BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA

"Theatre in the Public Space" is a new project of the Four Days in Motion that will include workshops and presentations related to site-specific productions. The team of leaders is made up of individuals from the Czech performing arts community who have several years experience of working on site-specific productions.

Lectors include:

*Šárka Havličková  (artistic director of the Alfred in the Courtyard Theatre Prague) - Artistic Leadership and the Production of Site-Specific Projects (April 14 - 21)
*SKUTR  (Lukáš Trpišovský and Martin Kukučka - dramaturgical and directing team) - The Actor in the Virtual Space (April 23 - 30)
*Daniela Voráčková and Phillipp Schenker  (Stage Code) - The Actor in the Site Specific (May 2 - 9)
*Jan Štěpánek  (scenographer and pedagogue at JAMU, Brno) - Activities in the Public Space (May 11 - 18)

The basic theme of the entire project is the phenomenon of the citizen's involvement during times of danger, and the analysis of the phenomenon that is commonly called the Bystander Effect. How do people and entire communities behave in times of danger? In a broader sense, the general theme will be extremism and the possibilities of adequately responding to them.

The expressive environment will be the location where Miroslav Bambušek and his team of artists will prepare the production, and will focus on smaller incidents that occur on the streets. Everyone has experienced these small scenes - a drunk turns on someone in a tram, a skinhead accosts a Romany, a pickpocket preys on his unknowing suspect. Together they all have the same through line. Even though the tram may be full, the aggressor behaves rather domineering and no one gets in his way. Fear? The anxiety of revenge? One way or the other, the assailant usually flees the "front line" unharmed. And this is really an example of the "bystander effect". During this project, the creators will rely on their long-term experience with the phenomenon of political theatre (the Balkan Season, Perzekuce.cz) and with the real experiences of people in this area. Many actors from the local Theatre Academy, as well as local citizens, will participate in the project.

In cooperation with the Theatre Institute, Czech Television will prepare a television documentary in this particular area that was affected by the civil war, pursuing the resonance of the phenomenon of the Bystander Effect from the point of view of the spectators and the performers involved in the project.

CROATIA

This exhibition presents thirty documentary photos of the most interesting new Czech performances from the field of physical, dance, visual, interactive, vocal, non-verbal and cross-over theatre as presented at the festival "Small Inventory" in February 2006 in Prague.

The Small Inventory Festival is a unique showcase of New Theatre, featuring the most interesting projects created over the last year. The fourth annual Small Inventory Festival offered a manifold program: more than 18 performance projects on six Prague stages. The initiator of the festival is the MOTUS association, producers of the Alfred in the Courtyard Theatre, where the year's best works on this stage was presented as part of the festival. The festival is also presented at the Archa Theatre, the NoD Universal Space, NABLÍZKO Theatre, the Eliade Library in Divadlo Zábradlí and in the Duncan Centre.

Organized by The Theatre Institute Prague in cooperation with Small Inventory and New Web Association.

- www.theatrefestival-rijeka.hr -

Sclavi (The Song of an Emigrant) is based on field research the Farm in the Cave did in villages of eastern Slovakia, on old Ruthenian and Ukrainian songs, on letters of Slovak emigrants, and on the story of Josef Čapek's Hordubal.

- www.theatrefestival-rijeka.hr -

ENGLAND

Together with the Czech Centres in London, the Theatre Institute will present a small showcase of Czech theatre during the FeEast Festival of Central European Theatre in the prestigious Riverside Studios in London. The Festival will open with the new site-specific production of the Czech-Romanian project "Flesh Back - Flesh Forward": A few Eastern European archetypical characters arrive at an Abattoir trying to negotiate their new identities in a tragic-comic post-communist world. The relationship between East and West, immigration, corruption and sex traffic are explored in this unique intercultural project. The recent history of Eastern Europe / Romania is retold through personal stories, myths, images, songs, dances and stereotypes.

The FeEast Festival will close with the award winning Czech performances of SCLAVI - Songs of an Immigrant by the Farm in a Cave.

Czech participation during the festival:
November 16 - 19, 2006 Soul-etude (Petr Nikl)      performance
November 29 - December 2, 2006 Farm in the Cave: SCLAVI: Songs of an Immigrant      performance

Partners of the project: Czech Centre in London, FeEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Theatre, Riverside Studios

- www.feeast.com, www.czechcentre.org.uk -

GERMANY

An exhibition and seminar will be organized to commemorate the 70th birthday of Czech playwright, dramatist and former President of the Republic, Václav Havel. The international conference will focus on the question of staging Havel plays on today's German stages. The exhibition will include photographs, posters, and documentary materials of Havel plays that have been presented at home and on the international stages.

