Magazine Searching for love: fairy tales and real life

The 33rd open air amateur theater festival is currently underway in a charming outdoor theatre on the outskirts of Prague. The Pocernice outdoor theatre has a colorful history. It hosted former president Vaclav Havel's plays long before they appeared on renowned stages around the world. Dissidents would come to see them there - hoping that the little out of the way theatre would escape the attention of the communist authorities. Sometimes it worked, but often there'd be a crackdown on members of the audience. Today the theatre has changed little - it still seats only about a hundred people and the wooden benches are hard and narrow. But nobody seems to mind. The audience arrives well bundled up and armed with a blanket for late night performances. And the atmosphere is great. Everyone seems to know each other and the actors' friends are often invited to join them backstage for a barbecue after the late night performance. After spending a wonderful evening there I am in a position to say that the experience was worth much more than the 30 crowns - approximately one dollar- that I paid for my ticket.

The summer festival is open to both adult and children's amateur ensembles and this year features, among other things: A Midsummer Nights' Dream, Heaven on Earth, Spring Suicides are Banned and children's performances of Maugli and Beauty and the Beast. The latter premiered last week with kids aged four to fifteen playing, singing and dancing their way through an hour's performance to a standing ovation from a delighted audience.

Jana Suvova has performed in an amateur ensemble for years and she says that it was only a question of time before this stage hosted an all-children's performance. Now she herself directs them.

"This amateur children's ensemble was formed two years ago. After one of our adult performances several mothers approached us and asked whether we wouldn't be willing to take on their children. We started out with 20 kids and when we put on the first play -Cinderella - after each performance more kids would appear back stage and ask if they could join. So we expanded and started putting on plays for schools as well as regular audiences. This year we are premiering Maugli and The Beauty and the Beast with 46 children taking part in one and 26 in the other. So you see how many little actors we collected along the way......most schools don't have drama classes or even produce end-of-term plays so kids who want to act come to us

We don't admit children on the grounds of any strict criteria or talent spotting. If a child comes to us and says can I join -they are on. It doesn't matter how good they are as long as they enjoy acting. If they can't sing we don't give them a singing part. Most kids are clever at something and we write the script making allowances for the fact that it's a children's performance. Which is not to say that anything goes. The music is specially composed for each play, the costumes are borrowed from the National Theatre and we spend all of six months rehearsing. And on the day of the premiere we are even more nervous than the kids - but so far we've always had a full house. Kids build a great rapport with the audience -even their goofs are charming. Now they are just kids having fun but -you never know which of the tots strutting around the stage may rise to fame and fortune one day. "

A ten year old prince singing his heart out to his princess. How long does it take to find the man -or woman -of your dreams? In this case it took 50 minutes - but in real life you may need as long as one weekend to make up your mind.

Tereza One of the many private radio stations on the scene - Radio City has launched an unbelievable publicity-grabbing contest. It's called "Searching for a Bride" and involves some wild matchmaking. The station has said it will help one girl to pick her future husband, give her a fabulous wedding and send her off on a romantic honeymoon all within the space of six weeks. Two dozen girls volunteered and it took Radio City listeners more than 3 weeks to make up their minds which of the girls should take a headlong plunge into marriage. Twenty four year old Tereza - an adventurous telecommunications consultant who loves travelling - has now won a husband, wedding and honeymoon package in one. Men who fancy her have been invited to try their luck and ask for her hand in marriage. Radio City will make the first selection - leaving ten candidates in the running, who will each meet with Tereza in person. She will then choose three of those ten with whom to spend a weekend in the mountains. At the end of that weekend the lady will announce the name of the lucky guy who gets her hand in marriage - and then they can sit back and let Radio City give them a highly publicized, gorgeous wedding. And send them off on a romantic honeymoon. And then - the biggest bonus of all - their love nest - a furnished flat in Prague which they can use for the duration of a year. And who's to say that a marriage made in Radio City will not be a happy one. I just hope the station leaves it there and does not have its listenership decide on the number of children the couple the happy couple should have.