Festival programme 2023
Thursday 2. 11. / 11.30, 14.00, 16.00, 18.00
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 15.00, 17.00, 19.00
in front of Vzlet
Moetivi Karavan / Expedice k domovu
Produkční platforma ProFitArt, Praha
Maybe home is wherever we are.
A project that enters the landscape and tradition.
An expedition to the essence of what makes a home a home.
The original performance by Dominika Špalková and Bára Ungerová for families with children takes place in a specially adapted caravan, which is also an art installation.
Dominika: Home for me is boiling water in a kettle and the radio on.
Bára: Home for me is bread and butter.
And what is home for you?
We were looking for an answer to the question of what home is and what makes it. We went on journeys that led far north of our homes - among the volcanoes and lichens of Iceland and up to the Sami and reindeer in northern Norway.
Authors and performers Dominika Špalková and Bára Ungerová
Author collaboration at the beginning of the journey: Lucie Dlabolová
Author collaboration at the end of the journey: Vendula Tomšů
Design: Barbora Ungerová
Set design: Vendula Tomšů
Music: Dva, Zrní, Kutya
Sound: Ladislav Mirvis Mirvald
Lights: Jiří Pirko Šmirk
Photodocumentation: Jiřina Šmídová, Barbora Ungerová
For audiences aged 4 and up
Length of performance: 40 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 14.00, 19.15
VZLET - klubovna
Neboj, Houbo
Tmel, Praha
The forest is waking up. Mushrooms are growing. He who lives in the forest goes out to harvest. Only one small mushroom cannot grow. Can't, or won't? Asks the one who wants to harvest it. Will he or must he? In the end, no one wants to succumb to fear, but no one wants to be alone either. Not even a mushroom in the forest.
Directed by TMEL Collective
Dramaturgy, music by Jan Froněk
Set design: Berta Doubková
Performed by Antonie Rašilovová
For audiences aged 4 and up
Running time: 30 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 15.00
Vzlet - foyer
Truffle hunters
Studio DAMUZA
An adventurous quest for the gold of the forest for children from 5 years old.
As the forest calls, so the forest calls. Do you like to be scared? Come with us on a hunt to the darkest depths of the forest. A truffle hunt.
A truffle is a real treasure. The king of mushrooms, the jewel of the forest, the diamond of the kitchen. Finding it is a great adventure. Their hunters are two quirky loners who have walked in more than one shoe. The forest is their kingdom of the night. They have their work cut out for them, but do they know everything about the forest? Do they know all the pitfalls of the changing nature that is their second home? And who is at home here?
Directed by Jiří Ondra
Set design by Tereza Bartůňková
Music by Marek Doubrava
Cast: Pavol Smolárik, Richard Fiala and Jiří Ondra
For audiences aged 5 and up
Running time: 45 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 17.00
Vzlet - foyer
Landscape in a backpack
Markéta Labusová, Iva Ščerbáková, Tomáš Mašek
In the rain and wind, the branches of bushes appear in the light of fog lamps and lean into curves during night driving. They gently beat against the car. We drive past the bridge under which the troll lives, past roofless houses, stone fences and overgrown hills in the middle of nowhere. We imagine the landscape from Sinead's depiction rather than seeing it.
A musical-object narrative of a landscape populated by stories. From an island where the sheep are dyed blue and pink and where it rains from the bottom up.
Hitchhiking, sleeping, questioning, busking, wandering. And a lot of rain.
