Archive: Culture | Theatre Theatre
Creativity flows from floods for award-winning director Alice Nellis
This week's edition of Czech Books is bit of a departure from our usual
format. We're still looking at a writer, but Alice Nellis is more than
that. An award-winning film director and producer of several theatre
productions, she brings her words to life on screen and stage alike. She
and Radio Prague's Brian Sabin discuss her newest work - Zaplavy, or
"Floods" in English - which is now showing at Prague's Theatre
on the Balustrade.
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Comedy from catastrophe: Award-winning director debuts play about flooding of 2002
Award-winning director and Czech native Alice Nellis has a new play making
its debut this Sunday at the Theatre on the Balustrade in Prague's Old
Town. Her films Eeny Meeny and Some Secrets both won a host of trophies,
but since 2002 she's stayed away from the silver screen and worked mostly
on stage. Her newest work, titled Zaplavy or "Floods" in
English, a comedy inspired in part by the catastrophic floods of 2002, is
her first original production to appear onstage.
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Othello the flagship production at this year's Summer Shakespeare Festival
Every year Prague's Summer Shakespeare Festival draws thousands of visitors
to Prague Castle, to view Shakespeare productions on summer evenings under
the open sky. Notable productions in the past have included Romeo and
Juliet or King Lear - starring the US-based actor Jan Triska.
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A new "Passion" unveiled at National Theatre
Many are familiar with the work of one of the greatest Czech composers,
Bohuslav Martinu. Martinu wrote a number of operas in a career that
spanned more than half a century. But he wrote only one tragic opera,
"The Greek Passion." A new translation of "The Greek
Passion" premiered at Prague's historic National Theatre on Thursday
night, just in time for Easter.
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CDs by three generations of Burian family released this month
This month, most unusually, three new CDs are being released by three
generations of the same very well-known Czech family. EF Burian died
almost five decades ago, but a new collection of his works has just hit
the shops. His son Jan Burian (53) has just brought out a new double
album, as has his son Jiri. Jiri goes by the stage name Gregory Finn and
leads a rock band called Southpaw. At a joint launch of all three CDs at
Prague's Archa Theatre, he told me a little about his famous grandfather. More
Ewan McLaren - producing cutting-edge theatre in the Czech Republic
In today's One on One Jan's guest is Ewan McLaren, a Canadian who has lived
in the Czech Republic since 1990. For sixteen years Ewan - trained
professionally in the theatre - has worked as an actor, director, and
finally producer - with such companies as Prague's Studio Ypsilon and the
cutting-edge Alfred ve Dvore - The Alfred in the Courtyard Theater. In the
interview, Ewan discusses not only his approach to stage performance in
the
Czech Republic but also his overall fascination with Czech culture. Ewan
McLaren - One on One. More
Open Arms 2006 - National Theatre's festival for and by minorities
The Czech theatre group Vlastenecka Omladina, or Patriotic Youth, was
founded 120 years ago in Vienna. It performs two productions annually for
the Czech-speaking minority in Austria. But this week audiences in Prague
also have the chance to enjoy its work, as the group takes part in a
mini-festival entitled Open Arms 2006.
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The 'Clever Stupid' Rom's fairytale ending - and deeper meaning
Theatre director Pavla Dombrovska has long been fascinated by Romany
culture; inspired by the vigorous, joyful and often tragic tone of Gypsy
music, and enthralled by this people's storytelling tradition. So she set
out to adapt for the theatre a collection of Romany folktales: they were
compiled - or rather, lovingly transcribed - by the noted scholar Dr
Milena Hubschmannova, in the '60s and early '70s. But the play got off to
a difficult start: Dombrovska was shocked to find how little she really
understood of these "naïve" fairytales, and how opposed Dr
Hubschmannova was to the project. More
Petr Sourek - artistic director of theatre for the homeless
The Jezek and Cisek theatre here in Prague is most unusual in that all of
its members either are homeless or have spent time on the streets in the
past. Its dramaturg, or artistic director, is a young man called Petr
Sourek. I caught up with Petr after a recent show at Prague's NoD club,
and began by asking him to tell me a bit about the history of the Jezek
and Cisek theatre group.
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Dagmar Havlova to return to stage in 'Moment of Truth'
Just a month ago former First Lady Dagmar Havlova - wife of playwright and
ex-president Vaclav Havel - admitted she was suffering serious health
problems - with her thyroid gland and her heart - requiring quiet and
rest. That clearly hasn't prevented the former First Lady from going ahead
with plans to return to the stage: in the spring she will appear in a
tragicomedy written by US playwright Israel Horovitz. It will be the first
time theatre fans will be able to see the actress on stage since 1997.
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