Publications

Brno: JAMU, 2023

editor: Naďa Satková

The anthology of 63 students’ artistic texts. 

Brno: JAMU, 2023

redakce: Eva Schulzová

Publikace Dobrodružství Pana Barvičky. Participační divadlo s loutkami obsahuje teoretickou část zabývající se základním vymezením daného divadelního díla a následně podrobnou charakteristiku participačních představení s loutkami. Jednotlivá představení tohoto typu divadla jsou na sebe seriálově navázaná a z velké míry postavená na improvizaci loutkoherců. Popisovaná představení jsou určená dětem z mateřských škol a také dětem s různým znevýhodněním ze škol speciálních a praktických a dětem z rozdílných sociálních skupin, což výrazně ovlivňuje výslednou podobu představení. Ve druhé části čtenář najde scénosledy dvou participačních představení a tři kazuistiky. Autorkou knihy je Hana Volkmerová, redakčně se na publikaci podílela Eva Schulzová. 

Brno: JAMU, 2023

redakce českého vydání: Naďa Satková
 
Publikace se soustředí na řízení eventových projektů. Eventy zahrnují širokou škálu akcí od festivalů a přehlídek přes výstavy a konference až po kulturní produkce, sportovní události či firemní akce, přičemž jejich organizace vyžaduje velkou pozornost. Řada akcí často končí neúspěchem, ať už se jedná o situaci, kdy se organizátorům nepodaří získat finanční podporu, nesplní stanovené termíny, nebo překročí rozpočet. Profesionální přístup k přípravě a realizaci projektu umožňuje řadě problémů předejít. Projektové řízení představuje uživatelsky přívětivý a prakticky dobře aplikovatelný způsob, jak organizaci projektů uchopit, přičemž obsahuje i řadu praktických nástrojů (kontrolní seznamy, postupové plány, šablony).

Brno: JAMU, 2023

In November 2022, the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, held the 12th International Theatre Conference JAMU. The meeting of creators, theoreticians, and teachers from various performing arts fields was held in a hybrid form. However, the vast majority of the participants chose to come to Brno in person. Their physical presence was even required due to the unique format of some of the presentations – performative walk or performance was then followed by a presentation and discussion. This multimedia publication aims to convey the content and form of the conference in the broadest spectrum possible.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

editor: Naďa Satková

The book Dreaming Through Radio takes a new and original approach to radio and film. It presents research into their mutual inspiration and influence and into the way these two media enrich each other. This research is based on thorough analysis of radio work by the significant film directors Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini, and analyses the relationship between their radio works and films. Each of these directors worked in radio at the beginning of his career: W. Allen wrote sketches for radio series as a teenager, giving him the necessary preparation for his later screenwriting. In F. Fellini’s radio dramas, his magical imagination manifests itself even before it was fully developed in his movies. The most eminent radio maker among these film directors is undoubtedly I. Bergman. His radio work comprises dozens of items, mostly adaptations of literary works or radio dramas by other writers which Bergman directed, but also a few original radio plays. The radio work by Allen, Bergman and Fellini may vary in quality, but there is one thing they all have in common: a love for radio which they expressed in interviews and in their movies as well.

The second part of the book consists of a comparison of three radio plays from the 1940s and 1950s along with their film adaptations: Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas and Der gute Gott von Manhattan / The Good God of Manhattan by Ingeborg Bachmann. One conclusion that emerges from our analysis is that the artistic quality of the film adaptations does not match the artistic quality of the original plays.

Brno: JAMU, 2023

The title of this book, Theatre Actor-Specific: Down Syndrome as a Theatre Stylization, refers to one of the possible ways of working with actors with Down syndrome. It does not perceive Down syndrome as a disability; it instead sees it as full of theatrical potential, which should be used as a given theatrical stylization. The main focus of the book is on actors with Down syndrome. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is theoretical, reflecting the attitude of society to people with disabilities. This reflection is paying attention especially to theatre – how the opinions of the society influence the message of actor-specific theatre. The second part consists of artistic research – using the examples of four productions by Divadlo Aldente (Theatre Aldente), which Jitka Vrbková directed and also written, and experience from the two research stays in actor-specific theatres abroad, the author demonstrates the potential of such theatre, looks for suitable theatrical tools and explains the genesis of the theatre’s message.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