Concept, direction, perfomers: Iva Ščerbáková, Markéta Labusová a Tomáš Zahrádka
For audiences aged 5 and up
Running time: 35 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 18.00
Vzlet - velký sál
The Registered Association of Czech and Slovak Puppeteers states: Kašpárek and Zbojník
DRAK Theatre, Hradec Kralove and Puppet Theatre Bratislava
Did you know that Czechoslovak puppetry is a UNESCO World Heritage Site? It is! Czech and Slovak puppeteers, as well as their loyal audiences, have thus received worldwide recognition, culminating the years of effort of generations of our predecessors. Today's Czech and Slovak puppeteers have therefore come together to combine all their strength, all their art and the best of their traditions to celebrate this important achievement. And how else to celebrate the Czechoslovak puppetry tradition than with the premiere of a brand new, yet completely traditional and above all perfectly Czechoslovak puppet play, or piece? Well, ladies and gentlemen, the registered association of Czech and Slovak puppeteers presents a traditional Czechoslovak puppet play: the Puppeteer and the Robber! The thirty-year anniversary of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia offers a unique opportunity to reflect theatrically on an extraordinary phenomenon, which is the unique closeness of two nations that have been united in their historical development for 75 years, and which is probably unparalleled in the world. But how do we perceive it today? And how is it perceived today in both countries by a child viewer, for whom coexistence in a common state is no longer just a chapter in a history book? We want to explore these questions through an original Czech-Slovak production that uses the original story to explore the various forms of the contemporary relationship between Czechs and Slovaks.
Screenplay by Peter Galdík, Tomáš Jarkovský
Directed by Šimon Spišák, Jakub Vašíček
Dramaturgy: Peter Galdík, Tomáš Jarkovský
Set design: Karel Czech, costumes: Tereza Vašíčková, music by Daniel Čámský
Cast: Frederika Kašiarová, Pavla Lustyková, Milan Hajn, Šimon Dohnálek, Ĺubomír Piktor, Ĺuboš Janák
For audience aged 10 and up
Running time: 70 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 20.00
Vzlet - foyer
VAR
GAFA Kolektiv, DAMU, Prague
In a post-apocalyptic totalitarian society, the protagonist decides to escape from a labour camp. Will he have a happy return home, or will the system eventually do him in?
Directed by Josef Neudeker
Dramaturgical adaptation by Jakub Vaverka
Set design: Anna Hubená
Music by Josef Neudeker
Cast: Martin Micouch, Danny Takieddin
For audiences aged 6 and up
Running time: 25 minutes
Thursday 2. 11. 2023 / 20.30
Vzlet - dlouhé foyer
Punch and Judy
Buchty a loutky, Prague
A puppet grotesque, originally from England.
Judy invites Punch to babysit their whiny child. Punch solves everything in his own way. Just as he subsequently deals with Judy and the other characters. But when death finally comes, things get tough. How will it play out? Who knows.
Directed by Buchty a loutky
Puppets and set: Tereza Komárková
Cast: Marek Bečka, Vít Brukner, Radek Beran
For audiences aged 14 and up
Running time: 20 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 11.00
Vzlet - velký sál
Supermaňásci
Alfa Theatre, Pilsen
The traditional grand celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Pilsen by American troops at the end of World War II is in full swing. The streets of the West Bohemian metropolis are crowded with enthusiastic spectators. The most special guest of this year's ceremony is the famous superhero, Captain America. But the idyll of the festivities is shattered by a terrifying report from the Observatory in Skvrňany. A giant asteroid is hurtling towards Pilsen at a tremendous speed. Panic breaks out in the city, which is fortunately immediately calmed by the presence of Captain America. He and his team of hastily summoned superheroes decide to save Pilsen.
Meanwhile, in the Pilsen Puppet Museum, a team of the most famous Czech and Pilsen heroes - classic puppet characters - are feverishly preparing for the same rescue mission. Under the leadership of the eloquent Kašpárek, the invulnerable Headless Knight, the waterproof Waterman and the flying Devil are preparing for action. Instead of saving the city, the two teams, to the surprise of the terrified Pilseners, first engage in a fierce battle to see who will have the right to save Pilsen.
