Theatre Publications, Periodicals, CDs and DVDs in Foreign Languages

Věra Ptáčková, Barbora Příhodová, Simona Rybáková: Czech Theatre Costume

The first ever book on theatre costume in the Czech lands including a key text by Věra Ptáčková, the author of the legendary tome Czech Stage Design of the Twentieth Century, notes on contemporary use of theatre costume by Barbora Příhodová and also insights into the work of a major Czech costume designer Simona Rybáková. It offers some 400 illustrations, mainly from the rich archives of the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague (Department of Collections and Archive and the Photography Fund).

In Czech and English.

Price 690 Kč / 263 pp / ISBN 978-80-7008-258-4 (IDU) and ISBN 978-80-86102-71-9 (Pražská scéna)

Marie Zdeňková, Josef Vomáčka: MIROSLAV MELENA - Scénographer and Architect

Miroslav Melena (1937-2008) doubtlessly belongs among the most important scenographers and theatre architects of the second half of the 20th Century. He was one of the last of those having studied with František Tröster at DAMU in Prague; he took part – cheek by jowl with the director Jan Schmid – in moulding the shape of the Studio Ypsilon Theatre (nowadays legendary) first in Liberec, then in Prague. Melena also worked with other treatres, both Czech and foreign, not only as a scenographer but as a theatre director, too. From 1970s on, he dedicated his talent to theatre architecture as well, from roofing over open-air summer stages all the way to redevelopment and reconstruction of theatre interiors. One only has to recall the Archa Theatre in Prague, City Theatre and Reduta Theatre in Brno, Highland (Horácké) Theatre in Jihlava, not to mention arange of theatres he worked on in the countries of former Yugoslavia. The publication coincides with the exhibition of the artist´s life-long work at the Old Town Hall in Prague in June 2011.

Price 390 Kč / 240 pp / ISBN 978-80-7008-255-3

Helena Albertová: Josef Svoboda – Scenographer

The monograph examines the scenographic work of the Czech stage designer and architect Josef Svoboda (1920–2002), from his first efforts as an amateur in his native town of Čáslav, to his final production in 2002. It endeavours to record his most important undertakings – his work at the Grand Opera of 5 May in Prague, overcoming socialist realism at the National Theatre in Prague, the golden years with Alfréd Radok and Otomar Krejča at the same theatre, the genesis, successes, and fate of Laterna Magika, entry onto the great world stage of opera and ballet, and work with prominent world directors in drama.
In the case of Josef Svoboda, it is not enough just to name and describe the productions he worked on, as an integral part of his work and world fame were his discoveries in the field of new theatre technologies. Expanding his ‘scenographic alphabet’, as he himself described the arsenal techniques that modern theatre can use in stage design, became his lifelong obsession. Better knowledge of Svoboda – the architect – should be provided by a chapter on his unrealised projects for theatre buildings. An important and innovative part of this monograph is the complete list of his works accompanied, wherever possible, by a small informative picture on each entry. 
Price 1100 Czk (cloth), 950 Czk (paperback) / 332 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-229-4

Marie Bílková, Věra Ptáčková, Jiří Hilmera, Vladimír Adamczyk: A Mirror of the World Theatre II (Prague Quadriennale 1995–1999)

The book ties in with Věra Ptáčková’s A Mirror of World Theatre and charts the last two years of the Prague Quadrennial, the international exhibition of scenography and theatre architecture. The second volume also contains many photographs from that important exhibition. 
Price 440 Czk / 118 pp. / ISBN 80-7008-118-X

Czech Music Guide (2011)

Edited by Lenka Dohnalová

The Czech Music Guide presents an up-to-date panorama of Czech music life with a short historical overview for everyone with an interest, whether layperson or professional, in understanding Czech music culture and its milieu.

Contents: About the Czech Republic, A Short History of Music, Contemporary Music Life, Current Culture Policy, Music Institutions, The Music Education System, Archives, Science and Research Centres, Journals, Information Centres, Regional Panorama, Links.

Price 99 CZK / 4 EUR / 72 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-269-0

Czech Literature Guide (2011)

Edited by Viktor Debnár and Jaroslav Balvín

The Czech Literature Guide presents a panorama of the contemporary life of Czech literature with a short historical overview. It is designed for anyone with an interest, whether layperson or professional, in Czech literary culture and its milieu.

Price 99 CZK / 4 EUR / 94 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-272-0

Czech Dance in Action 2010 (DVD)

A DVD with previews of 15 works of contemporary dance choreography and dance theatre. The DVD is coupled with a CD containing full dramaturgical and technical documentation, including contacts. This publication is intended mainly for producers, dramaturges, art directors of theatres and festivals abroad, and it is designed to support the mobility of Czech dance companies abroad.

