Theatre site-specific European Lighting School: Prague (CZ), 25th-28th June of 2015
The final 9th workshop of ELS addresses the issue of theatre in site-specific conditions / location. What is actually site-specific theatre? There are many heterogeneous or incomplete definitions, nevertheless, we do not perceive it as a production of a TRADITIONAL performance in a NON – traditional space, but as a distinctive dramatic event, based on the specific location, its architectural or landscape peculiarities, genius loci, topography and especially its historical and social contexts.
The selected location, the foundations below the former Stalin’s Monument at the Letná, is more than a rich source of inspiration for this purpose: its position in urban planning of the city, long and turbulent history including a short, but essential placement of Stalin’s Monument as well as the subsequent period when the purpose of the object was radically modified up to the present day when the location is revived by sub-cultural activities, all this provides a series of connotations, motivations and possible points of view.
The objective is to present in particular Czech, respectively Central European, approach to the genre of site-specific theatre and so a purely theatrical event , connected to the space and its historical development on one hand, limitation as much as technical side concerns (possible power input, technical possibilities etc.) on the other hand. The outcome of the workshop is going to be a short performance, based on a site- specific dramatic structure, where the leading role of the narrator or guide is played by light, but in combination with dramatic action, based on the context of the location. Apart of the technical equipment, the participants are going to work with performers and live musical accompaniment.
The lecturer is one of the greatest domestic experts on the topic of site-specific, Tomáš Žižka.
Location:
Foundations of the former Stalin’s Monument (Letná Hill)
Letná Hill, Prague 7 (Prague Metronom)
https://www.google.cz/maps/dir///@50.0944361,14.4162093,18z
Gallery:
http://praha.idnes.cz/foto.aspx?r=praha-zpravy&c=A140429_130210_praha-zpravy_bur&foto=VOV52daf0_Stalin.jpg
lecturer
MgA. Tomáš Žižka
(*1963, Bratislava, SK)
He graduated at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre of DAMU in Prague, he participated on and led many workshops and symposia throughout the world (for instance ODIN Theatret, Norway; Performing Art symposium, Bremerhaven; lecturer of movement techniques in Mexico; external teacher in HKU, Utrecht; Akademia umetnosti, Beograd etc.). He worked in Laterna Magika (Prague), HaDivadlo (Brno), directed the experimental space Roxy in Prague, participated on projects Grand Theatre Groningen, he is a consultant of the Moving Academy for Performing Arts in Amsterdam.
In 1997, he founded a voluntary association Mamapapa, which is focused on team art making of an experimental character. He is a musician and performer in groups MAMAPAPABANDA and ICON ORCHESTRA, musical and visual ensembles of scenic music.
Since 1997, he has been a teacher at DAMU in Prague, in the present days; he is the head of the bachelor´s programme Theatrical Creation in Non-Traditional Spaces.
He is engaged in cultural animation, community art and audio-visual projects; he is dedicated to art education in the Czech Republic and abroad. He is an initiator and author of many site-specific projects.
As a co-author, he published several publications such as Site- specific (Pražská scéna, 2008), Theatre in non-traditional space, performances and site- specific (AMU in Prague, 2010), Knowtilus – submersion into the science through art (AMU in Prague, 2013), Isles of knowledge (AMU in Prague, 2014).
Video by Radka Kamenická.
Organizer: Institute of Lighting Design Prague