Directed by Tomas Dvorak
Set design: Marek Zákostelecký
Dramaturgy: Vít Peřina, Petra Kosová
Music: V. Šrámek
Cast: K. Franková, M. J. Hartmannová, L. V. Lupínková, R. Mašková, M. S. Bartůšek, P. Borovský, D. Horečný, T. Jereš, R. Kroupar, P. Vydarený
For audiences aged 6 and over
Running time: 50 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 15.00, 17.00
Vzlet - foyer
Fabula Silvestris
Musaši Entertainment Company, Praha
In the forest, everything has its own order. Every creature, every tree and every mushroom keeps it in order until man comes and brings his mess, his garbage. A tale of ingenuity, diligence, love of nature and home. Almost everyone lives somewhere. Our home is where our loved ones, our friends are. Our home is where we have a background, where we feel safe, where we can hide. Our home is where we know it - the city, the neighborhood, the village, the countryside. The heroes of the story, Boban Vazba and Mr. Hladký, are at home in the forest. They have their friends, themselves, they can hide under the moss, go mushroom picking. So they take care of the forest, feed the animals and clean up their poop. But not everyone is so responsible and tidy. Not everyone takes care of their common home. What if someone made a dump in our room? When a garbage fortress appears in the woods, there's no time to think twice, Boban Vazba and Mr. Hladky must track down its builder and tip him off!
Creative team: Adam Páník, Tereza Havlová, Kateřina Bejčková, Anastázie Dobrodinská, Františka Jesenská, Boris Jedinák
For audiences aged 5 and up
Running time: 45 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 14.00, 18.00, 19.00, 20.00
Vzlet - klubovna
Takk Takk
Fras, Praha
We are slowly discovering what Iceland is all about. What a strange smell the warm water has here, how the wind blows and how early it gets dark. The dark creatures of the sea that come out to the lighthouse after all the townspeople are asleep. The Aurora Borealis hides behind the clouds, but we all know this strange entity is out there somewhere. Lonely farms at the foot of mountains, huge glaciers. Seals. A strange light that makes you feel that every minute here is more unique than anywhere else. All this we learn to understand and know.
Authors: Johana Bártová and Jakub Šulík
Music by Guðmundur Ari Arnald
For audiences aged 8 and up
Duration of performance: 30 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 16.00
Vzlet - velký sál
Mikrosvěty
Jazmína Piktorová
Movement-object performance for everyone from 4 years old.
Our Earth is full of worlds within worlds. Each of these microworlds lives its own unique life. Through micro-movements, body landscapes and small object play, the performance focuses our attention on the little things that are often not visible at first glance. Playful and poetic, the production explores the fragility of our existence.
Concept: Jazmína Piktorová
Choreography, interpretation by Jazmína Piktorová, Sabina Bočková
Dramaturgy: Mária Danadová
Visual cooperation: Simona Gottierová
Music by Václav Kalivoda
Lighting design: Jiří Šmirk
Consultation and research: Monika Kováčová, Mária Danadová, Aleš Hrdlička, Alessandro Lumare and Simona Lobefaro - Segni mossi
For audiences aged 4 and up
Length of performance: 45 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 18.00
Před Vzletem
Jumbo
A. Formanová, A. Klimešová, J. Šulík & M. Zika
Big. Huge. Grandiose. Colossal. XXXL. Hugely entertaining, Jumbo.
The largest elephant in human history, and one of the world's first animal celebrities.
He's been seen by over 15 million adults and 4 million children.
Known for his exceptional size, he became the darling of Great Britain and later the United States of America, where he was purchased by Mr. P. T. Barnum's circus.
How did the fans see him and what was he really like? A big elephant with big nightmares.
Come see inside the elephant who was never alone, yet was lonely.
The souvenir hunters, the Jumbists, have put together an unforgettable jumbo experience.
