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In this invaluable and detailed presentation of the leading creative figures in a richly innovative and dynamic period of Czech theatre, Professor Jarka M. Burian provides us with insightful portraits of the directors K. H. Hilar, E. F. Burian, Alfred Radok, and Otomar Krejca: of the famous Voskovec and Werich comedic duo; of the scenographer Josef Svoboda; and of the playwright, now President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel. There are also briefer studies of numerous other directors, designers, and actors. The author, a Czech-American theatre scholar and practitioner, has been a frequent on-site observer of Czech theatre since 1965. He is directly acquainted with many of the major artists and the most notable productions that have made Czech theatre internationally famous.
The motto Národ sobě – “From the Nation to Itself” – inscribed over the proscenium arch of Prague’s National Theatre symbolizes the importance theatre holds for the Czechs. During the National Awakening of the 19th century, theatre took the place of politics, becoming an instrument of national identity in the hands of the revivalists. In what was then part of a German-speaking empire, the Czechs devised a complex and evocative theatre language made up of allegory, allusion, juxtaposition, games, wordplay, legend, history, illusion and music. A sophisticated avant-garde theatre flowered in Czechoslovakia between the wars, and became a symbol of independence during the Nazi occupat...
This is precisely the book I have been looking out for ever since working at my Das Drama. Theorie und Analyse (1977; The Theory and Analysis of Drama, 1988), and discovering from a few specimens the incisive usefulness and importance of Prague School theatre semiotics. There is everything one could possibly wish for in this monumental Theatre Theory Reader: Prague School Writings: all the by now canonical texts and many others presented for the first time in English, arranged in a systematic order which fully renders the sense of the scope and development of Czech theatre semiotics, and all of them in highly competent translations aware of the terminological complexities at stake and suppor...
The story of Czech theatre in the twentieth century involves generations of mesmerizing players and memorable productions. Beyond these artistic considerations, however, lies a larger story: a theatre that has resonated with the intense concerns of its audiences acquires a significance and a force beyond anything created by striking individual talents or random stage hits. Amid the variety of performances during the past hundred years, that basic and provocative reality has been repeatedly demonstrated, as Jarka Burian reveals in his extraordinary history of the dramatic world of Czech theatre. Following a brief historical background, Burian provides a chronological series of perspectives an...
The book of studies named Globalisation Trends in the Media contains an evaluation of the media culture in Slovakia. It deals with problems caused by globalisation and by the specific circumstances of media production. Whilst the post socialist states are, in many respects, in a similar situation, they each have their own specific attributes too. As this book features not only Slovak, but also Czech and Polish authors, the English reader will be able to gain an idea of the state of media production, and especially of the media culture, in Central Europe. The nature of media culture in Central Europe, when compared to that of countries situated further east, differs mainly in its inclination ...