Free.

Czech Plays: Seven New Works

This publication is edited by Dr. Daniel Gerould, director of programmes at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Centre, and by Marcy Arlin and Gwynn MacDonald, creators of the Immigrants’ Theatre project, part of which is a project called Czech Plays in Translation, in which for eight years in row they have presented selected works of contemporary Czech drama in English translation. The publication contains a study by Daniel Gerould on Czech 20th-century theatre and the genesis of a project of stage readings of Czech drama for the Immigrants’ Theatre by Marcy Arlin. The anthology contains the following titles: Lenka Lagronová: Miriam, Ivana Růžičková: Opening the Door and Pulling Out the Knife, Egon Tobiáš: I Promised Freddy, David Drábek: Aquabelles, Jiří Pokorný: Dad Scores Goals, Iva Klestilová: Minach and Petr Zelenka: Teremin. 
Distribution of the publication in the United States is arranged by the Czech Center in New York. In the Czech Republic and other countries distribution is arranged by the Arts and Theatre Institute.
Price 300 Czk / 343 pp. / ISBN 978-0-9790570-6-9

Czech Puppet Theatre Yesterday and Today

This publication in English on Czech puppet theatre today and in the past contains a historical survey, portraits of the most important artists (Skupa, Malík, Trnka, Švankmajer, Krofta…), companies and groups, amateur companies with a long history, a survey of puppetry schools, museums and exhibitions, and an overview of puppetry festivals. The text, written by Alice Dubská, Jan Novák, Nina Malíková and Marie Zdeňková, is accompanied by numerous attractive colour photographs.
Price 280 Czk (or 10 €) / 67 pp. / ISBN 80-7008-199-6

Czech Theatre

Czech Theatre comes out in English once each year and has been published since 1991. It is primarily intended to promote Czech theatre abroad. It presents information on Czech theatre, events of the past season, and artistic trends and prominent figures in contemporary Czech theatre. In 1991–1998 it was published in a French-English bilingual edition, since 1999 has been published just in English.
Price 150 Czk / ISSN 0862-9380

Deutschsprachiges Theater in Prag – Begegnungen der Sprachen und Kulturen

Edited by Václav Maidl, Jitka Ludvová, Alena Jakubcová
Proceedings from an interdisciplinary colloquium held in Prague in June 2000 and devoted to German-language theatre in the Czech lands. It contains 36 contributions on the following themes: theatre in national culture, history, and the performance practices of musical and drama theatre, sources and research, current projects. The publication is only in German (the Czech summaries for individual contributions), three papers in English, and illustrations. 
Price 320 Czk / 511 pp. / ISBN 80-7008-111-2

Exhibition on the stage: Reflection on the 2007 Prague Quadrennial

The publication reflects on the Prague Quadrennial in 2007 from the perspective of foreign and Czech theatre arts experts, theatre critics, and artists. The book also presents an analysis of various aspects and trends of contemporary theatre design and architecture.
The editor of this book and author of one of its main articles is the American theatre arts expert and General Commissioner of the PQ 07, Arnold Aronson. The authors of other texts are the director and theorist Thea Brejzek (DE/SUI), the architect and stage designer Dorita Hannah (NZ), the theatre arts expert Ian Herbert (UK), the theatre critic Thomas Irmer (DE), and stage design expert Marie Zdeňková (CZ). The book is published in English and contains almost 200 colour photographs of the exhibition and of the lively programme and student projects.
Price 499 Czk / 112 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-219-5

It’s Time That Changed

An anthology of Czech drama published in Russian translation containing the works: Josef Topol: The end of the Shrovetide; Ladislav Smoček: The Strange Afternoon of Dr. Zvonek Burke; Pavel Landovský: Hour Hotel; Jan Antonín Pitínský: Little Room; Arnošt Goldflam: Sand; Lenka Lagronová: Antelope; Petr Zelenka: Tales of Common Insanity; Egon Tobiáš: It’s Time THAT Changed. The anthology was published in cooperation with Baltijskije sezony Publishers. 
Price 170 Czk / 277 pp. / ISBN 80-7008-155-4 (Theatre institute) a 5-85080-28-4 (Baltijskije sezony)