Designed and directed by Anna Klimešová, Antonie Formanová
Stage design, puppets: Mikoláš Zika, Jakub Šulík
Cast: Antonie Formanová, Antonín Brukner, Arman Kupelyan
For audiences aged 5 and up
Running time: 45 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 18.00
Minor – velký sál
Tramtárie
Divadlo Minor, Praha
Tramtaria is loosely based on the popular musical production Libozvuky. This time we will dive together into a magical realm of words, colours, magic and laughter. Someone appears, someone runs, someone whispers, whispers, whispers and something disappears. Does a fish sleep standing up? Can a spider woman climb a ladder? Can a vampire drum? Come and let yourself be carried away by what's happening around you. Allowing yourself to fool around and go beyond the very boundaries of everyday life is the main starting point for the joyful and liberating play we will experience together. Breathe in, breathe out and yee-haw....
In the production you will hear snippets of nonsense lyrics and be sure your children will remember them. Attention! The verses are highly addictive!
Shout out, brothers.
The faker the better
Directed by Jiří Austerlitz
Dramaturgy: Iva Kopecká, Petra Zichová
Scene and costumes: Kristýna Täubelová
Lighting design: Jan Komárek
Music: Marek Doubrava
Cast: Josef Havelka, Vendula Holičková, Jan Hrovatitsch, Fedir Kis, Jiří Kniha, Bára Mišíková, Kateřina Neznalová or Hedvika Řezáčová, Matěj Šíma, Sara Vosobová
For audiences aged 5 and up
Running time: 55 minutes
Friday 3. 11. 2023 / 21.15
Vzlet - velký sál
Concert
Band Holinky
Band Holinky /Klezmer, Balkan, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Russian and Roma folklore/ - Musicians from Holinky, although of different genres, met on the Prague music scene to play different world music. They perform their various repertoire in concerts, dream performances, carnival processions or other festivities. Composed of tuba, drums, accordion, clarinet and violin, they delight any party as well as highlight the romantic situation of the so-called dance crawl. The Holins are the Band for your weddings and funerals. Concert band and backing band.
Anezka Heinzlova - violin, vocals
Matěj Heinzl - clarinet, vocal
Simon Janak - tuba, vocal
David Lomič - accordion, vocals
Jakub Šulík - drums, vocal
For audiences from 15 years of age
Running time: 60 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 10.00
Minor - malá scéna
Clay
Lampion Theatre, Kladno
An adventure fairy tale about Franta Hlinomaz's battle with orcs.
Have you heard that under the Kladno housing estate there is an ancient realm of orcs, which no man has ever dared to set foot in? Except one! One day Franta Hlinomaz lost his best friend, his cat Ruda. It is said that he was dragged by the Orcs to the underground realm. Fortunately, Franta was a skilled worker, so he dug into the goblin's lair with a jackhammer and rescued the cat. At least that's the rumor around here. Join Hlinomaz on an adventurous rescue mission into the realm of darkness!
Directed by Petr Erbes and Boris Jedinák
Scennograpyh by Jan Brejcha, Mikoláš Zika
Music: Tomáš Procházka
Cast: Diana Hauptová, Štefánie Šubová, Radek Pokorný, Jiří Šponar, Jan Vejražka
For audiences aged 6 and up
Running time: 60 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 11.00, 14.00
Minor - ponorka
Visit
Terén, Brno
Theatrical production for children, their parents and everyone who likes to visit.
The Visit is an attempt to show things up close. To get close to the moment when paint is created, to feel how it is absorbed into the paper, to see how the brush is held, how it slides on the surface or how it rebels. It is a look at things ordinary and simple, but which, when approached, speak the language of wonder. The production is created as a conversation between painter and illustrator Veronika Vlková and puppeteer and set designer Robert Smolík. A conversation between exhibition and theatre.
The original work of puppeteer Robert Smolík and painter Veronika Vlková
For audiences aged 4 and up
Running time: 60 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 14.00, 16.00, 20.00
Minor – Bar Loutka
The Ghost King
Puppentheater Zwickau
In this production based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's ballad of the same name, in which a father rushes through the woods on horseback in the dark night with his child, the ride becomes a desperate battle against time and a duel with a ghost king symbolizing impending death.
