International conferences are a standard part of an academic year at Theatre Faculty JAMU. The Department for the Research of Theatre, in collaboration with other faculty departments, regularly organizes interdisciplinary meetings for the members of artistic and scholarly and communities.
International conferences at Theatre Faculty JAMU are a successor to the tradition of international symposia of theatre anthropology organized by the faculty over the years 1995–2004. These symposia were attended by a number of notable theatre makers and theorists – Richard Schechner and Nicolu Savarese, among others.
Subsequently, Theatre Faculty oriented its conferences into two general directions: conferences focused on current issues in theatre practice and its reflection, and international doctoral studies conferences.
Ordinarily, the topics of these conferences were connected to notable figures from the faculty’s circle. The conferences Setkání v mezidveří kulis a smrti I a II (Meeting on Threshold Between Backdrop and Death I and II, 2007, 2012) dedicated to Josef Šafařík and his observations on theatre were held in relation to a research grant of doc. MgA. David Drozd, Ph.D. Václav Havel, Pavel Švanda, Milan Uhde, Vladimír Just and others delivered contributions discussing the significance of Šafařík’s work.
A number of conferences concerned with the current trends in theatre practice and its scholarly reflection were dedicated to distinguished theatrologists and theatre makers working at Theatre Faculty JAMU. The conference Tendence v současném myšlení o divadle (Trends in Contemporary Theatre Thinking, 2008) was held at the occasion of the eightieth birthday of prof. PhDr. Ivo Osolsobě. An international convention regarding the issue Aktuální otázky analýzy inscenace/představení (Current Issues in Performance Analysis, 2014) was organized in memoriam of prof. PhDr. Bořivoj Srba, DrSc. Doc. PhDr. Jan Roubal, Ph.D. was commemorated by the conference Tendence v současném herectví a herecké pedagogice (Tendencies in Contemporary Acting and Acting Pedagogy, 2016).
A particular issue of documenting theatre performances was the focal point of the international conference Audiovizuální záznam divadelních inscenací (Audiovisual Recording of a Theatre Performance, 2012), which was organized by the Studio of Audiovisual Art and Theatre at Theatre Faculty JAMU in collaboration with Mime Centre Berlin and the Institute of Theatre Studies of Freie Universität Berlin.
International Scientific Conferences has transformed to Theatre Symposium Brno. The topic of the symposium in 2018 was: Tendencies in Contemporary Theatre Directing and Theatre-directing Education.
Theatre Faculty JAMU has organized international doctoral studies conferences intended as a biennial event starting in 2003. The founders of the tradition were prof. PhDr. Josef Kovalčuk, prof. Mgr. Petr Oslzlý a prof. Pentti Paavolainen of Helsinki Theatre Academy. The conference was profiled as a platform for regular international discussion forums of doctoral students of theatre universities, and for the confrontation of various approaches to this type of study. In addition to the Czech Republic and Finland, the founding countries were the United Kingdom, Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.
Since 2003 over one hundred doctoral students from Europe, Africa, North America and Asia have delivered their contributions at the conference. The previous iterations of the event are documented in bilingual Czech-English conference proceedings issued by JAMU Publishing Centre (2003/2005, 2007/2009, 2011).
In recent years the conference has intensified its interdisciplinary character, and it is headed towards an issue-based definition of its topic; in 2015 it was focused on artistic research (collection of proceedings is called Current Challenges in Doctoral Theatre Research). The topic of the 9th Conference of Doctoral Studies in Theatre Practice and Theory (2019) was: Experience as a Research Method in Performing Arts.
From 2020 the names "conference" and "symposium" were unified and the name "Theatre Conference JAMU" is used for annual meetings.
The topic of the Theatre Conference JAMU 2021 was: The Ever-Expanding Horizons of the Theatre. In November 2022, the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Art held the 12th International Theatre Conference: Touching Limits / Crossing Borders of Theatre. In 2023, we return closer to the centre of performing arts, aiming to identify and explore conflict zones in the world of contemporary theatre – both independent and institutionalized (Balancing Conflicts / Conflictual Balance).