Let’s play Czechs II / Contemporary Czech drama

The second, expanded edition of an anthology of contemporary Czech drama in English is a ‘dramaturgical guidebook’ prepared in cooperation with the agencies Aura-Pont and Dilia. It serves to showcase Czech drama abroad: the individual entries present around fifty Czech authors along with short biographies of them and a summary of their work and best plays. 
Price 190 Czk / 91 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-223-2

Patronage, Spectacle and the Stage

The volume contains sixteen selected papers from an international theatre arts conference of the same name organised by the Theatre Institute and FIRT in connection with the Prague Quadrennial in June 2003 in Prague. An exploration of the relationship between stage design and the functional conditions of the theatre: various forms of support and funding for the theatre and their influence on the formation of aesthetic, ideological, and operational aspects of stage design. The volume was edited by Irene Eynat-Confino and Eva Šormová.
Price 280 Czk / 184 pp. / ISBN 80-7008-190-2

Prague Quadriennale 67–03: 40 Years of Prague Quadrennial

The DVD charts the history of the Prague Quadrennial, the world exhibition of scenography and theatre architecture, from its foundation in 1967 to its tenth year in 2003. The DVD contains brief excerpts from different years, an overview of participating countries, an overview of the award winners, and more information. In addition to a one-hour audiovisual presentation it contains more than 800 photographs of the best exhibits, which also represent the best work in world scenography at the time. 
Price 499 Czk

Prague Quadrenniale 2007

The DVD Prague Quadrennial 2007 contains a fifteen-minute documentary that captures the vibrant atmosphere of the eleventh year of the PQ in 2007, a video and photographs of the exhibits from the 51 participating countries and of live events, including the project Scenofest, a complete catalogue, and other bonus materials.
Price 359 Czk

Teatro checo contemporáneo

An anthology of Czech plays in Spanish translation: Václav Havel: The Garden Party, Petr Zelenka: Tales of Common Insanity, and David Drábek: Aquabelles. The anthology was published in April 2009 by Emergentes Publishers in Argentina in cooperation with the Arts and Theatre Institute and the Czech Centre in Buenos Aires.
The three plays included in this volume are revised Spanish translations by Monika Zgustová, Ivora Rodriguez, and Iván Gutiérrez, adapted to the context of Argentina by Argentine editors. The foreword to the publication was written by Kamila Černá.
Teatro checo contemporáneo, in translation Contemporary Czech Theatre, is the first title in a new publishing series issued by Emergentes Publishers, the objective of which is to re-evaluate the political, economic, social, and cultural context of every text and the information, original influences, and references present in the work by the given author. Argentina is genuinely a great power in the Spanish-speaking world when it comes to the book market, but drama publications are often lacking from the selection of works offered by Argentine publishers. This new publishing series by Emergentes Publishers is trying to fill in this gap.
Price 150 Czk / 193 pp. / ISBN 978-987-24940-0-1

Visegrad Drama I: Weddings

The plan to publish four volumes of plays from four central European countries emerged as a joint idea of the theatre institutes in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. In this joint project each of the participating institutions prepares one volume that contains plays from all four countries dating from a certain period and translated into English. The final four-volume series is intended to offer readers a representative selection of central European drama in the 20th century. The first volume was published with the support of the International Visegrad Fund by the Theatre Institute in Slovakia. The thematic focus of this volume is Weddings and it presents several important works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Maryša by Alois and Vilém Mrštík, The Wedding by Stanisław Wyspiański, Snowdrifts by Vladimír Hurban Vladimírov, and The Glass Slipper by Ferenc Molnár. Each of the plays is accompanied by a study and photographs from a production. The publication concludes with a study by Marta Botíková on weddings and family traditions in Central European rural culture and their reflection in drama writings.
Price 290 Czk / 341 pp. / ISBN 80-88987-28-8

Visegrad Drama II: Escape

The second volume of Visegrad drama was published by the Theatre Institute in Hungary. Titled ‘Escape’, that is the volume’s thematic focus, and it presents four dramas from the first half of the 20th century: Arnošt Dvořák and Ladislav Klíma: Matthew Honest, Jerzy Szaniawski: The Seafarer, Áron Tamási: Songbird and Július Barč-Ivan: Two. 
Price 290 Czk / 334 pp. / ISBN 963 2172043

Visegrad Drama III: The Sixties

The third volume in this series contains works by the most important central European playwrights of the 1960s: Josef Topol: The End of the Shrovetide; István Örkény: Welcoming the Major / The Tót Family; Slawomir Mrozek: Tango and Leopold Lahola: Sunspots.
This volume is published by the Arts and Theatre Institute.
Price 340 Czk / 415 pp. / ISBN 978-80-7008-234-8