Thanks to 360° virtual technology, you will find yourself in the middle of the action and can experience the story up close, in all its intensity and desperation.
The virtual presentation includes a subsequent discussion with the creators about the production you have just watched.
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Directed by Monika Gerboc
Dramaturgy: Dominique Suhr
Design: Ewa Woźniak, Eva Farkašová, Rafał Budnik
Puppets: Rafał Budnik
Music: Daniel Špiner
Cast: Hanna Daniszewska, Laura Waltz, Calum MacAskill, Camillo Fischer and Martha Stöckner (as a child)
Voice of the Ghost King: Błazej Modelski
For audiences aged 13 and up
Running time: 25 minutes + discussion
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 15.00
Minor – malá scéna
Colours
Bajka, Česky Těšín
Interactive performance full of lights, sounds, atmospheres and moods.
Red and green. Purple! Orange? Mix purple and cyan, and there's blue! Deep, heavenly. Azure and yellow make green. She'll calm you down, take your hand and say - come on, everything's as it should be. Yellow will make you happy. White will calm you down. Black is nothingness when the sun goes out. But there's a glimmer in it! Vibrant and full of endless possibilities.
Directed by Braňo Mazúch
Light, sound: Roman Mračna, Vojtěch Chobot
Cast: Dorota Grycz , Ewa Kus , Wanda Michałek , Jakub Tomoszek
For audiences aged 3 and up
Running time: 50 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 16.00
Minor – velký sál
Unwrap it!
Concert
A variety of colours, songs, instruments and genres... that's what the children's band Rozbal to! And will they unwrap the giant present? Let them surprise you.
Unwrap It! is a brand new band for kids and their parents. Four musicians, four actors, a river of wishes granted...
The line-up:
Pavol Smolarik (guitar, bass ukulele, vocals)
Petr Reif (guitar, ukulele, cajon, accordion, vocals)
Ondrej Nosalek (bass ukulele, cajon, vocal)
Jana Nosalkova (piano, trombone, vocal)
For audiences from 3 years of age
Length of performance: 60 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 17.30
Minor – malá scéna
The world is at a loss
Popcorn, ZUŠ F. A. Špork, Jaroměř
A production inspired by Greenlandic myths and the writings of Knud Rasmussen.
Nothing is as far away as it seems...
And what's your clue?
Inuit tamarmik ajortuliaat nujarsuini takisuuni ipinngortarput. = The evil deeds of all mankind are caught in her hair like dirt.
Nussussaartoq = When the sea doesn't freeze
Direction and dramaturgy: Jarka Holasová a soubor
Cast: Adam Koryta, Agáta Matesová, Anna Jirková, Eliška Novotná, Magdaléna Škodová, Matyáš Dörr, Vendula Povalilová, Viktorie Ulrychová and Zuzana Cejnarová
For audiences aged 10 and over
Running time: 20 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 18.15
Minor - uši
Nelkej, Čechie!
Bažantova loutkářská družina, Poniklá
A patriotic fictional historical drama about the firefighting of the National Theatre with the participation of the Poniklá choir.
Directed, designed, acted by Tomáš Hájek
For audiences aged 10 and up
Running time: 25 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 19.00
Minor – malá scéna
Five times around the world
Tygr v tísni, Prague
A family production inspired by the adventures of traveller Barbara Markéta Eliášová, who set off on her first round-the-world journey in 1912. She travelled by train across Russia to Vladivostok. From there, she sailed for three weeks by steamer to Japan, where she worked as a governess for the children of an English professor and taught at a postal school. She learned Japanese, ate with chopsticks, wore a kimono and became the first European graduate of the Ikebana course. From Japan she travelled by boat to America, returning to Prague via Chicago and New York. She went around the world four more times. Each time she chose a different route. She experienced the boorishness of the Dutch colonizers in Java, the vitality and suspicious carelessness of the Australians, and wrote diaries, articles, travelogues and novels about it all.
