*1978, Poprad in Slovakia
Director, playwright and translator, Roman Olekšák graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and participated in the workshop of young European playwrights at the Bonn Biennial 2002. His play Na konci chodby (At the End of the Corridor) reached the shortlist for the Alfréd Radok Award for original plays in 2000; in 2001 his play Neha (Tenderness) won second prize in the same competition. Another play, Ticho (Silence) was premiered by the Slovak National Theatre in their 2003/2004 season and is still in the repertoire.
The play Smajlíci (Smileys) won the 1st Prize in the Alfréd Radok Playwriting Competition 2004 (production at Astorka Korzo 90 Theatre in Bratislava, 2006, and published as a book by LCA KK Bagala, 2006).
His first novel, Prime Time (2005) will be published by the LCA publishing house in Bratislava.
He translated plays by Marius von Mayenburg, Urs Widmer and J. N. Nestroy from German into Slovak.
Education:
1999 - 2004 The Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (AMDA), Bratislava, Slovakia Department of Theatre Directing and Dramaturgy (MA study)
2004 - The Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Bratislava (PHD study)
Theatre experience:
directing
Samuel Becket: The Endgame, Theatre Christiania, Poprad 1998
Jozef Gregor-Tajovský: The Mother, AMDA, Bratislava 2002
Marius von Mayenburg: The Parasites (co-directing with Maja Hriešik) AMDA, Bratislava 2002, Theatre Astorka Korzo 90, Bratislava 2002, International Theatre Festival Stretnutie/Setkání, Zlín (CZ) 2002, International Theatre Festival Istropolitana, Bratislava 2002, Theaterszene Europa, Koeln, Germany, 2003 (team nomination for a Slovak theatre prize DOSKY as a Breaktrough of 2001/2)
Jon Fosse: The Name, AMDA, Bratislava 2002, Theatre Festival Zlomvaz, Prague (CZ) 2002, International Theatre Festival Istropolitana, Bratislava 2002 Theatre Festival Trojboj, Brno (CZ) 2003
Vasilij Sigariev: Black Milk, AMDA, Bratislava 2003, HaDI Theatre, Brno (CZ)
Ivan A. Gončarov - R. Olekšák: Oblomov, AMDA, Bratislava 2003
Bijana Srbljanović: The Family Stories (co-directing with Maja Hriešik), AMDA, Bratislava 2005
dramaturgy
Witold Gombrowicz, YVONNA, THE PRINCESS OF BURGUNDA, AMDA, Bratislava 2004, Theatre Festival FIST, Belgrade 2005, Theatre Festival Zlomvaz, Prague 2005
upcoming projects
Neil LaBute: The Shape of Things (co-directing with Maja Hriešik), Andrej Bagar Theatre Nitra 2006
Roman Olekšák: The Smileys (co-directing with Maja Hriešik), Theatre Astorka, Bratislava, 2006
Plays:
At the End of Passage (nomination for the Alfréd Radok Prize for original theatre play for 2000, published in theatre review Divadlo v medzičase, 2001)
More of Some Less of Some (nomination for the Prize Drama 2000, published in Drama 2000, 2001, English translation published in Contemporary Slovak Drama 4, premiere at Theatre Aha!, Prague, 2002)
The Negativists (nomination for the Prize Drama 2001, published in Drama 2001, 2002, Premiere at Theatre Pictus, Rimavská Sobota, 2004)
Moods (radio play, Slovak Radio, 2001)
Tenderness (The Alfréd Radok Prize for original play for 2001, published in theatre review Divadlo v medzičase 2003)
Silence (Slovak premiere at the Slovak National Theatre, 2004, english excerpt published in Slovak literary review 12/2003)
Oblomov (dramatization of a book by I. A. Goncharov, premiere at Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Bratislava, 2003)
The Smileys (The Alfréd Radok Prize for original play for 2004)
Translations:
Samuel Beckett: The Endgame (1998, Theatre Christiania, Poprad)
Peter Bichsel: San Salvador (1998, unpublished)
Angelika Mechtel: Katrin (1998, unpublished)
Peter Turrini: Finally. Finished (1999, unpublished)
Marius von Mayenburg: The Parasites (2000, AMDA, published by Theatre Institute Bratislava, 2005)
Alexis Bug and Andreas Laubert: Not to Berkley (2001, unpublished)
Werner Buhss: Fully Air-conditioned (2001, unpublished)
Johann N. Nestroy: Two Moonwalkers (2001, Theater of town Trnava)
Urs Widmer: Top Dogs (2003, HaDi Theatre, Brno, CZ, AMDA Bratislava 2005)
Marius von Mayenburg: Haarmann (published by Theatre Institute Bratislava, 2005)
Marius von Mayenburg: The Cold Child (published by Theatre Institute Bratislava, 2005)
Witold Gombrowicz: Yvonna, the Princess of Burgunda (2004, AMDA Bratislava)
Marius von Mayenburg: Eldorado (published by Theatre Institute, Bratislava 2005)
Rimini: Report Sabenation. Go Home And Follow The News (Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra 2005)
Other works:
The Darkness (collection of texts), published by Christiania, 1998
Distress (collection of texts), published by Christiania, 1999
Re: no subject (short story), prize of a publisher LCA for short story 2001
other experiences:
2005 Lecturer at Workshop for Playwrights Fabula Rasa 2005
Not yet translated plays:
THE SMILEYS
The story about an instant career of a painter Oskar Šťastný (Oscar Happy), whose life and work in shrewd hands of his parents come out from underground directly into the limelight. Thanks to the commercial talent of his father and one sole exhibition in a gallery Diamond Oskar wins it all - he becomes a number one celebrity, gains respect, women, and financial security. But at the same time he loses inspiration and desire to paint again.
Faustian parable in which art itself more than an individual is a protagonist, which sells its soul to commercial industry in desire to step out from anonymity, ambitious to change the world. But the world devours the art and spits out a pale empty logo.
A glimpse of the world and art on the edge of their own deaths.
A ONE WAY TOWN IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION (MESTO V PROTISMERE)
A Dramatized Traffic Jam
2 men, 2 women
Olekšák’s play is written in free verse form reminiscent of German plays by authors such as Thomas Bernhardt or Roland Schimmelpfennig. It tells the story of lack of communication and solitude, using metaphors of heatwave and traffic jam. The initial "realistic" dramatic setup is gradually eroded. The two potential relationships at the beginning of the play (Erik in a car and Simmi working at the phone exchange “Info Line” / the personnel officer Lena and the employee Artur she sacks) move into feverish visions of the protagonists. The characters comment on themselves and the story linking them quite arbitrarily moves more and more into the phantasy world. Their monologues begin to resemble action movie plots - the characters tell them directly to the audience without representing them onstage. The play ends in a total collapse of communication between the characters’ unreal worlds.
The play was awarded the 3rd Prize in Alfréd Radok Playwriting Competition 2006.