CZECHOSLOVAK-AMERICAN MARIONETTE THEATRE
AUDIENCE
- Wednesday, June 23 & Tuesday, June 29 2021
- 8:00 PM
- Bohemian National Hall 321 East 73rd Street New York, NY, 10021 United States (map)
Audience, performed by Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, is a new production of Vaclav Havel’s classic autobiographical play. Featuring live actors and traditional marionettes, the one-act play follows Ferdinand Vanek, a distinguished playwright forced to work in a brewery because his writings have been banned by the Communist regime.
Vanek is stuck in the bleak office of his boss in a brewery where he has been forced into manual labor. The brew master always calls him to the office for endless repetition of dialogue, amidst excess consumption of beer. The tiresome bureaucracy and constant fear under the Communists have driven the boss to alcoholism as well as stints of rage and despair, sometimes turning against his inferiors. Vanek, however, refuses to compromise his principles and the mindset of his colleagues, in spite of the promise of promotion.
Translated and Directed by Vit Horejs. Performed by: Vit Horejs (Vanek), Theresa Linnihan (Brew master).
Production design: Alan Barnes Netherton. Production stage management: Hjordis Linn-Blanford. Marionettes: Milos Kasal, Jakub "Kuba" Krejci. Costumes and Vanek marionette: Theresa Linnihan. Producer: Bonnie Sue Stein/GOH Productions. Presented by: GOH Productions, Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2021.
Vaclav Havel’s Audience (1975) is the first of his partly autobiographical one-act plays known as the “Vanek Trilogy” (followed by Unveiling (1975) and Protest (1978) based on his experience of being subjected to forced work while under constant harassment from government agents. Since the plays were banned in Communist Czechoslovakia, they were performed in people’s living rooms and even recorded on vinyl.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. RSVP to June 23 HERE, and June 29 through Eventbrite is required.
photo of Vit Horejs and Theresa Linnihan by Jonathan Slaff
Vanek is stuck in the bleak office of his boss in a brewery where he has been forced into manual labor. The brew master always calls him to the office for endless repetition of dialogue, amidst excess consumption of beer. The tiresome bureaucracy and constant fear under the Communists have driven the boss to alcoholism as well as stints of rage and despair, sometimes turning against his inferiors. Vanek, however, refuses to compromise his principles and the mindset of his colleagues, in spite of the promise of promotion.
Translated and Directed by Vit Horejs. Performed by: Vit Horejs (Vanek), Theresa Linnihan (Brew master).
Production design: Alan Barnes Netherton. Production stage management: Hjordis Linn-Blanford. Marionettes: Milos Kasal, Jakub "Kuba" Krejci. Costumes and Vanek marionette: Theresa Linnihan. Producer: Bonnie Sue Stein/GOH Productions. Presented by: GOH Productions, Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2021.
Vaclav Havel’s Audience (1975) is the first of his partly autobiographical one-act plays known as the “Vanek Trilogy” (followed by Unveiling (1975) and Protest (1978) based on his experience of being subjected to forced work while under constant harassment from government agents. Since the plays were banned in Communist Czechoslovakia, they were performed in people’s living rooms and even recorded on vinyl.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. RSVP to June 23 HERE, and June 29 through Eventbrite is required.
photo of Vit Horejs and Theresa Linnihan by Jonathan Slaff
CZechoslovak American Marionette Theatre presents
NAPTIME STORIES FOR THE ABSURD TIMES
A series streamed from the Hudson River Valley
The irreverent storyteller Vít Hořejš re-tells classic Czech and Slovak fairy tales from his socially-distanced Upstate refuge. Co-starring guest-musicians from across the globe.
WHERE AND WHEN: Live Stream on FaceBook, Wednesdays at 3pm (since June 24, 2020) at:
Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre page
EPISODES 1-10 Available on HD on:
YouTube
The irreverent storyteller Vít Hořejš re-tells classic Czech and Slovak fairy tales from his socially-distanced Upstate refuge. Co-starring guest-musicians from across the globe.
WHERE AND WHEN: Live Stream on FaceBook, Wednesdays at 3pm (since June 24, 2020) at:
Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre page
EPISODES 1-10 Available on HD on:
YouTube
About Naptime Stories - The idea for Naptime Stories was born when the return to live theater with a live audience was becoming the ghost of a distant future. A frustrated puppeteer finding himself up the river without puppets, Vít Hořejš decided to revive the storytelling format and use the tales to uplift the mood of homebound families. This new reality inspired Hořejš to collaborate with musician friends in the telling of traditional Czech and Slovak tales to a global virtual audience for a delightful afternoon break. With live streaming technology and increased online programming options, it became possible to create a platform for their art. Czech-born puppeteer, founder and artistic director of the Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, Hořejš reflects on storytelling roots in his hometown of Prague, Czechoslovakia when he told fairy tales in rock and jazz clubs accompanied by leading Czech musicians. Since coming to the USA in 1979, he has continued to relate fairy tales with and without strings with great success in libraries, galleries, and in other settings, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The World Trade Center and the Smithsonian Museum among others. Each live stream starts with a whimsical introduction by Horejs, sometimes in conversation with Kašpárek, a traditional Czech marionette character, which is followed by the reading of one fairy tale with musical accompaniment.