The company Tygr v tísni is developing a travelogue puppet show about a girl who grew up without parents but managed to turn loneliness into independence and make her dreams come true in a time when women didn't even have the right to vote.
Directed by Zuzana Burianová
Dramaturgy: Marie Nováková
Music by Marek Doubrava
Scenography: Tereza Havlová
Cast: Alžběta Nováková and Jiří Kniha
For audiences aged 6 and up
Running time: 60 minutes
Saturday 4. 11. 2023 / 20.15
Minor – velký sál
Kytice vol.2
Johan & Petr Vydarený, Plzeň
Horror ballads based on Karel Jaromír Erben. Who really suffers when everyone dies? Who tells the stories that will be left behind? Who brings us a bouquet for the grave when the hussar, the wagon and the rooster lie in the corner? Or the tragedy of the bereaved. Stories full of the contradictions of traditional ballads and contemporary language are mixed with the real experiences of the actors. They share their insight into how the Bouquet translates into contemporary life live.
Several ballads, treated in abbreviated and playful form, have been brought to the stage to engage young people while bringing them to the timelessness of Erben's work.
Directed by Petr Vydarený et al.
Scenograpyh: Tereza Vydarená
Dramaturgy cooperation: Petra Kosová, Roman Černík
Cast: Petr Besta, Dan Horečný, Robert Kroupar
For audiences aged 12 years and up
Running time: 50 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 10.00
Minor – jeviště velkého sálu
The Great Journey
Bábkové divadlo Na Rázcestí, Banská Bystrica
An adventurous journey of two little heroes for all children from 2.5 years old and for children with visual and hearing impairments.
Once upon a time there was a garden and next to it grew an old tree. On that tree a little hazelnut and a little green dewdrop met. One autumn day they set off on an expedition to a land that was new and unknown to them. Along the way they encounter many obstacles and pitfalls, which they manage to overcome together. They discover the world around them and eventually find the most important thing - the price of friendship.
BDNR pilot project on inclusive theatre.
Script and direction by Michaela Homolová
Dramaturgy: Iveta Škripková
Set design: Hza Bažant, a. h.
Music: Filip Homola, a. h.
Cooperation: Peter Vrt'o, a. h. and Klára Oravcová, a. h.
Light: Pavol Bukovina
Sound: Marek Horváth
Cast: Marianna Mackurová, Mária Šamajová, Ľubica Pradidová
For audiences aged 2.5 and up
Running time: 40 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 9.00, 11.00
Minor – malá scéna
In the backyard
Loutky bez hranic, Prague
Once upon a time there was a backyard, a little creature in the backyard,
and he couldn't help wondering who lived in the yard.
A fragile puppet experience for families with children from 2 to 36 months and for kindergartens.
Creative team: Dora Bouzková, Lukáš Bouzek, Magdalena Koděrová, Marek Doubrava, Jan Tranta
Cast: Dora Bouzková and Lukáš Bouzek
Duration of the performance: 35 minutes + 30 minutes free playroom
For families with children from 2 to 36 months
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 13.00
Minor – malá scéna
Cat, mouse and potato
Loutky bez hranic, Prague
Do you know what happens when a hungry cat meets a hungry mouse and together they catch a mischievous potato? And who is Peter the cook? And who stole the Sea Queen's treasure? Find out all this and more in our original puppet adventure tale.
Artistic collaboration - Koniklec Suchomasty, social service provider and the theatre associations Puppets without Borders and Upward Bound
Koniklec Suchomasty organizes various artistic leisure activities for its clients with mental disabilities: art workshops, theatre, new circus, etc.
The Vzhůru nohama Theatre has long been involved in theatre creation with mentally disabled performers.
Puppets Without Borders is happy to accept creative challenges that go beyond the boundaries of traditional puppet theatre. And by linking these three entities, a small theatre group was formed in January 2020 in Suchomasty, whose first project is an original puppet production called The Cat, the Mouse and the Potato.
