SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER 14.–18. 4. 2015

Hephaestus smiths 3

Zeus sent 4

Hera supplied 8

Artemis hooked 12

Ares attacks 14

Aphrodite oversaw 16

MEETING POINT

25th International Festival of Theatre Schools SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER 2015

Editor in ChiefJiřina Hofmanová

Vice Editor in ChiefKarolína Vyhnálková

Assistant of Vice Editor in ChiefEva Krčmářová, Kateřina Uhrová

RedactorsKateřina Balíková, Jiřina Hofmanová, Karolina Ondrová, Michal Prax, Dagmar Říhová, Martin Srba, Miriam Šedá

TranslatorsLucie Kelčová, Kristína Pavlíková, Klára Škrobánková, Lada Štichová

Proofreading of the Czech VersionJan Krupa

Proofreading of the English Version Adrian Hundhausen

PhotographersLucie Říhová, Václav Mach

TypesettingPetra Novotná

OrganizerJanáčkova akademie múzických umění v BrněDivadelní fakultaMozartova 1, 662 15 BrnoIČ: 62156462DIČ: CZ62156462

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Rory Gilmore once said: “I’m glad this day has come…” All of us are going to get some rest and sleep; some will go and finally get their freak on at the divine party. The subsequent many-hours-lasting coma will only add the cream to the top of the mostly sunny and high-quality theatre festival. I must admit that I only know most of the producti-ons from the reviews but the fetishist Taming of the Shrew will occupy my mind in a good way for a long time to come. (I would also like to express my per-sonal regret that the Graz students did not get any prize. I definitely take my hat off to them!)As I have promised, there will be no food obsessi-on nor any build-up of words today. I will rather go down the path of sentiments, even though I must honestly confess that for different reasons, the path is not as steep as is usually the case at the end of cultural events. However, this does not mean that I would have no one to give my thanks to and to show my gratitude to. First, of course, must come two good souls (not one, only the one nearest and dearest to me) from the management of the fes-tival, namely Bára Holanová and Patrik Boušek. I would like to thank them for their daring hand in selecting and trusting me. I dare to hope that they do not regret it.A big thanks goes to all the managers who helped me in the editorial room both before and during the event. Most of all, I would like to thank Bára Lejskovjanová, the head of the marketing section, who helped me gather them under my wings. Eve-ryone contributed with their work. I will leave to their conscience the extent of their contributions.Finally, I would like to pay tribute to all those who have helped me create the content of our bulletin. To the reviewers for their texts that were, for the most part, of more than publishable quality. To the pro-ofreaders for their patience and leniency towards our misspelled words. To the translators for their willingness to spend nights with our plays on words. To Pavol Seriš for the politically incorrect comics, to Miriam Šedá for the Prague frontal assault.I mustn’t forget the directors who took part in our in-terviews at Meeting Point. We have perhaps helped the audience with their path to understanding the vision of the individual producers.I, too, say goodbye with these words to the anniver-sary, quarter-century-old SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER 2015. As has been repeated for so many times today – good luck, vigor and endurance in the next years.

No tears, no regrets, no erection.

Jiřina Hofmanová

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THE ROAD TO HAPPINESSGermany, Munich

Author: Ingrid Lausund

Language: German

Length: 85 minutes

Directors: Mario Andersen & Katja Wachter

Costumes: Mario Andersen & Katja Wachter & Christina Vogel

Set: Mario Andersen & Katja Wachter

Lighting design: Peter Platz

Choreography: Katja Wachter

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Formulating Thoughts through Words and Movement

