LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 13, No.3 - Fall 1967 Editor of this issue: Bronius Vaškelis ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1967 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

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EDITORIAL NOTE

This and the folowing issue of Lituanus are devoted entirely to a brief presentation of the development of contemporary Lithuanian drama and of the more prominent Lithuanian playwrights and their works. Under "contemporary" category we include those dramatic works which were written after World War II by playwrights writing under the Soviet regime in Lithuania and abroad in the West.

In preparing these issues the editors faced several difficulties and had to make compromises. First of all, the choice of plays merely implies that the published works are outstanding representatives in the contemporary Lithuanian repertory. Regretfully, due to space limitations, we could not present a number of other outstanding dramas. Secondly, since we are dealing with a recent period, we realize that it is difficult to remain detached and impersonal in interpreting contemporary works. Finally, it was impossible to see some of the plays on stage and, therefore, they had to be evaluated solely on the basis of their literary merit.

Due to the problems encountered in translating the plays, the publication of these special issues was delayed, which is deeply regretted by the editors and the publisher. We hope, however, that these special issues will at least partially reveal the creative world which is generally inaccessible to the English-speaking reader.

The Winter 1967 issue of Lituanus will contain two one act plays — Everyboy (or the Beard), a morality play by Algirdas Landsbergis, and The Gravediggers by Kostas Ostrauskas.