Directed, dramaturgy by Dora Bouzková
Music by Marek Doubrava
Set and puppets: Zuzana Nováková Hilská
Puppet animation teacher: Jiřina Vacková
Cast: Jiřina Vacková, Jiřina Konešová, Jana Šilerová, Marek Semáč, Petr Schiller, Karel Komůrka
For audiences aged 3 and up
Length of performance: 40 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 14.00, 18.00
Minor - ponorka
Le Cabaret Nomade
Plume
A puppet poem by the theatre collective Le Cabaret Nomade, Plume is a personal testimony by performer Aude Stulírová Martin about the fragility and strength of birth. A mother's conversation with all that her body and herself are going through in this new, undiscovered responsibility.
Concept and performer by Aude Stulírová Martin
Set design, production, lighting, technical support: Drahomír Stulír
Dramaturgy: Paulína Petáková
Puppets: Katanari
Music: Jono Heyes
Choreography: Marie Svobodová
For audiences aged 6 and up
Running time: 20 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 15.00
Minor – velký sál
About the goldfish
Alfa Theatre, Pilsen
In this case, the fairy tale About a Goldfish is the story of two people who like each other: the old man likes the whole world, loves the sea and needs nothing more than fishing and his grandmother. The grandmother makes music out of poverty and hunger and is a bit greedy, but in the end she is quite happy with the grandfather. Of course, only until Grandpa catches a goldfish and it offers to grant them a wish. At that moment, a darker side of her nature takes over. And because she doesn't know when to stop, she ends up with nothing. Can their relationship withstand this test?
Directed by Tomsa Legierski
Set design: Bára Hubená
Dramaturgy: Petra Kosová
Music by Petr Vydarený
Lyrics by Blanka Josephová Luňáková
Cast: Kristýna Franková, Martin Sádlo Bartůšek, Aleš Kolovrat
For audiences aged 3 and up
Running time: 40 min.
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 16.30
Minor – malá scéna
Long, Wide and Sharp-eyed
Minor Theatre, Prague
Some of your friends may be a little strange. One's stocky, one's a bit wider, and the third one looks weird. But they're friends, and if you're going to rescue a prince from the curse of an evil sorcerer, you'll definitely want them by your side.
Screenplay by Robert Smolík, Antonie Formanová
Directed, set, puppets by Robert Smolík
Music by Veronika Svobodová and Pia Achternkamp
Cast: Antonie Formanová
For audiences aged 4 and up
Running time: 40 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 17.30
Minor - uši
Home
PastaBasta, Brno
A chamber puppet production about refugeeism for all audiences aged six and up. It is about what it is like to lose the security of home from one day to the next, to say goodbye to everything and to embark on a long journey with an uncertain destination.
280,000 people have to leave their homes every day.
Will you let us in?
We have a new house. But do we have a new home?
Directed by Pavlína Šmídová, Denisa Bláhová
Consultant: Ondřej Klíč
Cast: Pavlína Šmídová, Denisa Bláhová
For audiences aged 6 and up
Running time: 30 minutes
Sunday 5. 11. 2023 / 19.00
Minor – malá scéna
You're never plagued by frost and mosquito clouds at once
Hana Voříšková, Choceň
Theatrical production of Inuit poetry.
Frost, hunger, hunt, frost, hunger, hunt, frost, hunger, hunt ...
Sources
Ladislav Novák: Songs of the Willow Wand
Ole Jorgensen: Soul, Be Beautiful (About the Inuit in Greenland, Canada and Alaska), translated by Zdeněk Lyčka
Jáchym Topol: The Thorn Girl. Stories of North American Indians
Directed, designed, starring: Hanka Voříšková
For audiences 14 years and older
Running time: 20 minutes
History of the festival
In 1991, the puppetry showcase One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest was created on the initiative of the then Chairman of the Czech centre of UNIMA. His objective was not only to activate the members of the Czech centre of this international puppetry organisation UNIMA, which has reawakened to life, but also give the public an opportunity to get to know about modern Czech puppet theatre. The first year of the review, which took place in still very modest conditions, was a success. Although over the next 15 years, many personalities alternated in the management and production of One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest, the fact remains that this confrontation of the works of professional and amateur puppeteers has won a distinguished place among the theatrical festivals.