Slowly but surely I have come to the conclusion that there is no need to write reviews about food as this is-sue was already discussed above. Let’s therefore dedica-te some lines to theatre. Although the dance production by The Bavarian Theatre Academy Munich was full of long monologues, it could be a thrilling experience even for a non-German audien-ce – but only if the audience was willing to engage them-selves with visual and sound impulses and without the help of words or actively looking for the meaning and their own interpretation. I do believe that there are peo-ple for whom looking at the neat and organized images created by the actors was just enough. Maybe the team had dealt with the issues of abstraction and the problematic formulation of the word “happi-ness”, searching for one’s identity and a way to coexist with the environment. For me as a non-German speaker, the spoken words were only background music, tying the production into a rhythmic, naturally flowing com-position. The monologues were usually recited together with dance moves by the seven remaining actors. In the second half the tempo-rhythm of the piece slowly star-ted to disappear. It was probably due to the two speeches that lacked the dance accompaniment– it was the first time when I was sorry for my non-existent knowledge of German. The whole production, its costumes and lights, was st-aged in blue. Except for that, the stage design was plea-santly simple. The stage of the Divadlo na Orlí was cove-red in a white rectangle with the actors casually sitting around it, drinking and preparing for their contributi-ons. Behind the rectangle were drums, an electric guitar and a bass that the actors played themselves to accompa-ny their dancing colleagues.Technically excellent, expressive dance or rather move-ment was unequivocally the main theme of the producti-on. To make a contrast with repetitive ordinary choreo-graphy and its pop melody (representing concentrated happiness as we know it from tabloids), the dancers/actors created scenes of inner struggles – describing the problems of being tied to the floor or to another person. The close relationship of these two extremes was de-monstrated by a dancing couple – a man and woman dancing through their romantic love to a brutal fight. Towards the end the audience saw group photographs of seemingly happy people collapse, tiresome pieces of pop choreography or the throwing of nicely wrapped pre-sents together with shouts of the empty words of “Happy Birthday!” The only thing that could be criticized were the moments when the actors were balancing on the thin line between authenticity and stylization. In my opinion the excessive length did not do the produ-ction good. This issue is connected with the loss of rhythm that was mentioned previously – and even though the actors were able to find their rhythm again, some spectators stayed bored. There were mixed reactions, but I personally think that one should not overlook the Munich production – for me it was one of the climaxes of the festival.

Karolina Ondrová

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The verb from ich is ichnen

The Bavarian Theatre Academy from Germany set on a journey towards happiness in Divadlo na Orlí. They chose the path of dancing, music and move-ment. This is exactly what accompanied us from the beginning to end, of course hand in hand with the spoken word.Mario Anderson and Katja Wachter produced a play by the German dramatist Ingrid Lausand and instead of one actor used eight. These eight actors lived on the stage in a whirl of “happiness” (that is if they were not sitting on the sides, drinking bottled water like hockey players on the bench waiting for their monumental entry). The performance was far from hysterical, but with the passage of time the constant whirling of bodies in the grip of others or themselves became a little stereotypical. 85 minutes were too much to be spent only on a battle between body and body, body and mind; however the first battles on stage were impressive.The repetition of Pharrell Williams’s Happy see-med to be out of place at first. After the introducto-ry reading from books, when a darker atmosphere was foreshadowed, eight actors suddenly stood up cheerfully and started to dance their choreography, accompanied by the music of the pop song. Over time the song became a darker version of itself and took on a bitter meaning that we had been able to overlook at the beginning. A dance between a man and a woman showing the progression of their rela-tionship – being in love, apathy, fighting each other – was among the well-executed scenes. Similar fea-tures enriched the whole performance.The costumes were very civilised and the only co-nnecting element was the colour blue, which was supposed to contrast with the cheerful song Happy as its opposite is called Blue. The modest stage de-sign felt very sober and clean, which once again en-hanced the experience of the elements of movement. The actors smoothly shifted between acting and per-forming on musical instruments in the background, or, as mentioned, on the sides of the stage as on a hockey bench.The length of the performance was, in my opinion, exaggerated. Yes, the journey towards happiness is a complex topic, especially with the use of motifs such as an unfulfilled birthday wish, merry songs, happy quotations and other emotional goodies. But this does not mean that everything needs to be said all the time, that everything must be included in the performance and that the whole performance must maintain a steady tempo.

