News

Arnošt Goldflam’s slapstick drama exploration of the German dictator, In Hitler’s Family Kitchen [U Hitlerů v kuchyni] opened on Friday 4 December 2009 at the Theatre in Dlouhá in Prague.

Theatre Na Zábradlí (also known as At the Balustrade) produced a new play by Ladislav Smoljak – this time featuring the 15th Century Czech reformer John Huss.

As Václav Havel was celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution at the Pražská Křižovatka venue on November 14th, 2009, BBC World Service started to broadcast the world premiere of the radio adaptation of his stage play Leaving [Odcházení].

The destiny of real-life homeless people who used to live on the Ostrava slag dumps during the 1930s economic crisis has been recreated onstage.

On 9 November 2009, Leaving [Odcházení], Václav Havel’s latest play will open in Croatia.

The Slovácké Theatre in Uherské Hradiště produced the classic Czech novel Gypsies by Karel Hynek Mácha dramatized and directed by J. A. Pitínský.

Západočeské [West Bohemia] Theatre from Cheb is coming to Prague again to perform at the Theatre V Celetné. On Friday, 13 November 2009, the venue will present an original monodrama by Julek Neumann and Maureen McManus Maureen cannot stop wondering [Maureen se nestačí divit].

Ladislav Smoljak and Zdeněk Svěrák won the drama category for the production of their own play, The Czech Heaven [České nebe] at Jára Cimrman Žižkov Theatre.

Opera-oratorium The Valley of Dry Bones [Údolí suchých kostí] had a world premiere on 18 April 2009 at the Reduta Theatre in Brno.

Arnošt Goldflam’s plays and dramatizations have been running in repertory in several theatres and amateur companies.

The world premiere of the new original stage project The Kladno Man [Kladeňák] by the successful Czech playwright Petr Kolečko and the director Tomáš Svoboda will open at the Středočeské Theatre in Kladno on 9 October 2009. The play is a well concocted mixture of tragicomedy, fairy tale and slapstick, loosely inspired by the life story of Czech ice-hockey player Jaromír Jágr.

The production of Petr Zelenka’s most successful dark comedy Tales of Common Insanity [Příběhy obyčejného šílenství] closed on Sunday, 13 September 2009.

A piece using the music of Ivan Mládek’s 1970s popular song Jožin z bažin [Joey the Swampthing] became a new hit in Russia.

A Soprano from Slapy Dam [Soprán ze Slapské přehrady] is a title of the new production by Petr Kolečko at A Studio Rubín TC where the playwright is also artistic director.

The plays by the young playwright Petr Kolečko (Soumrak bodů, Britney Goes to Heaven, Láska, vole , Bohové hokej nehrají, Soprán ze Slapské přehrady) won many awards already – his latest text, an impromptu called Kauza Salome [The Salome Case] has been staged by the Prague theatre A studio Rubín.

Václav Havel’s play Leaving opened on May 21 in the town of Ruse on the Danube in Bulgaria.

An Anthology of Contemporary Czech Drama in Spanish – a new book of Czech drama was just published in Buenos Aires.

After the last year International Theatre Festival Divadlo in Pilsen presented the Theatre Archa production of Václav Havel’s Leaving in its original world premiere fashion – at its mother stage in Prague – the play will go again to this year’s Pilsen festival: the dramaturgy chose the South Bohemia Theatre [Jihočeské divadlo] in České Budějovice.

On June 15, a long awaited anthology of contemporary Czech plays will be launched at the stage of the prestige theatre of New York University CUNY, Martin E.Segal Theatre. The anthology prepared with love and care is edited by Marcy Arlin, Gwyn MacDonald a Dr. Daniel Gerould.

The South Bohemian [Jihočeské] Theatre in České Budějovice staged in the framework of its Whirlwind [Smršť] project a first production of the winning entry of 2008 Radok Competition. Slovak playwright Vladislava Fekete’s play Short Cuts [Krátke spojenia] opened on 6 May, in Czech translation and staged by P. Štindl.