In the academic year 2021/2022, a collection of texts by students of Philosophy was published at the Theatre Faculty of JAMU. They reflect on the issues of (in)equality and (in)power in the environment of educational institutions, theatres and various artistic collectives. They describe the gender stereotypes and abuses of power that they have sometimes encountered and reflect on the impact of such behaviour and possible solutions to the problems. All this in the context of the initiative “Nemusíš to vydržet”.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

editor: Andrea Jochmanová

This essayistic exploration of the context of radical thinking and theatre dramaturgy attempts to answer the question of how to return social and political relevance to this field in a world of individualized "nomads" competing for attention in the artistic marketplace. Through a dialogue with the thought of philosopher Martin Buber and anarchist Gustav Landauer, the author journeys to the roots of modern dramatic art as a socially transformative program seeking to simultaneously unite and liberate man, community, and nature. He seeks the "spiritual foundations of theatrical anarchism", a radical critique of power and socio-economic conditions. The book thus attempts to recover the meaning of dramaturgy as a modern profession rooted in the structures of experience of its time, but also in deeper ecological contexts, and to show why theatre is irreplaceable even in a multimedia, networked age. Radical Dramaturgy is intended for theatre artists and performers, as well as for the wider professional public, to encourage them to seek a new and more just relationship between stage production and society and nature.

In GALEA, Marco – MUSCA, Scabolcs (eds.). Redefining Theatre Communities. International Perspectives on Community-Conscious Theatre-Making. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 2019, s. 220–229

During specific kinds of performances their spectators are encouraged to be active and make their own decisions. This chapter focuses on changes in the modes of spectatorship and introduces one performance by Rimini Protokoll – Remote X, which has been held in more than fifteen cities all over the world from 2013. The performance Remote X invites spectators (or better participants) to a walk through the city. This “tour”, guided by instructions in participants’ headphones, connects theatre artists with local inhabitants and enables them to explore public space from unexpected angles and examine its socially unattractive localities. The purpose of this chapter is to point out this kind of unusual performances with specific requirements to spectators forming the specific “community” during the performances. Important psychological and sociological themes connected with such approaches in the field of theatre are named, for example collective work, self-determination, freedom, role-playing and crowd psychology. Also social, political and cultural identity is taken into consideration. The chapter deals with problems which must be solved during similar performances and with aspects of local and global perspectives in theatre-making. Then it focuses on the theme, how theatre artists deal with theatrical conventions characteristic for “common theatrical productions” and with elements of psychodrama and socio-drama.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

The publication Osvobozené divadlo – Na vlnách Devětsilu (Liberated Theatre – On the Waves of Devětsil) tries o shed new light on the issues related to the developmental changes of Czech avant-garde theatre art. It focuses on key events in the historical and social context, on attempts to apply original stage-technological, scenographic and other experimental principles in the often very specific conditions in which individual projects were implemented, as well as on important personalities, i.e. the movers of events. 

Brno: JAMU, 2020

edited by Miroslav Plešák

The essay is trying to open a sphere of education focused on creative processes and its application of the fun and games theory. It also highlights the productivity of human’s life curiosity, which has led to many improvements of mankind in the past. Finding wide invention in Comenius and Nicolas Cusanus in the same way as with many others, including encounters with charismatic personalities in the present, the author looks towards denomination of the particular model of communication inspired by the vision of the theatricality and poetry of the everyday and also actual theatre practice, including steadily evolved knowledge and individual exchanges between students and the teacher.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

edited by Jiřina Hofmanová

This monography aims to present a fragment of the theatrical work of Oleg Bogayev (*1970) translated into Czech. The plays in question are Dead Ears, or A History of Toilette Paper (title also translated as Deaf Souls), Maria’s Field, Dawn–Way and I Killed the Tzar. The monography views Bogayev’s work as intertextual, discovering many layers of context and meaning that could be concealed to the purely theatrological eye. 

Brno: JAMU, 2022

The Theatre Conference JAMU was organized by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in November 2021. The conference was supposed to take place in November 2020 but the continuing restrictions of international travel due to Covid-19 forced JAMU to postpone the conference to November 2021. The conference happened both in presence and online and its main topic was: The Ever-expanding Horizons of Theatre. This multimedial anthology contains video recordings of presentations delivered at the conference. Each session of the anthology, dealing with the contemporary trends in researching theatre, psychodrama, visual arts, and virtual reality, is opened by summary which sums up the main thoughts of the session.