CHRISTMAS CAROL, OY HANUKKAH, MERRY KWANZAA
2019 - 2020 Edition
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AT THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY DECEMBER 19 - JANUARY 5 |
AT DETROIT INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS December 29 & December 30 |
"I had walked in Scrooge-like but happily walked out feeling the spirit of the season."
- Motherhood Later
"fun, warmhearted mix of tradition and novelty with something to appeal to family members of any age."
- Thinking Theater NYC
"Tongue in cheek line deliveries and self-aware humor fill this show winningly."
- theaterreviewsfrommyseat.com
- Motherhood Later
"fun, warmhearted mix of tradition and novelty with something to appeal to family members of any age."
- Thinking Theater NYC
"Tongue in cheek line deliveries and self-aware humor fill this show winningly."
- theaterreviewsfrommyseat.com
In March 2019, Vít, and GOH Productions Director Bonnie Stein received NY Acker Award.
Artistic Director Vít Hořejš received the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences (SVU) 2018 Award in recognition of his lifetime achievement in fostering the art form of Czech and Slovak Puppetry. Hořejš joined the list of awardees that includes such notables as film directors Miloš Forman, MacArthur award winning illustrator and author Peter Sis, and choreographer Jiří Kylián.
In 2016,Czech and Slovak puppetry was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
**Great News!!**
Congratulations to Michelle Beshaw and Beata Bocek who have received nominations for New York Innovative 15th Annual Theater Award for Czechoslovak-American Theatre’s production of Duke Oldřich & Washerwoman Božena, the True Story.
Beata Bocek: (Nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Sound Design) is a Czech-Polish singer/instrumentalist performing traditional and not so traditional music, including an array of songs in Polish, Slovak, Czech, Moravian, Swedish and invented languages. She was born in the north Moravian Polish minority region of Silesia (Czech Republic), and plays many instruments including accordion, ukulele, koncovka (shepherd's overtone flute with no finger holes), mbira and guitar. Her trademark songs are performed in a made-up language that is meant to emphasize her minority status in the Czech Republic. She has appeared throughout the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, and in Japan. A musical prodigy, she grew up singing and playing several instruments and has achieved prominence in Europe despite having no formal musical training. We are thrilled to host her US DEBUT. www.beatabocek.com
Michelle Beshaw: (Nominated for Costume Design) favorites from among her many strange and wonderful adventures in New York theatre include all her work with CAMT, from the theatres of New York to the tents of Pakistan, and her own small spectacles and puppet shows: A Thundering Notion, at Los Kabayitos Puppet Theatre; The Napier Project, Mabou Mines Resident Artist Suite; and Lulu: a Woeful High Seas Rhapsody of Sunken Wishes and Curious Fishes, at Here Arts Center and The Puppet Library in the Arch at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. In 2009 she won her first Innovative Theatre Award for the Czechoslovak-Ameican Theatre’s production of The Very Sad Story of Ethel & Julius as Roy Cohn.
*All costumes in the attached photos (puppet costumes, musician and actor costumes) are by nominee Michelle Beshaw.*
Join the Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre at the Loisaida Festival (Avenue C from East 12th to East 6th Streets), the largest Latin American community pride event in Manhattan’s most historic neighborhood. Vít Hořejš, our award winning Artistic Director, will perform his one-man show, “Czech & Slovak Fairy Tales With Strings,” (in English). Be enchanted by his century-old marionettes that speak in dozens of voices, dance, play violin, swim, and fly. Our performance (around 15 minutes in length) will be at 12:30pm, THIS SUNDAY (5/26/19), on the Main Stage located at 6th Street and Avenue C. We look forward to seeing you there.
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Past Shows
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Dvořák in America
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The Magic Garden
or The Princess Who Grew Antlers March 5 to 22, 2015 Theater for the New City |
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A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa La MaMa Theatre (The Club) December 5-14, 2014 www.lamama.org |
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THE REPUBLIC or MY DINNER WITH SOCRATES Adapted from Plato's dialogues La MaMa E.T.C. 2013 |
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CZECH WINTER TALES WITH STRINGS La MaMa E.T.C. Ellen Stewart Theatre 2013 |
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KING EXECUTIONER 2013 |
Links:
http://new-york.czechcentres.cz/
http://www.bohemianbenevolent.org/
DUKE OLDRICH & WASHERWOMAN BOZENA, THE TRUE STORY: A HISTORICAL COMEDYE IN THREE ACTS
Jan Hus Church, 2018
A non-traditional staging of a 374 year-old marionette play based on a story of love at first sight. The 11th century Duke Oldrich, who braved stout opposition from friend and foe alike to marry the exquisitely fair washerwoman Bozena, nevertheless forgets to mention some details regarding his own marital status.
http://new-york.czechcentres.cz/
http://www.bohemianbenevolent.org/
DUKE OLDRICH & WASHERWOMAN BOZENA, THE TRUE STORY: A HISTORICAL COMEDYE IN THREE ACTS
Jan Hus Church, 2018
A non-traditional staging of a 374 year-old marionette play based on a story of love at first sight. The 11th century Duke Oldrich, who braved stout opposition from friend and foe alike to marry the exquisitely fair washerwoman Bozena, nevertheless forgets to mention some details regarding his own marital status.