The stage premiere of Petr Zelenka’s Tales of the Ordinary Madness in Croatioa took place on 7 May at the Gavella Theatre.

The audience at the famous Taganka Theatre in Moscow applauded the performance of Václav Havel’s play Leaving shown last Monday night in a Russian premiere by the Czech theatre company from Klicperovo Theatre in Hradec Králové in Andrej Krob’s interpretation.

On Saturday 25 April 2009, the German language premiere of Václav Havel’s Leaving took place at the Theater Aachen in Germany.

The Central Bohemian [Středočeské] Theatre in Kladno prepares a production of the play by Petr Kolečko and Tomáš Svoboda about the celebrated Czech ice-hockey player under the title Jaromír Jágr – Kladeňák [Jaromír Jágr – the Man from Kladno].

The rights for the first North American production of the latest play by Václav Havel have been requested by the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.

The next national premiere of the most successful play by Petr Zelenka is scheduled for 7^th of May 2009 at the Gavella Theatre in Zagreb.

After the world premiere of Petr Zelenka’s newest play on 27 October 2007 at Teatr Stary in Cracow in Poland, with several months of exclusive performing rights attached, the author and his agency Aura-Pont decided to entrust the Czech premiere of Coming Clean to the Jihočeské Theatre in České Budějovice.

Arnošt Goldflam took residency for a time at the Řeznická Theatre in Prague; his impromptu play Women and Dolls opened there on March 2 following two dress rehearsals at the Sklep theatre at Dobeška.

On March 14, 2009, and for the seventeenth time, the Foundation Fund for Alfréd Radok Awards announced the winners of the annual theatre awards for theatre and drama in 2008 based on a poll among Czech theatre critics organized by the magazine Svět a divadlo (The World and Theatre). The awards ceremony took place at Theatre Kolowrat in Prague with all the prize winners and most nominees in attendance.

The latest play by Václav Havel will be showing in Moscow at the end of April in two different shapes. On April 27 and 28 it will be presented to the audience of the celebrated Taganka Theatre by the ensemble of  Hradec Králové Klicpera Theatre in a production directed by Andrej Krob in a framework of culture offensive during Czech EU presidency.

Petr Zelenka attended a rehearsed reading of his latest play Coming Clean [Očištění] at the newly refurbished Czech National Hall in New York on 27 February. The occasion was also a “test-drive” of the new English translation.

On 25 April 2009, a German language premiere in Joachim Bruss’ translation at the City Theatre in Aachen, will start this year’s series of national productions of Václav Havel’s play.

The well-known theatre Wilma in Philadelphia, run by Blanka and Jiří Žižka organized on January 12^th a successful rehearsed reading of Havel’s play Leaving [Odcházení].

In its 20 January 2009, the fortnightly Divadelní Noviny gave the Jihočeské Divadlo in České Budějovice production of Leaving [Odcházení] that opened on 19 December 2008 the coveted sobriquet of “success of the month”.

An unusual exhibition presents the personality of Václav Havel before he became the President of Czechoslovakia. The exhibition at Galerie Montmartre in Řetězová Street, organized by the Václav Havel Library is called We Used to Have Underground Arts, Now We Have Bugger All and it presents poems by the members of Czech Underground Art Movement of the 1970s and 1980s – mostly from the 12 years immediately preceding November 1989.

The traditional survey by Divadelní Noviny fortnightly among journalists, theatre academics, critics and personalities of theatre life in the Czech Republic named the Freak Show produced by Divadlo Bratří Formanů [Forman Brothers Theatre] as the “show of the year”.

Two more productions of Václav Havel’s play Odcházení [Leaving] opened at the end of 2008. After Prague, Hradec Králové and the Polish Stage at Český Těšín the play opened at two theatres just before Christmas – in České Budějovice on 19 December, and in Pilsen on 20 December 2009.