Brno: JAMU, 2022

This anthology contains selected audio recordings of presentations delivered at the Theatre Conference JAMU organized by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in November 2019. Author’s of the presentations were interested in topics dealing with the contemporary trends in researching theatre, radio, television, and visual arts. They examined the issue of research, its methods, and especially the methods which might be traditionally perceived as “unconventional”.

Brno, 2022

Is the actor's otherness (or disability) a challenge, or rather an advantage - an opportunity to create a new specific theatrical poetics? These and other questions are addressed in this publication within the background of three years of artistic research into the theatre work of adolescent actors with Down's syndrome at the Aldente Theatre. The introductory part ʻIntroduction to the Topicʼ reflects different approaches to this kind of theatre work in the Czech Republic and abroad. The most extensive part, ʻA View from the Inside: The Journey of an Actor with Down's Syndrome to Cognisant Artistic Creationʼ, describes the theatre training and the creation and re-performances of three productions from the perspective of director Jitka Vrbková and her collaborators. The last part ʻThe View from the Outside: Inclusion through Theatreʼ is written by external observers – psychologist Lenka Pivodová, special educator Ilona Fialová and theatre director and educator Zoja Mikotová – and reports on the positive inclusive influence of this theatre work on both the actors with Down's syndrome themselves and the audience of the majority society. This publication reports on the three-year artistic research project of the Theatre Faculty of JAMU "The Artistic Research of the Production of Theatrical Performances with Down‘s Syndrome Actors as an Effective Mean of Social Inclusion" co-financed by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the ETA Programme.

Brno: JAMU, 2021

edited by Miroslav Plešák and Naďa Satková

This study “Where did the puppet disappear?” is about current situation of puppet theatre in the Czech Republic. It defines what the puppet can today mean as an object and how it is perceived by the expert and general community. It maps out the relationship between the actor and the puppet and searches for a name for a new theatre phenomenon for which there is no corresponding term in the Czech context. In the first part of this study the author presents the chosen topic based on a compilation of literary sources, periodicals and electronic articles related to the issue. The author also analyses the answers from the survey submitted to the expert community of various professions in puppet theatres. The aim of this study is to capture and evaluate the long-term situation in which the puppet theatre has been since the middle of the last century.

Brno: JAMU, 2021

This anthology contains selected articles and audio recordings, which discuss progressive tendencies in contemporary Theatre Directing, current social trends reflected in the work of major directors, experience with education of the upcoming generation of directors, or the future of educating theatre directors. The presentations were delivered at the theatre symposium organized by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in November 2018.

Brno: JAMU, 2020

This collective monograph consists of thirteen studies on outstanding figures from the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU). These studies present historical evidence and, at the same time, they show the continuity of these figures’ development. The work includes teachers of acting, educational dramatics, movement education, and artistic recitation, all of whom contributed to the formation of the pedagogical methods used in various fields of study at JAMU. The authors of this monograph focused on researching, processing and evaluating the pedagogical activities of these personalities. Their research was based on archive materials stored at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, in the Theatre Department of the Moravian Museum, in the archive of the National Theatre in Brno, in the archive of the CED, in the archive of the Brno City Theatre, etc. Studies are written by Andrea Jochmanová, Dominika Polášková, Naďa Satková, Klára Škrobánková and Luboš Mareček.

Brno, 2021

This publication focuses on utilizing the objective evaluation of both the performer’s and recipient’s bio-signals. Its aim is to create an educational methodology destined for the development of communication skills. The users of project results will be able to improve their public performance and shape their communication with the audience more effectively, something which is important for all areas that require presentation or persuasion.

Brno: JAMU, 2021

The book offers an insight into the political in the doctoral theatre research as it was presented at the 8th Conference of Doctoral Studies in Theatre Practice and Theory organized by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in November 2017. It was the first conference focused on a particular topic, with politics and community engagement standing in the centre of everyone’s interest. The essays in the volume discuss domestic abuse against women in India, Polish participatory theatre, Slovenian independence, theatricality of terror, or immersive theatre. They reflect and analyse different cultural aspects and use diverse methodologies.

Brno: JAMU, 2016

This book represents a comprehensive theory of art in the form of a philosophical essay. It proves that we have become accustomed to seeing a work of art as a tool of communication instead of a meeting place.

