The Czech UNIMA Centre is one of the oldest in the entire association. Already in 1929 when UNIMA was founded in Prague, representatives of Czech puppetry were among the initiators of the organisation’s activities. And in 1957, there were Czech puppeteers yet again who helped renewing UNIMA after the war.
Currently, the Czech Centre has 165 members and is managed by a board of ten people, meeting at least twice a year.
In addition to providing consultations for foreign guests and answering their questions sent to the centre which has its seat in Prague, the Institute of Arts – Theatre Institute, the centre regularly organises several other events:
There belongs to the most significant activities of the Centre establishment of the branch puppetry show, since 1991, the main one has been a puppetry showcase called Přelet nad loutkářským hnízdem (One Flew Over the Puppeteer’s Nest) with participation of professional and amateur puppetry groups. In recent years, the festival also included solo performances of foreign guests Since 1997, theatre critics and scholars have been also selecting the winner of the Czech UNIMA Centre award called the ERIK and given during the festival to the most stimulating and inspiring show of the year (within last two years this price has been awarded to Budulínek by Naïve Theatre Liberec (2012) and Dášeňka produced on the basis of the book by Karel Čapek by Theatre Goose on the String from Brno (2013).
2012
For the Czech UNIMA Centre and even for the Czech puppetry as a whole there was significantespecially the year 2012, which was the year of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Puppeteer periodical. To this jubilee there was hold an exhibition in Puppet Museum in Prague and Pilsen and at the opportunity of the Skupa’s Pilsen (June 2012) there was organised internationalseminar commemorating the 100 years of Loutkář (Puppeteer), “The Contemporary Means of Media Communication” in the Museum of Puppets, Plzen. The guests of the seminar invited to the Skupova Plzeň international puppetry festival (17–21 June 2012).
At the Chenged Congress in China in the year 2012 the Czech UNIMA Centre was represented by Stanislav Doubrava (as a member of the executive board and chairman of the International Festival Commission), however do to health reason our Councillor Mr. Jaroslav Blecha did not participate, who was also candidate to the executive board and the Czech representation was bolstered by Mr Tomáš Froyda, who was elected another UNIMA Councillor during this Congress.
2013
The highly distinct action consultatively participated by the Czech UNIMA Centre in 2013 was the most extensive exhibition of Czech Puppets up to now in USA ( Museum of Art in Colombo, Ohio under name „ Strings Attached“) in March 2013.
During the Mateřinka Fest in 18th – 22nd June 2013 there was a meeting of the International Puppet Festivals Commission under support of the IDU/Czech UNIMA Centre.
The Centre has organised another year of the One Flew Over the Puppeteer’s Nest and granted patronage over the Fest Spectaculo Interesse in Ostrava.
2014
Recently the Czech Centre continues in all their activities – in Fall 2014 prepares (Together with the Puppeteer periodical and Institute of Arts – Theatre Institute) the international workshop on actual state of Czech puppeteers called “Czech Puppet Theatre – tradition, legend and reality” that shall directly follow up already 23rd year of the One Flew Over the Puppeteer’s Nest
News from the General Secretariat of UNIMA and interesting titbits about the activities of the Centre are regularly published in the Loutkář magazine, the oldest puppeteers periodical of the world that is following UNIMA activities already since 1929. Information about the activities of the Czech centre is also available at the website www.divadlo.cz/unima.
The celebration of the 75th anniversary of UNIMA took place on Wednesday, 19 May 2004 in the Říše loutek puppet theatre.The event was organized in co-operation with the ŘÍŠE LOUTEK Theatre Artistic Stage and the Czech UNIMA Centre.It was held under the aegis of the Mayor of the Prague 1 district Vladimír Vihan, who made the opening speech and expressed his pride in the fact that UNIMA had been established 75 years ago in the Old Town of Prague in the Říše loutek theatre, which had served the children audience up to the present.A great surprise and honour for all those present was the personal presence of the Mayor of the Capital of Prague MUDr. Pavel Bém, who greeted informally the participants and thanked the puppeteers for their work.
The festive opening hosted by Vladimír Novák, president of Říše loutek, was followed by a composed programme Zrodila se UNIMA (The Establishment of UNIMA) whose author is Ing. Jan Novák, artistic supervisor of Říše loutek, consisting of a collage of period documentary materials, songs, performances and film shots inspired by the Congress of the Puppeteers held in 1929 in Prague.The production was performed by the members of Říše loutek and the Occasional Mini-Symphony Orchestra of Říše loutek with the External Choir.A short and very witty sketch was presented also by the representatives of the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre.The programme was closed by the speech of the UNIMA President Margareta Niculescu from France; among those present was also Secretary General Miguel Arreche from Spain and Mrs. Mina Malíková, President of the Czech UNIMA Centre.
In the course of the subsequent informal party the participants could watch the “table play” Jak chodil Kuba za Margitou performed by Zuzana Schmidová, member of the Naive Theatre Liberec, and see the exhibition regarding the UNIMA establishment in the theatre foyer.Good mood was ensured by the music of the TROMBENIK band led by Josef von Draček.
The organizers were rewarded by the enjoyment and pleasure of the participants and by the praise from the UNIMA supreme representatives.
The year 2002 promises to be an extremely busy year for Czech puppet theatre, full of various anniversaries, jubilees and events, significant not only for the local environment but also on an international scale.