Dagmar Říhová

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DiscussionThe first thing on the program of Saturday’s discussion was the production of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet by the Budapest University of Theater and Film Arts. The first minutes were devoted to the rehearsal pro-cess: after two weeks of reading rehearsal, the actors stepped on the stage and started the creative process. The director Zsótérov worked with the assumption that the movements were supposed to closely follow to the text. According to him, the text has clear bounda-ries and what is important is how it is said, not acted out.The team from the Lithuanian performance of Dre-amspell was represented by director Kamilé Gud-monité, who said that the desire to come up with the entire production arose from the only one scene that existed in the beginning. The director chose the actors from different classes and departments. The partici-pants in the discussion were taken aback by the high level of English of the actors. The biggest surprise for everyone was the fact that they originally learned the play in Lithuanian and they read the English version only fifteen minutes before the performance. The di-rector also said she was inspired by Robert Wilson and Suzuki.The minutes following the Lithuanians were devoted to The Little Mermaid – Wedding, which was perfor-med by students from Warsaw. To a question asking if they were inspired by Walt Disney, the students an-swered no, although they admitted they were temp-ted by this inspiration at first. When the discussion turned to the engagement of the audience in the play (which was often used by the actors), we learned that many of the elements were improvised and created in the course of the performance. The time remaining was filled with a debate on The Ta-ming of the Shrew from Graz. The participants talked about the scenography and the costumes. The director of the production said that she tried to capture how pe-ople try to look a certain way on the outside and their true nature is revealed only in unexpected situations – in this case it was the wobbly plank path at the front part of the stage. The audience was also impressed by the movements of the actors, which were in fact imita-tions of the movement of animals.The very last discussion of the festival was shorter than the ones that had preceded it; nevertheless the atmos-phere was just as pleasant as before.

Martin Srba

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Paranoid schizophrenic or genius? The performance Azyl 12-77 was created within the fra-mework of the project The stories of 20th century, the role of which was to introduce documentary theatre to students of JAMU. The text was by Adam Mašura and the director was Ján Tomandel. The actors were Adam Mašura and Viktor Zavadil, 3rd year students of dra-matic acting. Mašura, who portrays the character of Jan Lukeš, whom we discover later at a police interrogation, mo-ves around the stage from the entrance into the room. The character of Lukeš can be undoubtedly described as a Renaissance man who devotes so much time to so many fields that the mind boggles. Lukeš was a doctor before they took his licence away. After attempting to overthrow the regime and being called an enemy of the country, he started to focus his genius exclusively on written speech. He made up the language called iši into which he translated all his work. Lukeš used to write poems as well, as well as devoting time to musical com-position and other subjects. The audience encounters Lukeš in the moment when they persuade him at the police station that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. He is in rehab in Terezín and in Bohnice. A disability pension is granted to him af-ter seven years. He does not intend to give up on his life, however, and therefore he seeks professional assistan-ce from Doctor Stuchlík (Viktor Zavadil). The audience witnesses many strange effects. They are presented with many versions of the truth, with half the truth and with lies regarding this man. They become witness to the inti-mate bonding between Lukeš and Stuchlík as well. Mašura’s interpretation uses psychological elements. He has no difficulty playing both the initial tough man and later the wreck who submits completely and loses eve-rything. I have a certain sympathy for the character of Lukeš because I had no trouble believing absolutely eve-rything from actor Zavadil and his innocent face. They are both characteristically well picked – Mašura as a tou-gh guy with the soul of a genius and Zavadil as a man with an angelic face but with the character of a bastard. It is more likely a black-and-white story happening on a snow-white stage. Although the text could be more wor-ked out in some places, the acting is brilliant. However, in my opinion, documentary theatre should be different...

Michal Prax

Azyl 12-77. Director: Ján Tomandl, cast: Adam Mašura, Viktor Zavadil.

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Why are you lying here? Were you drinking?