There is a brief view of the history of this unique puppetry festival in the Czech Republic.
The following extract is from the article published on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the festival in 2005. The whole text is available in Czech only in the magazine Loutkar 5/2005
Luděk Richter: The first five
The author was the chief organiser and dramatist of the festival for five years (1991 - 1995).
"...It is essential to enunciate that the first half of the 90s, which is under discussion here, caught the statutory (in the sense of statutory professional theatres) such as Drak or Naivní divadlo more or less at the end of their greatest glory, if not after the zenith, and beside the versatile Alfa Theatre of Plzeň, no other permanent group did press at the free peak... At first glance, the most significant characteristic feature of the first half of the 90s is on the contrary the monumental quantitative and qualitative rise of independent groups, which in many cases surpassed statutory theatres in terms of courage in drama theory selection and production, creativeness in production procedures, expansion of possibilities for design sharing in set expression and general dynamism, energy, with which they perform, artistic impetuous and inventiveness.
Amateur ensembles, whose advantage has always been and is that they are not encumbered by operating duties, still open similar approaches in front of independent groups because they play theatre mainly because they want to and in such a way as to enjoy themselves as well as express their relationship to the world. Their advantage is also that the financial, material and technical resources at their disposal are limited to such an extent that they have no choice but to utilise fantasy and creativeness... Whatever the reasons, it is true that the stimuli that the amateurs brought to One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest ranked among the strongest... The amateurs win in courage pertaining to genre, variability of target groups, search for effective resources, but surprisingly many a time also in the wholeness of the production handling and efficacy of its result..."
Nina Malíková : Ten years with One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest
Nina Malíková was involved in the preparation and form of the next ten years of this specialised national puppetry festival. One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest for all sorts of reasons alternated in many Prague localities and theatre chambers only to set anchor again in 2003 in the reconstructed premises of the Minor Theatre (Divadlo Minor) and the authoress discusses the individual years, their problems and inspiring performances. She also devotes extensive attention to the fact that from year 1997, the evaluation of the most inspiring and most interesting production, which arose in a particular year, is also embodied in the results of the survey. The winner of survey is awarded a floating prize, which is known as ERIK and is indirectly related to the renowned theatrical artist Dr. Erik Kolár.
We quote from the conclusion of the authoress in the article "...Perhaps, it seems to you that I have in my appraisal of One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest rather accentuated the creations of independent ensembles or amateurs because the arduous, post-revolution situation of the statutory theatres (regardless of whether this concerns their inner transformation or demands of the founders and the audience, which are not always in harmony with the artistic ambitions and possibilities of these ensembles) were also reflected in their much smaller professional offensive. I think that it is not so simple. The sometimes surprising discoveries of One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest (at the beginning "Studio dell´arte", "Divadlo Continuo", "Buchty a loutky", later "DNO" and "Líšeň") rather by their unfamiliarity and energetic charge as though overshadowed the ensembles for whom professionalism is assumed in all environments and from whom it is expected that they shall come up with surprises at all times and push the imaginary spiral of ideas ever higher. In recent years, after all beside the KALD students, there are just the young ensembles of statutory theatres that drew attention to themselves! In other words, the graduates of KALD DAMU that came here on their first engagements... The alternation of generations in the ensembles, and thus also the puppet theatre presentation style and its resources is for both professionals and amateurs clear even in the absence of the One Flew Over the Puppeteer's Nest festivals, and if we shall at any time in future divide Czech puppet theatre into these two fields at all, the issue is only who will be first to provoke the other to take off from the ground..."