In 2002 Loutkář review celebrates its 90th anniversary as the oldest specialist puppet-theatre magazine in the world and, according to experts, also the oldest theatre magazine in existence! The first issue of this magazine (originally called Český loutkář) dates back to around 1912; after a break necessitated by the First World War, it was again published from 1917 with the title Loutkář until the Second World War. It then changed its name to Loutková scéna, from 1951 it was published as Československý loutkář (1951-1992) and, after the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak Republics, it reverted to its old name of Loutkář once again in 1993. Looking at its history, which has faithfully reflected the development of Czech and foreign puppet theatre for ninety years now, we should point out that its first Editor-in-Chief and initiator was Dr Jindřich Veselý, one of the founders of UNIMA and also its first president (1929-1939). Loutkář review was also the bulletin of this organisation during the 1930s.
During the period 5-7.11.2002 Prague will be hosting celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Puppetry Department of the Theatre Faculty, DAMU Academy of Performing Arts (today the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre, DAMU, headed by professor Josef Krofta). The department first opened its lecture halls in the autumn of 1952 and, at that time, it was directed by the eminent Czech puppeteer, professor Josef Skupa. Its staff comprised other distinguished figures who greatly influenced the development of professional Czech puppet theatre: Dr Jan Malík, Dr Erik Kolár, Vojtěch Cinybulk… The first graduates from this department include the now world famous film director Jan Švankmajer and film director Juraj Herz.
The puppet-theatre museum known as the Museum of Puppet-Theatre Culture was founded thirty years ago in Chrudim, the setting of the important amateur puppet-theatre festival (first held in 1951). It was established through gifts from UNIMA national centres and from the private collection of Dr Jan Malík. The museum is located approximately 120 km east of Prague, near the town of Hradec Králové, familiar to puppeteers everywhere, and it documents puppet theatre from all over the world with particular emphasis on Czech (professional and amateur) puppet theatre. In recognition of this year’s jubilee, the museum is planning a creative workshop (26-29.6.2002) on the theme “The Active Presentation of Puppetry Collections”, with local and international participation. This event will be accompanied by what is now the 51st Loutkářská Chrudim Amateur Puppet-Theatre Festival, with a number of performances, workshops and other events on the agenda.
Organisers in Plzeň are acknowledging the important anniversaries of two natives of this town, the 110th anniversary of the birth of Josef Skupa, and 90 years since the birth of his pupil Jiří Trnka; this event, incorporating a number of projects associated with these distinguished figures in puppet theatre, is named The Year of Josef Skupa and Jiří Trnka. Plzeň will also host a large exhibition from 24.5 to 30.6, entitled Jiří Trnka, which will contain a selection of his work (paintings, illustrations, puppets), plus screenings of his animated films, for example: The Emperor’s Nightingale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Archangel Gabriel and Mrs Goose and The Hand, inspired by Duranty’s puppet play. The work of Josef Skupa, the creator of the two world-famous comic characters Spejbl and Hurvínek, will be celebrated by the 24th Skupova Plzeň festival – a national festival of puppet theatres which will be held 14-18.6 in the Plzeň puppet theatre Divadlo Alfa.
Paradoxically, this year has been marred by a complex dispute between the Spejbl and Hurvínek theatre in Prague and the Municipal Institute of Social Welfare in Plzeň on the copyright law associated with the Spejbl and Hurvínek figures and their creator Josef Skupa. The whole affair has been covered by the media and may result in the unimaginable possibility that the theatre may be closed down.
The 11th year of the festival One Flew over the Puppeteer’s Nest was held in Prague at the beginning of December 2001. The festival is a UNIMA Czech centre event and its aim is to confront the most inspirational and most fascinating productions by Czech professional and amateur theatres. The results of a survey to find the best production of the year are announced at the end of the festival, and the winning company receives the ERIK award, named after the distinguished Czech puppeteer, critic, theoretician and teacher Erik Kolár. To everyone’s great surprise the travelling Erik statuette this time went to the DNO amateur ensemble from Hradec Králové for their inspirational performance Variations on the Famous Cyrano Theme. The production is indeed a variation on Rostand’s play, featuring finger puppets. This year’s festival and ERIK awards ceremony will be held in Prague in Divadlo Minor 8-10.11.2002.
The most important event in Czech puppet theatre to take place in the autumn was the opening of the reconstructed space for Divadlo Minor (formerly the Central Puppet Theatre). The original building, which many puppeteers from all over the world knew very well, situated on Gorkého náměstí 28 (in 1969 it hosted the international puppet-theatre festival accompanying the UNIMA Congress), was brutally demolished despite belated protests from the public. Divadlo Minor performed for over two years in temporary premises and it moved to its official new address in the centre of Prague on 6.12.2001, containing a new hall with a capacity of 140 seats (plus other space for small theatre events). The new ensemble, largely comprising young graduates from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre, rehearsed eight premieres during their two provisional years which will now be premiered in the new venue.
The large international Czech-Japanese project devised in DRAK theatre in Hradec Králové under the title of A Plague o’ Both Your Houses as a loose variation on Shakespeare’s world famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet, was presented in the autumn of 2001 in the Czech Republic in its Czech-language version. After its tour to Poland and Japan, where the project was performed by both Czech and Japanese actors, repeat performances were given, this time with a new Czech cast. The director of the project is Josef Krofta, stage designer Irena Marečková, with music by Jiří Vyšohlíd. The project treats the theme of intolerance and aggression versus love, namely a theme which has lost none of its impact today.