The foyer of the Husa na provázku is crammed with people and everybody is impatiently shuffling their feet. With a tiny delay that is so typical for the artistic world, the closing ceremony of the 25th In-ternational Festival of Theatre Schools SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER begins. How well-known and how fitting for the end of the festival is the initial sketch of the young actors! They helplessly lie on stage, not able to light a cigarette or to put on their underwe-ar, with faces showing the signs of lack of sleep and hangovers. Then, as at the very beginning, comes the audience’s favorite official introduction of the sponsors followed by the alpha part, the speeches of prof. Ing. MgA. Ivo Medek, Ph.D., the “titan” of the Theatre Faculty doc. MgA. Zbyněk Srba, Ph.D., and the festival coordinator Barbora Holanová. They all thank the organizers, the jury and the part-ners, they wish a pleasant journey home and suc-cessful careers to all the participants. Then starts the beta part and for the last time the festival jury is introduced. Only Jussi Kareinen was not present, as the rest of the jurors killed him – he disagreed with them (editor’s note: that is a joke, obviously). The ceremony continues with the most highly an-ticipated part – the awards. Six Marta statuettes are awarded altogether. Two go to the Lithuanian students, one to actors from Bratislava, Munich, Budapest and Verscio. The final ceremony has en-ded with speeches by prof. Mgr. Petr Oslzý and prof. Josef Kovalčuk, PhDr, who recalled the first year of the festival. They agreed that the festival has matured but lost none of its vitality. The students say goodbye with the bizarre “dance of the wi-nners”. The festival ends but you should remember that life is like a banana. Once you peel it, you can never take it back.

Kateřina Balíková

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STUDENT JURY AWARD

Student Jury E:UTSA Award presented by Luka Vassos, chairmain of the student jury:For combining in a very consistent way fine and per-forming arts, music and choreography, and for ope-ning the doors of our minds student jury award goes to Kamilé Gudmonaité, director of the performance Dreamspell from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania.

JURY AWARDS

Jury Award presented by Paul Bourne, chairman of the festival jury:For the outstanding direction of a truly ensemble work, guiding this talented company in creating a powerful choreographic, visual, sonic and vocal world. With a strong metaphysical dimension and spiritual quality, this highly original work was fully realised with craft, guile and imagination of the per-formance Dreamspell to Kamilé Gudmonaité from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vil-nius, Lithiania.

Jury Award presented by Christine Richier:Jury presents an award for a pair of actors who to-gether created well balanced, clear, concrete and mature performances. This believable couple were fresh in their approach with a light touch and clearly articulated intentions. They contributed along with their excellent fellow actors to a production that was well directed, conceived and realised in the per-formance Talk to me. Jury awards goes to Barbora Andrešičová a Richard Autner from The Academy of Music and Performing Ars, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

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Jury Award presented by Frédéric Poty:For the presence, intensity and energy in an interpre-tation renewing an iconic play in a truly contempora-ry way, we want to celebrate this original and united work with an award to the promising and exciting actor for his performance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Award goes to Attila Vidnyánszky from University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest, Hungary.

Jury Award presented by Kristina Žantovská:For an authentic and dynamic actor who was as part of a convincing collective production that was rea-lised with powerful vocal and physical articulation. A production that challenged and engaged our sen-ses and sensibilities in expressing the unbearable happiness of our lives. Jury awards the acting in the performance The Road to Happiness. Award goes to Sebastian Griegel from the Bavarian Theatre Aca-demy, Munich, Germany.

FESTIVAL DIRECTOR AWARD

Festival director award presented by Petr Oslzlý:For the inspirational scriptwriting, directing and ac-ting in the authorial artistic performance The Book of Stolen Faces festival director presents his award to Balázs Várnai from the Theatro Dimitri School, Verscio, Switzerland

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3D Digital Technologies and Art Can Go Hand in Hand

The organizers of the festival SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUN-TER approached MCAE Systems. who have been in the 3D modeling technologies business for 20 years and offer services such as 3D modeling, 3D capture, machining, industrial design, and more. They were approached to produce the E:UTSA prize using 3D printing. The student jury awards the prize for the most inspirational individual performance. Its production was handled by MgA. Adam Krhánek, an architect and a member of the design team of MCAE Systems. The pre-printing editing was done using FreeForm modeling software, which allows designers and modelers to quickly create or modify their original models. The 3D printing of the pri-ze was done using the Fortus 450mc printer from Stratasys. The printer uses various thermoplastics of production quality. ABS material in Ivory and FDM printing technology were used in this case. After the printing process, the model was sub-sequently smoothed and polychromed. Polychrome is a technique for decorating art. The final product was then varnished.

Monika Bársonyová

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