Brno: JAMU, 2020

edited by Eva Schulzová

The title of the book Cine Teatro Saura is a hyperbolic variation of the term “cineteatro” which was once widely used in the romance-language cultural milieu. It meant a space in which a viewer could be exposed to both film and theater. In its complexity, Carlos Saura’s work is seen as a special meeting place of film and theater languages. It is a space of subjective memory through which we travel in order to learn not only about the author’s thinking, perception, imagery, and poetics but also about ourselves. In this knowledge, an important role is played by the experience of dictatorship and its subsequent transition to democracy, and Saura pays the most attention to this process in Spain and Latin America. The author views Saura’s work from a phenomenological viewpoint, with the aim of mapping and conveying original methods of fi lm narration by means of a specifi c literary narration. It is an attempt to grasp creatively, with respect for subjectivity, the work of an artist who, by his very nature, encourages free and “unchecked” ways of seeing the world, including works of art and art in general. This approach is also related to a shared skepticism towards established genres which may deprive Saura’s work of its unique character at the cost of apparent transparency. The aim of this book is to awaken interest in Saura’s work among artists of all age categories so that they can have the courage to seek new ways of narration beyond established schemes, in the desire to understand more of ourselves and of the time and space we live in.

Brno: JAMU, 2019

edited by Naďa Satková

The publication strives to fill white space of the Czech-language materials about the described method; it is a detailed visual manual for dancers and dance pedagogues, who long to aquaint themselves with Lester Horton’s technique. For the book, David Strnad chooses the form of silhouette drawings; this methodology and its illustrative nature and usability in the dance practice he sufficiently justifies and explains in the accompanying text.

Brno: JAMU, 2018

This set of comments and essays explores the topic of dialogue on the face of current social and political problems, such as the erosion of democratic values, populism, and nationalism, the refugee crisis or the loss of solidarity. These texts explore the roots of European culture and seek to re-evaluate their core in relation to the issues of freedom, democracy, human rights, compassion and Christianity.

Brno: JAMU, 2019

edited by Naďa Satková

This publication deals with the development of film and television propaganda within the historical and political contexts that affected the Czech lands. Since World War I, film has become an important propaganda tool. Its photographic naturalism easily persuaded the audience by giving them the impression of having been eye-witnesses to the events depicted. Cinematic sound further enhanced the manipulative effect. This publication analyses animated, documentary, and fiction films as well as television films. It also points to the influence of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, whose interests were served by domestic propaganda.

Brno: JAMU, 2018

edited by Dominika Polášková

This monograph is Nika Brettschneider’s and Ludvík Kavín’s “travel journal”, describing the path to their establishment of Theater Brett in exile in Vienna. It depicts their artistic activities from 1977 to 1989. The author focuses mainly on the development of acting as a means of expression, ranging from non-verbal to verbal expression, and characterizes a total of 42 productions.

Brno: JAMU, 2019

jazyková redakce: Andrea Jochmanová a Eva Schulzová

Autor se v hlavní části publikace věnuje vztahu mezi divadlem a krizí. Ukazuje, že geneze divadla je nejen v okcidentálním kontextu výsledkem společenské krize, že v dějinách lidstva stále znovu reflektuje nejrůznější lidské, resp. společenské krize a přispívá k jejich řešení. Zároveň vyzdvihuje, že sama divadelní tvorba se dostala v současnosti do hluboké krize identity a postupně ztrácí, jak se zdá, svou schopnost k živé komunikaci, a tím také svou elementární imaginaci. 

Brno: JAMU, 2018

edited by Klára Škrobánková

This monograph describes the creative career of one of the most important theatre directors in the second half of the 20th century. It follows Brook’s career from its beginnings in England in the mid-1940s to the present. It attempts to place it into both historical and contemporary contexts and to name some of Brook’s possible sources of inspiration.

Brno: JAMU, 2018

edited by Dominika Polášková

This book is dedicated to a prominent teacher at the Theatre Faculty, Jiřina Ryšánková, who had a large part in the development of acting movement instruction. She significantly contributed to the introduction of pantomime as a proper subject of acting education at the Faculty. Through her pedagogical activities, Jiřina Ryšánková influenced a large number of performers and theatre personalities. 

Brno: JAMU, 2015

This book examines the nature and character of theatrical creation within the framework of independent performance activities. In it, the author reflects on one of the most current streams of contemporary theatre. The author draws on her own work and practical research with the D’Epog ensemble in Brno.