Partners of the project: Berliner Festspiele, Czech Centre in Berlin, Robert Bosch Foundation

- www.berlinerfestspiele.de -

The Biennale in Wiesbaden is the only international festival that focuses entirely on the contemporary dramatists and selects plays that are presented in their original languages with German subtitles. The organizers are interested in the text of the plays. During the festival, all authors of the plays are usually present, and "godfathers" from each country create the panel that selects the productions. The festival's internationally, specialized audience enables a very lively communication about the direction of contemporary theatre. The festival regularly presents 20 to 25 theatre productions. The Czech "godfather" of the Wiesbaden Biennale is Arnošt Goldflam, who is also one of the organizers of the Czech participation in the festival. Previous Czech participation in the festival includes the production of the Archa Theatre's Sweet Theresienstad in 1998.

Partners of the project: Theaterbiennale des Staatstheaters Wiesbaden

- www.neuestuecke.de -

HOLLAND

Three Czech dancers and choreographers, three different approaches to dance. Veronika and Petra enjoy new technology and aesthetics; Kristýna works with authentic and social phenomenon. With her own "multi-media" and "cosmic image", Petra has distinguished herself from everything that has already been seen on the Czech dance scene. Veronika excels with her own unique dance and musical talent, and if one tries to categorize her work into a specific genre, they would fall somewhere between dance and music. And Kristýna? I don´t know of anyone else who has so brilliantly engaged herself on social themes on the Czech dance scene, and has worked so perfectly with amateurs with no previous dance education.

And what do they have in common? They are young, successful and, without a doubt, beautiful. They all graduated from the same dance conservatory in Prague - the Duncan Centre. And that is what is most essential.

Thanks to these three young female artists and their companies, the Czech dance scene has once again come back to life after several years of isolation and foreign artists are now becoming inspired by their central European originality.

Preliminary programme:
17. a 18. 8. Handa Gote Research / Veronika Švábová: Red Green Blue, Noise
17., 18. a 19. 8. Petra Hauerová: Night Moth
19. a 20. 8. Kristýna Lhotáková: Featured
17. - 26. 8. Contemporary Czech Theatre - exhibition

Partners of the project: Nooderzon Festival, Dance Zone Magazine

- www.noorderzon.nl -

IRELAND

During the Eastern European Writing Festival, the Prime Cut Theatre in Belfast after consultation with the Theatre Institute in Prague will premiere the Czech content of their project with the award-winning comedy Tales of Common Insanity by Petr Zelenka.

Partners of the project: Prime Cut Theatre, Aura Pont Literary Agency

- www.primecutproductions.co.uk -

ITALY

During the Short Theatre Festival - Radical Transformations in ACT, Italian director Francesco Saponaro has adapted Jiří Pokorný´s contemporary Czech drama Odpočívej v pokoje for the Italian stage. The Short Theatre Festival will also include discussions with the directors and dramatists of Central and Eastern Europe.

Partners of the project: Teatro di Roma, Czech Centres in Rome

- www.artefatti.org -

POLAND

Czech presentation during festival:
Petr Nikl / Archa Theatre: Dance of the Toys      performance

Partners of the project: Festival Muzyki Teatralnej, Teatr Cinema, Archa Theatre

- www.teatrcinema.pl -

The new festival, The Neighbours, in Lublin will present various forms of contemporary theatre from each of the neighbouring countries of Poland. After consultation with the Theatre Institute, the organizers have selected three representative theatre genres to be open the festival on the Czech National Day, June 19, 2006.

Preliminary programme:
Alice Nellis: The Floods (Theatre Na Zábradlí)      performance
Street performance: Continuo Theatre: The Flow of Time      performance
Krepsko Theatre: Kenkä      performance
Krepsko Theatre: The Smallest Woman in the World      performance
The theatre and children's performances are still being determined.

Partners of the project: Collegium of Polish and Ukrainian Universities, East-Central Europe Institute

- www.festiwal-sasiedzi.pl -

ROMANIA

October 26, 2006 New in Czech!      exhibition
October 27 - 28, 2006 SKUTR / Archa Theatre: Nickname      exhibition
October 29, 2006 Nanohach & I. M. Popovici: Portret      exhibition
October 30, 2006 Discussion of Contemporary Czech Theatre      discussion
October 30, 2006 David Drábek: Aquabelles      reading
October 31, 2006 Petr Zelenka: Tales of Common Insanity      reading

SCOTLAND

2006 marks the XXth annual Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Over the course of its existence, the Edinburgh Fringe has earned a reputation of presenting some of the most provokative and progressive theatre and dance projects from all over the world. This year, the dance-theatre-music project Farm in the Cave will present its award-winning production during the three week event.

