The staff of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre (LNOBT) criticise the decision to appoint Laima Vilimienė as director, saying they fear she will be disastrous for the theatre.
Earlier this week, the Culture Ministry selected Vilimienė, who worked in the team of one of the theatre’s previous directors, to replace the current head Jonas Sakalauskas.
The LNOBT staff organised a media event on Friday to express their disappointment with the decision.
“In response to the news that shocked us, the management of the theatre, about the winning candidate, and the new director general’s statements in the press that she is coming with a new team, which would mean our dismissal or, as it has always been common practice in the working culture of these newcomers, forcing employees out of the theatre through sheer mobbing, we want to make our position known to the public,” the theatre announced.
Among other things, the staff said that the LNOBT, which now operates at a profit, had debts when Vilimienė worked in its administration and that they see her re-appointment as a defeat for the whole team.
The staff are staging a mock funeral for the LNOBT in front of its building on Friday evening.
Vilimienė told BNS in a comment on Friday that she had never said that she would seek to replace the team.
“What I mentioned was that I am not coming to make changes [and that I prefer] evolution to revolution,” she said.
Vilimienė currently heads the Klaipeda State Musical Theatre, but previously served for years as the LNOBT deputy general director for marketing, under Director General Gintaras Kėvišas who was sacked for conflict of interests.
In 2017, the Chief Official Ethics Commission ruled that ten senior management members of the LNOBT had failed to declare their private interests as required by the law. Vilimienė was among them.
After winning the selection process, Vilimiene should replace Jonas Sakalauskas, who had also headed the Klaipėda State Musical Theater before his appointment as the LNOBT director general in 2018.
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