Brno: JAMU, 2018

This collection consists of lectures given by candidates for associate professorships and professorships at the Theatre Faculty from July 1, 2007, to August 31, 2018. The lectures are divided into seven thematic sections: thoughts on theatre; direction and dramaturgy; acting; scenography; movement and voice; management; media. 

Brno: JAMU, 2018 

edited by Andrea Jochmanová

The aim of the publication is to present Ctibor Turba’s great contribution to Czech drama, namely his pedagogical work: a methodology for the mime’s or comic actor’s work.

Brno: JAMU, 2012

This gripping panorama of the 1920s vividly describes the genesis of the generation of artists known as Devětsil and artistic movements such as Poetism and Constructivism. It deals with Frejka’s gradual shift from these styles to a more spectacular cabaret-revue theatre, as well as to the playfulness and fun connected with “revealing the dada of life”.

Brno: JAMU, 2018

edited by Jan Motal

This study provides the reader with an overview of the thoughts which Jan Roubal was exploring in his professional work, taking into account his lifelong efforts to introduce foreign concepts of Theatre Studies into the Czech environment. There is also a clear interest in alternative forms of theatre, in their social outreach and in their historical appreciation. In particular, the issue of “open theatrology” is discussed, i.e. the liberation of the field from its traditional theoretical constraints. The strengthening of interdisciplinary influences, particularly from German and Polish dramatic cultures, is also emphasised.

Brno: JAMU, 2016

This book contains documentation, reconstruction and analytical interpretation of the play Písek by Arnošt Goldflam and the HaDivadlo ensemble, which was performed in 1988 in Brno. The key chapter deals with the interpretation of the staged play, applying hermeneutic phenomenology.

Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2014

The publication theoretically defines dramaturgical analysis as a type of audio-visual art interpretation based on the philosophical hermeneutics inspired by Hans-Georg Gadamer‘s tradition. This method is then applied in order to reach analytical understanding of the conception of beauty in selected films by Jan Špáta. The detailed analysis of the selected films arises from the task of dramaturgy as an understanding discipline which reveals the meaning of the piece of art in relation to specific tools of its construction. The resulting interpretation based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger shows Špáta‘s work as an ambitious and complex testimony of beauty as awareness of thrownness of existence (Dasein) which returns the man to his being. The existential dimension of beauty in Špáta‘s films enables human suffering to adapt as an organic part of meaningful existence.

Brno: JAMU, 2015

This book is made up of texts from the first volume of Jan Roubal’s work on devised (“authorial”), alternative, and studio theatre. These writings contain the essence of his continuous thinking about theatre. They combine the author’s life enchantment with theatre in all its aesthetic categories with his passion for theatre as a space for meeting, sharing, and interacting. Last but not least, they reflect on theatre as a space for returning to the ritual roots of drama, as well as on its overlap with para-theatrical, social, psychological, and therapeutic spheres.

Brno: JAMU, 2013

Unique not only in its Czech context, this work represents an attempt to capture the space of historicity in a film essay, as well as deal with the topic of artistic creation in general. In the first part, the author presents a philosophical analysis of the relationship between man and historicity with a methodological overlap: how can one examine a work of art dealing with a historical man? The second part applies an activated philosophical apparatus to some of the work of Chris Marker and to the complete works of Karel Vachek. 

Brno: JAMU, 2011

This publication consists of papers presented at conferences held at the Theatre Faculty in 2003 and 2005. The seminars held there also provided a platform for comparing different ways of pursuing doctoral studies at art colleges. They were attended by students and teachers from Slovakia, Hungary, Great Britain, Finland, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, and other countries. The aim of these conferences was to systematically describe the issue of doctoral research at art schools and academies.

Brno: JAMU, 2012

This publication consists of papers presented at conferences held at the Theatre Faculty in 2007 and 2009. The aim of these conferences was to systematically describe the issue of doctoral research at art schools and academies. The seminars held there also provided a platform for comparing different ways of pursuing doctoral studies at art colleges. They were attended by students and teachers from Finland, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and other countries.

Brno: JAMU, 2013

This publication consists of papers presented at the conference held at the Theatre Faculty in 2011. The aim of these conferences was to systematically describe the issue of doctoral research at art schools and academies. The seminars held there also provided a platform for comparing different ways of pursuing doctoral studies at art colleges.