Czech participation during the festival:
August 4 - 28, 2006 Farm in the Cave: SCLAVI - Song of the Immigrant      performance

Partners of the project: Czech Centre London

- www.edfringe.com -

SERBIA

In cooperation with the BITEF international festival of contemporary theatre and the Museum of Theatre in Serbia, the Theatre Institute will present the exhibition Contemporary Czech Theatre Photography, in the space of the Beozlog cultural centre in Belgrade. The exhibition will include 100 photographs and will follow the developments of theatre photography from the Velvet Revolution to today. The exhibition will be made up of the photographic works of top Czech photographers (Viktor Kronbauer, Jaroslav Krejčí, Bohdan Holomíček, and others). Lectures about contemporary Czech theatre and video presentations will also accompany the exhibition.

Partners of the project: BITEF Festival, Beozlog Cultural Centre

- www.mpu.org.yu -

SLOVAKIA

June 23 Líšeň Theatre: Requiem for a House      performance
June 23 and 24 Petr Ondrušek and Afro Break: Drumming      site specific
June 23 and 24 Jednotka/Unit: Free performance      site specific
June 23 and 24 Nori Sawa: Pieces and The Forest      performance
June 23 Circus Sacra: Mechanika      performance
24. 6. Kvelb Theatre: The Little Black Family      performance

- www.stanica.sk -

SPAIN

Throughout 2006, the Czech Centre in Madrid is preparing an extensive project entitled Season of Czech Stages in Madrid. The aim of the project is to present in Czech theatre and dance companies throughout the autonomous region of Madrid. Through this gesture, the Spanish audiences will encounter first hand the various forms and trends of the contemporary theatre and dance scene in the Czech Republic. In addition to their own selection of productions, the Czech Centre in Madrid is attempting to organize other cultural promotional activities, enriching the entire project and introducing the Czech theatre and dance scene from a different angle. The entire project originated in cooperation with the Theatre Institute in Prague, and the project has received the support of the Mayor of the City of Prague Pavel Bem and the Mayor of the city of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallrdón.

Czech presentation during festival:
February 1 - 26, 2006
Petr Nikl: Camera obscura      performance
Forman Brothers Theatre: La Baraque      performance
Audio-visual presentation of the Umělec magazine at La Casa Encendida

Partners of the project: Czech Centre in Madrid, Festival Escena Contemporanea, Umělec Magazine

- www.escenacontemporanea.com -

Czech presentation during festival:
Líšeň Theatre: Sávitrí
Karromato Theatre: The Emperor's Feast

Partners of the project: Czech Centre in Madrid, Festival Teatralia, Líšeň Theatre, Karromato Theatre

- www.madrid.org/clas_artes/festivales/teatralia05 -

"Life according to Jung". Things on the outside look a lot different that how they really are. How people behave is part of an unforeseeable reaction - unexpected and depraved. Seemingly, they don't correspond to the situations. If we dig deep into the hunman subconscious, perhaps we will discover the driving force behind their behaviour - or hidden contexts.

www.teatredeponent.com

Czech presentation during festival:
Circus Sacra: Draceana

Czech presentation during festival:
Jan Kodet / Archa Theatre: Lola & Mr. Talk

Partners of the project: Czech Centre in Madrid, Festival Madrid en Danza, Archa Theatre

- www.madrid.org/clas_artes/festivales/mdanza06 -

The original idea to present the most elaborate, reflexive showcase of the best puppet production companies from our countries this year, entitled "A Window to Czech Puppetry", has been post poned until next year. As a teaser to next year´s festival, the popular and world famous Naive Theatre Liberec will participate in this year´s Titirija Festival in Spain. Next year, the Spanish partners are interested in presenting five Czech companies (including independent companies), and also present lectures as well as the anticipated representative exhibition of Czech puppets (with the cooperation of the Regional Museum of Moravia).

Czech presentation during the Titirija Festival:
November 25 - December 3 Naive Theatre Liberec: The Headless Knight

Partners of the project: Titirija International Puppet Festival, Czech Centre of UNIMA, the Association of Professional Puppeteers

- www.cittolosa.com/es/marionetas -

(Programme may be subject to change)