The Theatre Institute's research and publication project Contemporary Slovak Directors focuses on the field of contemporary Slovak theatre direction. The aim of the new project is to capture and consequently make accessible the work of contemporary Slovak directors by way of publishing expert profiles as well as pictorial and documentary material.
The project’s initiative has resulted from the absence of a comprehensive charting of the outcomes of art activity by contemporary directors in Slovakia, as well as from the effort to bridge the ruptures in the presentation of their work in Slovakia and abroad.
The project aspires to create comprehensive informative portraits capturing the art of selected directors, who currently represent the cutting edge of Slovak active and high-quality theatre and whose art has been shaping contemporary Slovak theatre direction. The encyclopaedic structure of the name entries and the documentary and pictorial material charting the individual productions are a guarantee of a comprehensive overview of the state of contemporary Slovak direction.
In year 2017 the first phase of the panoramic reflection of the work of Slovak directors came in the form of a bilingual representative virtual online catalogue uploaded on the Theatre Institute’s website and on a DVD medium. The unique form of the virtual online catalogue offers a broad overview of the work by Slovak artists as well as a chance to get acquainted with contemporary Slovak theatre in all its diversity and originality. To give international experts, artists and the general public a complete outline of contemporary Slovak direction, the Theatre Institute has created and made accessible the catalogue containing information on twenty directors. Using the form of structured entries, the catalogue presents their work and indicates the basic features of their directorial approach and style. The entries contain descriptions of staging methods, characterization of the aesthetics or poetics in each director’s approach, and definitions of the methods used to work with dramatic texts. The entries also reflect each director’s inclination to certain themes, genres or tandem cooperation with actors, visual artists and musicians. An integral part of each profile is pictorial and documentary material complementing the description of selected productions. Theatrologist Elena Knopová’s analytical study Slovak Directors of the X and Y Generation (resuming dialogue) discusses the most significant developments or tendencies that have shaped Slovak theatre since 1989. It has also become obvious that present-day Slovak directors constitute a very interesting and diverse group which confirms that they are a legitimate part of European theatre and can reciprocally offer a lot to it.
The Theatre Institute currently continues to systematically reflect and analyse contemporary Slovak theatre direction. Second phase of the project Contemporary Slovak Directors complements the original Slovak-English on-line catalogue with ten new structured profiles of both female and male theatre directors within a wide generational spectrum (Ľubomír Vajdička, Juraj Nvota, Martin Kákoš, Dodo Gombár, Dušan Vicen, Jozef Vlk, Soňa Ferancová, Gejza Dezorz, Michal Náhlík, Adriana Totiková). Individual profiles bring relevant biographical data about the mentioned artists, characterize and in the form of lists present their artistic work in Slovakia and abroad. Simultaneously they define their place within the context of Slovak theatre and state the significant characteristic features of their directorial poetics and aesthetics. Each of the profiles is also complemented with photographic and audio-visual material which creates an overview of these directors' artistic work.
Charting the activities of Slovak directors in the broadest context possible should result in collaboration and mobility of artists and theatres of European countries. Creating a portfolio of contemporary Slovak directors should also be an impulse to open the paths for Slovak artists to find international partners.
The new profiles of contemporary Slovak directors will be continuously updated in the virtual online catalogue with the aim to cover the artistic work of Slovak directors of multiple generations.
The structure of a director’s entry/profile:
- professional CV
- description of her/his art
- list of works (year, theatre, author, title)
- awards (domestic and international)
- photographs from work (productions)
- audio-visual samples of work
* You can find more details about all artists and creators of individual productions staged at Slovak professional theatres at: www.etheatre.sk. A comprehensive online information database is accessible from www.theatre.skand represents an electronic information archive of stage productions by professional theatres in Slovakia.
Authors of texts (1. phase) Matúš Bachynec, Juliana Beňová; (2. phase) Martina Daubravová
Author of the study Slovak Directors of the X and Y Generation (resuming dialogue) Elena Knopová
Translation from Slovak (1. phase) Ivan Lacko, (2. phase) Lucia Faltinová
Expert cooperation Monika Čertezni
Technical cooperation Boris Adamčík, Lucia Galdíková, Viera Helbichová, Dušan Poliščák
Expert editors (1. phase) Zuzana Ferusová, Martina Mašlárová, Dominika Zaťková; (2. phase) Lucia Lejková, Karol Mišovic
Language editor Mária Kvaššayová
Editing of audio-visual recordings Martina Sľúková
Photographs archive of the Puppet Theatre Košice; archive of the Puppet Theatre on the Crossroads in Banská Bystrica; archive of the Puppet Theatre Žilina; archive of Debris Company, Bratislava; archive of The Dezorz Puppet Theatre, Bratislava; Archive of the Theatre Institute, Bratislava; archive of the Alexander Duchnovič Theatre in Prešov; archive of the Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nitra; archive of the Aréna Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the ASTORKA Korzo ’90 Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the Ján Palárik Theatre in Trnava; archive of the Jonáš Záborský Theatre in Prešov; archive of the Jozef Gregor Tajovský Theatre in Zvolen; archive of the Theatre Nová scéna, Bratislava; archive of the P.A.T. Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the Pôtoň Theatre; archive of the Theatre SkRAT, Bratislava; archive of the Station Žilina-Záriečie Theatre; archive of the Teatro Tatro, archive of the Thália Theatre, Košice; archive of the City Theatre of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Bratislava; archive of the City Theatre Žilina; archive of the Prešov National Theatre; archive of the Radošina Naive Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the Slovak Chamber Theatre Martin; archive of the Slovak Marionette Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava; archive of the Spiš Theatre in Spišská Nová Ves; archive of the State Theatre Košice; archive of the Studio 12, Bratislava
Authors of photographs Ctibor Bachratý, Lenka Balleková, Juraj Bartoš, Ondrej Béreš, Robert Blaško, Peter Brenkus, Collavino, Michal Ditte, Milo Fabian, Boris Farkaš, Peter Frolo, Martin Geišberg, Jakub Gulyás, Alena Hrbková, Jakub Jíra, Peter Jurík, Šymon Kliman, Braňo Konečný, Ľuboš Kotlár, Pavol Kovaľ, Katarína Križanovičová, Dalibor Krupka, Gábor Arion Kudász, Joseph Marčinský, René Miko, Mura Murazu, Jana Nemčoková, Anton Novotný, Matúš Oľha, Šimon Ondruš, Jozef Paleník, Júlia Pecková, Alena Schulczová, Roman Skyba, Anton Sládek, Bohumil Šálek, Vladimír Šimíček, Branislav Štefánik, Ján Štovka, Filip Vančo, Daniel Veselský, Oleg Vojtíšek, Marek Zalibera
Responsible editor Lukáš Kopas
Responsible publisher Vladislava Fekete, director of the Theatre Institute
All rights reserved. No part of this online catalogue may be reproduced, stored in research systems, or transferred in any way, including electronic, photographic or other recording, without the consent of the authors, publisher and co-publishers.
The publisher took all the steps towards finding authors of the used works and towards obtaining their publishing approval. In case you are the copyright holder to one of the used works, please contact the publisher.
Edited audio-visual recordings are of an informative character and the Theatre Institute took all the accessible steps towards improving their visual and acoustic quality.
© 2020 Divadelný ústav – Theatre Institute – all rights reserved.
