Puppet Theatre Highlight - At Home and Abroad - Nina Malíková
Puppets On the Road and Over Seas
Everyone is talking about the Alfa Theatre´s (Plzeň) production of The Three Musketeers (we have already mentioned the production in past issues of Theatre.cz). The production has received numerous awards at home and abroad (the grand prize and the spectator’s choice at the festival in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), Czech Centre UNIMA´s prestigious ERIK award, and most of the votes of the Theatre News survey) and was also nominated for the Alfred Radok Awards (of which it took second place). The hand-puppet production of The Three Musketeers will travel across the Atlantic for a three week tour throughout the US. The unique adaptation of the ageless story has entertained Czech and European audiences for almost a year and the creators hope that they will not disappoint their American audiences. Upon their return before the end of the season, the company will perform at the puppet theatre festival in Pecs, Hungary.
More information: http://www.divadloalfa.cz/aj/index.php
Festivals
The 19th International Festival of professional puppet theatres Mateřinka 2007 is quickly approaching – this year taking place from June 22nd to the 26th. Mateřinka is one of the only festivals in the Czech Republic that emphasises professional creation for the youngest spectator – pre-school children. It has a long and rich history and its origins date back to 1972. In the past fifteen years, the festival has been successful in bringing some of Europe’s best productions of this special type of theatre to their programming. This year’s festival will be opened by professional theatres, independent companies and individual performers, and will include: DRAK Theatre (Hradec Králové), Lampion Theatre (Kladno), Theatre on Dlouhá (Prague), Radost Theatre (Brno), Cakes and Puppets (Prague), Naive Theatre (Liberec), and five other international companies inlcuding Taptoe Theatre (Belgium), Les Sages Fous Theatre (Canada), Lavender Theatre (Hungary), the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Slovenia), and the VSMU Students from Bratislava (Slovakia).
An important part of the Mateřinka 2007 festival will be the meeting of the international executive council of the UNIMA puppeteering organization that is scheduled to take place in Liberec from June 19th to the 21st. The meeting will be attended by some of the most important specialists working in the field of puppetry from four continents.
Newcomers and Transformations
The new Czech-French theatre company Décalages presented the premiere of its new production of Obsession (Posedlost) at the Palac Akropolis in Prague on March 11th. The new theatre company was founded by two actors – Seiline Valée and Salvi Salvatore, who were previously core members of the famous Continuo Theatre for several years. In their first project, they conducted research on the relationship between a man and a woman and used a combination of various forms of theatre expressions. They work with elements of acrobatics, dance as well as puppet and movement theatre. The Décalages Company selected Irina Andreeva, member of the Teatr Novogo Fronta, to direct their first project. More information: http://www.decalages.eu/
Continuo Theatre from Malovice has undergone some radical changes, or perhaps has become a caricature. Continuo was founded in 1992, and became a professional company the year following. Artistic director Pavel Štourač on the changes to the company: “I believe that in transformation, change, regeneration. It´s time for a change. In 2006, Dr. Jana Pilátová, my wife Helena, Kristýna Patková and I decided to set up the Central European Theatre Laboratory – Continuo Theatre. We selected fifteen selected participants from previous workshops that were held last year, and began working on the project on February 2, 2007. The first phase of the Laboratory will last three weeks and the result will be a new group of people who will begin working on a new production on April 2. The premiere will take place at the end of June. I can´t tell you what the name of the production will be, but I can guarantee that it will be different than any of the other productions that Continuo has created.”
To this, we can add that Continuo will continue to perform it´s feature productions The Eclipse, The Flow of Time and Too Much to the Touch until the end of June. The final performances of these productions will take place in the fall. The Kratochvílení festival will not take place this year.
More information: http://www.continuo.cz/
May 20, 2007 marked the 78th anniversary since the founding of UNIMA (1929). The Czech Centre UNIMA will celebrate the event with the second annual puppet event, UNIMA Festum. Several professional and amateur Czech puppet companies performed, and the festival culminated with a cabaret celebrating the 95th anniversary since the first issue of the world’s oldest puppeteer magazine Loutkář. The publication began informing the world about Czech (and international) news related to puppet theatre in 1912 and continues to this day with a new modern format with full-colour pictures and an English synopsis.
More information: www.divadlo.cz/loutkar.
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