Collage: Devised Theatre and Prague

I attended a lecture today that included an overview of Czech Theatre History in the 20th Century and an inside look at theatre in Prague today. The man talking about the current scene was Ewan MacLaren, a Canadian expatriate who now serves as artistic director of Alfred ve Dvore Divadlo (Theater Alfred in the Courtyard).

Ewan has lived here for 22 years and came to Prague as a young artist looking to produce new work. When he found out there wasn't really a community dedicated to new directions and development, he went back to Canada to study producing, so he could do it himself. He came back to Prague and started to get a precedent in place for devised work in the city. It's been rough, since the Czech theatre audience is still (surprisingly) very conservative. But things are moving.

Ewan's company (Motus, at the Alfred) actually holds an open call for artists--Czech and international--each year to receive proposals for new work to develop. They choose a few for development, and one for full production. What an exciting notion. A residency to make work in Prague. I get chills.

We looked at a few independent theatre groups, including:

Farm in the Cave

Handa Gote (the name is Japanese for "Soldering Iron")
I was especially interested in this group, which is made up of people from various disciplines (from puppetry to computer engineering), and has an aesthetic that is a) inspired by Japanese influences and b) Do-it-yourself. They look at technology from the 70's-80's like archaeologists and reimagine rituals surrounding those artifacts. They make things out of unexpected materials.

It was immensely exciting to me to hear about this company since it reminds me of a lot of what we're doing with MONUMENT.

Taking a walk later, I went down to Kampa and swung by the Lennon Wall again. I was already in a Fringe headspace, and it struck me how relevant the Wall is to the piece, which led to a reevaluation of some of my ideas. I'm now in love with the idea of incorporating the Lennon Wall idea as one of the "monuments" we build. Audience participation, anyone? For those who don't know, the Wall is an unofficial memorial to John Lennon, which started from an innocent piece of graffiti and spread all over this wall in Kampa. It's the only place in Prague where graffiti is not only legal, it's encouraged. People come to the wall and paint or draw or scribble over it with messages of love, memory, and dedication. Beatles lyrics. English. Czech. French. German. Etc. It's magnificent because it is always changing--you will never see the same Lennon Wall again. And it's so full of warmth and love, it's impossible not to smile when you see it.

John Lennon Wall in 2012

John Lennon Wall in 2010

This idea of "collage" suffuses the city, which is built over and over again on top of itself. Gothic, Baroque, Art Nouveau, etc... Floods that wash things away. New layers built upon old brick. But it also represents this new direction for theatre. We make collages using each other and the outside world as inspiration.