DĚKUJEME
FEAR
Barbora Etlíková and Karel Král – the incoming editor and the retiring editor-in-chief of the World and the Theatre magazine – in intergenerational dialogue
“In fact, this conversation started already in the courtyard of the Alfred ve Dvoře theatre in Prague, as we were waiting together for the beginning of a performance. I had just incidentally noted that the two of us belong to different generations, when a little girl, about twelve years old, interrupted us, saying that she too comes from yet another generation. We spent the rest of our time before the performance talking to her and her younger brother. The topic was fear. I was surprised that what my generation considers to be academic worries, such as the fear of climate change, these children experience as something that genuinely terrifies them. Later, I concluded that people are only afraid if something concerns them personally. Moreover, to be able to tackle this given problem, we would have to change of most of our existing habits.”
Barbora Etlíková: WORKING ON A BETTER CLIMATE
“You don’t! Have to endure it” initiative reflection
“The original intention of this article was to look from a distance at what happened after the performance in Prague by two students of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), Marie-Louisa Purkrábková and Oleksandra Chernomashytseva, on 29 June 2021. They read together in front of the main entrance of DAMU on Karlova Street twenty-two anonymised personal testimonies from their male and female classmates (including one testimony from the Janáček Academy in Brno - JAMU) who felt discriminated against and abused to various extents by their teachers. The event was organized by the newly established “You Don’t! Have to Endure It” Initiative, whose representatives are, in addition to the two performers, Prokop Novák (a student of DAMU), Karolína Vaňková (a student of JAMU), and Kateřina Císařová (a DAMU graduate). I listened again to the public debates on YouTube about the current state of class instruction at both Academies of Performing Arts (DAMU and JAMU), and read various articles that were published on the topic. I ended up as the observer – definitively not a neutral one - of an advanced debate where several thematic lines and general tendencies can be identified.”
Jakub Škorpil: SUCH A GREAT LOSS OF (NEW) BLOOD
Daniela Špinar is leaving The National Theatre in Prague
“At the end of August 2021 Daniela Špinar announced that the upcoming season was going to be her last one in the position of the Artistic Director of the National Theatre Drama section. Characteristically, the director first publicized her decision in the following post on her Facebook profile (August 26, 2021): “Dear friends, I have decided to leave the position of Artistic Director at the National Theatre. I am going to stay for the forthcoming season to round off what has been planned and to hand over the agenda to my successors. To those of you, who have been following the Prague Faculty of Dramatic Arts “You don’t! Have to endure it” initiative, I don’t have to explain anything. For those who want to know more, I would like to record a video, discussing the various ‘elephants in the closet’ and ‘Czech theatre mafia’, which I have never become a part of and I never will – because I have a conscience… However, the mere sitting back and having to observe it, has been quite unbearable. Even though I know nothing much is going to change and JB will probably keep all of his accumulated positions, trust me when I say that I feel better now and it has definitely been worth it! Thanks to all of you, who have kept your fingers crossed for us on our National Theatre journey – there haven’t been many of you, but that’s a tradition rooted in our society. Most of all I wish for the students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts that the atmosphere in the school changes radically – it is worth it!”
Jakub Škorpil: LAST DROPS
2021/2022 theatre season at The National Theatre in Prague
“The 2021/2022 theatre season at the National Theatre in Prague was deeply influenced by two major events: the announcement that Daniela Špinar and her team are to leave the theatre; and the transfer of the repertoire from the 2020/2021 season (cancelled because of Covid restrictions) to the 2021/2022 season. From the six productions originally planned, only five were actually realized on stage. The last one; The People vs. Kramer, about the confiscation of the Estates Theatre in 1920, written by Petra Tejnorová, Nina Jacques, and Jan Tošovský should have had its premiere in February 2022.”
Vladimír Mikulka: OH MY GOD, AND NOW WHAT?
Vassa Zheleznova at the National Theatre in Prague
“Gorki’s Vassa Zheleznova, which the National Theatre in Prague quite surprisingly chose to produce even before Covid (although rehearsals took place just after the pandemic experience), is in many ways a 'Chekhovian' play. This family drama takes place in an atmosphere that hints at the disintegration of the ‘old world’, actually explicitly mentioned in several lines of the dialogue. In the story there are a number of characters of equal importance and they all have incompatible interests and completely understandable and easily defensible positions. By the end, losing characters, who are in the majority, are kicked out of the ‘game', or even worse swept away in an extremely unscrupulous or humiliating manner. The winners are only apparent after committing a series of heinous acts in a ruthless all-out brawl, then they are left alone, with bloody hands, and their prospects don’t exactly look rosy.”
