89 Minutes with Czech Theatre

One of the primary missions of the Arts and Theatre Institute is to promote Czech culture abroad. Departments at the ATI, such as the International Cooperation and External Relations Department, or the Publication Department, publish various materials that introduce Czech theatre today and in a historical context to the public abroad. Promotional and information materials that the ATI publishes in periodical form include Czech Theatre, a catalogue of productions on offer for abroad called Czech Performance Collection, a catalogue of contemporary Czech dramatists called Let’s Play Czechs and other publications.

In 2010 the ATI is developing a promotional film on Czech theatre. The promotional, informational film is divided up into separate chapters, each running from 5 to 15 minutes. The objective is to provide the foreign public with basic information about Czech theatre, help them gain an orientation for finding such information, and present them with news on events in the contemporary Czech theatre scene. Individual chapters explore current events in interviews with important figures in Czech theatre, go over current productions and important festivals, present concise information on the theatre network, education in the theatre, and collections in the Czech Republic, and introduce them to the ATI.

The film will be distributed in Czech with English and Spanish subtitles. The film is scheduled for completion in September 2010. The film will also be distributed to universities abroad (the fields of theatre and Czech studies), it will be used in international projects the ATI is engaged in, it will be used in lectures on Czech theatre given by members of the ATI’s staff, and it will be used as a general educational and promotional material for the general public abroad.

The film was created by a team of experts at the ATI. FAMU is the project’s co-production partner.