the performers of the main roles, I hope this young actress receives more proposals for other, different roles, enabling a full use of the professional potential of this artist with such diverse abilities.
Andrius Jevsejevas “Elzei Gudavičiūtei linkiu ir kitokių vaidmenų” [I Wish for Different Roles for Elzė Gudavičiūtė]. Atgimimas, 22/Jun/2012
“Even though the beginning was rather boring, later I got engaged by lively characters created by the young actresses and vivid, realistic dialogues (what a nice surprise!). The acting of Elzė Gudavičiūtė particularly stood out in this team. A promising girl to be sure.
A spectator is always interested how the events seen on the screen change the hero and what he or she learns or fails to learn from the new situation. Eglė (Elzė Gudavičiūtė) obviously experiences such intriguing evolution while there is a lack of it in some other characters.”
Rolandas Maskoliūnas „Kino kodas: „Miegančių drugelių tvirtovė“, arba Naktinės plaštakės skrenda į šviesą“ [Cinema Code: The Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies or Ladies of the Night Seek Light]. 15min.lt, 18/Jan/2012
“It`s no wonder that the author of these lines suffers from the “softening of the brain” because he will now admit his warm feelings towards the actress Elzė Gudavičiūtė, the student of Gintaras Varnas. Why? I`ve got an impression that you could “throw” this actress into the material or genre of any kind and she would still “dive out” of it creating a distinctive character from the ages of 5 to 105. In the performance Hail of Stars, Elzė Gudavičiūtė embodied Olga Bachurina, this rough teenager from the suburban neighbourhoods of apartment houses: a vulnerable and diffident creature masked by external harshness… In Decalogue, the actress created three different characters: a credulous simple-minded girl Zylė, a matter-of-fact student Vilija who performs a “sociological survey” in the orphanage, and the energetic drunkard Vida, the theatre watchwomen who can give hell to anyone, including even the narcissist Director played by Dovydas Stančius…
By the way, during their final exam of stage language the students were reading or, as it is probably more appropriate to say, were performing Electra by Sophocles. It revealed that Gudavičiūtė is already prepared to create tragic/heroic roles.”
Ridas Viskauskas “Pakilę skrydžiui” [Rising for a Flight]. Literatūra ir Menas, 10/Jul/2009
“This charming drunkard of the theatre, a watchwoman Vida is the success of Elzė Gudavičiūtė as an actress. She would have immediately lost her good fortune if she hesitated and, under the influence of the vigorously approving and supporting reaction from the audience, pushed too far towards the effective comic side. This role is not an easy task – it combines Chaplin-like comedy and misery in the same character. A very moving and even tragic is the scene with her son where the alcoholic decides to show who the real mother is: she checks the notebooks of her child and prepares to “read dictation”, demands to show his grade book and hysterically and, at the same time, so miserably asks her son to confirm that he loves her. Multifaceted accents and rich artistic tones. One needs a really delicate presence to keep this episode balanced and not over-acted, and to reveal all its possible nuances. And it is absolutely perfect now. The final scene of Gudavičiūtė, where the girl Zylė played by her begs for a puppy, simply tears the soul apart. It is even improper to call this scene “acted”. It is my childhood that I`ve recognised. It is everyone`s childhood with all its hopes and severe disappointments. A desecrated childish dream.”
Dovilė Zelčiūtė “Gintaro Varno „Dekalogas“: žinia iš Lietuvos” [Decalogue by Gintaras Varnas: a Message from Lithuania]. Nemunas, 11/Dec/2008
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