THE PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

[JEFFREY ERIC JENKINS]

To: Thea-Net
Dear Friends,
Please post the following to your discussion list. Thank
you.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
 
"Acts of Theatre: The Prague Quadrennial"
THEATER WEEK -- August 21, 1995
 
At the ATHE 95 conference in San Francisco, participants
were exhorted by Ellen Stewart of La MaMa ETC -- who
received ATHE's Career Achievement Award in Professional
Theatre -- to "extend beyond yourselves." Ms. Stewart was
referring to our tendency in the United States to sometimes
ignore the "world" of theatre outside our national
boundaries.
 
In the August 21, 1995 issue of THEATER WEEK magazine -- on
newsstands now or coming in the next week -- ATHE member
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins explores the diverse international
energies experienced this summer at the Prague Quadrennial.
"Acts of Theater: The Prague Quadrennial" discusses issues
of dwindling international government support for the arts
and raises questions regarding the mission of theatre in our
expanding global culture. Below is an excerpt from "Acts of
Theater: The Prague Quadrennial" by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins.
THEATER WEEK -- August 21, 1995:
 
"The original Prague Quadrennial in 1967 was an outgrowth of
the Brazilian Art Biennials of the 1950s and 1960s. After
winning top awards for scenic design in four successive
biennial exhibitions, representatives of the Czech and
Slovak theater communities were encouraged to create an
international exhibition in Prague. The first PQ - dedicated
to stagings of Mozart operas in the city where Don Giovanni
was first performed - was followed in 1968 by the so-called
'Prague Spring.' When budding free expression was crushed
under Soviet tank tracks in August of that year, it seemed
as if the first PQ might have been the last.
 
"Nearly thirty years later, though, the PQ still manages to
provide an international home for the exchange of artistic
ideas. The Czech Theater Institute and the International
Organization of Theater Artists and Technicians (OISTAT)
continue to find creative ways of funding the exhibition by
emphasizing its importance to the Czech government - no
matter which regime is in power. However, given the current
economic climate - in which the term 'market economy' can be
used as a linguistic bludgeon - the PQ will be deemed
important to the Czech government only if it means jobs and
capital for the country. Ironically, as borders between
countries have opened with the fall of the Berlin Wall,
governmental pocketbooks have slammed shut."
--Excerpted from "Acts of Theater: The Prague Quadrennial"
by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, THEATER WEEK -- August 21, 1995.
 
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