Czech puppets over the centuries
(author Alice Dubská, Czech puppets over the centuries)
The International Institute of Puppet Arts in Prague
Czech puppeteer has achieved this significant status for a number
of reasons. First and foremost there is still a widespread, although
by no means completely historically accurate, conception of the role
played by Czech puppeteers in the period of the national revival,
that exceptional process, at the end of the 18th ant beginning of the
18th centuries, whereby the modern Czech nation was formed, and the
leading forces of the nation combined to fight against the gradual
decline of the Czech language and to give rise to a new national
self-confidence within Czech society. The amateur puppet movement,
widespread in the first half of the 20th century, also evokes feelings
considerable respect and, after the period of the folk puppeteers in
the 19th century, forms the second critical phase in the history of the
development of Czech puppetry.
II. From puppet production in the middle ages to baroque
Marionettes
The majority of historians divide the history of the Czech puppet theatre into
three main phases of development:
-
the phase of the traditional folk marionettes or, more precisely itinerant
puppet players, beginning in the last quarter of the 18th century and finishing
at the end of the 19th century
-
the phase of amateur puppeteers in the 1st half of the 20th century
-
the phase of the modern professional puppet theatre, meaning, in this country,
the period after 1948
This division into periods isn't completely straightforward and is to a
certain degree even unsystematic. After all, itinerant marionette players were
active in this country until the 50s of this century, the activities of the
amateur puppeteers covers all three of these phases and the same is true of
professional forms of puppet theatre. The basic principle behind this schema of
periods however can be justified as in each given phase of development
precisely these ways of performing Czech puppet theatre undeniably determined
its form and above all provided the decisive impetus for its further
development. If we return to the second half of the 18th century, where the
majority of historians locate the beginning of Czech puppetry, we must stress
that it is in essence the beginning of the continuous and related development
of Czech theatre, corresponding in its basic features, form, organizations and
function to our modern understanding of theatrical system. This doesn't mean of
course that puppets and puppet theatre (or occasionally only elements of it)
were not presented in this part of Europe before that time.
III. Czech country folk puppeteers
In the second half of the 18th century theatre practitioners of the most
varying types were still touring the Czech lands, and a still plentiful number
of puppeteers among them. Their paths took two main routes: one led from Saxony
through Teplice to Prague on to Moravia and from there to Hungary or
Transylvania, the other went from Italy and Austria to Bratislava or straight
through Moravia to Bohemia or Poland. Czech names are however beginning to
appear in the official applications for permits to perform puppet productions,
and espite an insufficiency or historical evidence we can assume that from the
70s of that century the first Czech performing puppeteers appeared in this
country.
IV. In the second quarter of the 19th
century
There were more then 200 puppeteers working in the territory of the Czech
lands. For more some it was just a means of making a living, while others
formed a deeper relation to the profession and the lifestyle which went with
it. For the most part they were members of larger dispersed families, in which
the father successively handed his successors not only equipment and experience
but also a strong passion for puppets. The important puppeteering family of the
Maizners, who were all dedicated to puppet theatre in a direct line until the
60s of this century, worked mostly in the east of Bohemia. They were puppeteers
with a high level of self-confidence, link to tradition and patriotic
sympathies. It is thanks to them that some of the very oldest puppet scripts
have survived along with a collection of very valuable puppets from the
workshop woodcarving family of the Suchardas.
V. The Amateur Puppeteers
The picture of Czech puppetry at the end of the 19th century would not be
complete if we didn´t mention the increasing activity of amateur puppeteers.
They tried to take advantage especially of the personally unassuming nature of
the puppet theatre for their own theatrical activities as early as the middle
of the 19th century. This tendency grew more in the last decades and by the
beginning of the 20th century we can talk about movement, which basically
launched the phase of modern puppetry, despite the fact that initially the
amateurs were totally under the influence of the traditional folk puppeteers.
Public amateur activity was precursored by a marked expansion of domestic,
so-called family puppet theatres.
VI. The development of permanent puppet
venues in the 1920s
The revolutionary historic changes which occurred with the end of the first
world war, the collapse of the Austrio-Hungarian monarchy and the formation of
the Czechoslovak Republic, influenced all areas of social life. With conditions
of peace and a newly acquired state independence there was a great liberation
of the creative powers of the whole nation. For Czech puppeteering, whose
natural progress had been halted by the war, there came a period of the most
intensive expansion to date. Every year hundreds of new theatres appeared which
played regularly on Saturday and Sunday for young spectators - by the end of
the 1930s they numbered almost three thousand. Performances took place
everywhere: in large towns (20-35 groups were active in Prague at that time),
and even in small villages.
VII. From Kašpárek to Spejbl and
Hurvínek
Skupa began to make his presence felt as an actor, director and author. He
soon showed an ability to take control of master the puppet theatre in its
entirely and went on to become the exact personality, with a complex sense of
theatre, which Czech theatre was lacking. His great talent as an actor led
Skupa to an unerring understanding of the laws of the puppet theatre. He often
deferred his artistic aims to the capabilities of the puppets, and thus sought
to limit the artistic hegemony which was characteristic of that period. For the
first time in the modern history of puppetry in this country a new hierarchy
was established among the production elements, in which priority was given to
the puppet and its specific characteristics.
VIII. The arrival of new development
trends in the 1930s
In 1929 on the occasion of the International Puppetry Exhibiton representative
European puppeteers met in the Realm of Puppets and founded the international
association of puppeteers UNIMA and Jin?ich Veselý was elected its first
president. The efforts in the 1930s to find new styles was instigated by
renewed interest in the staging of plays for live actors. Unlike in previous
years, this decision wasn´t made in an effort to spice up the repertoire. Many
young directors produced particularly challenging texts with a distinguished
tradition of performance in order to test their directorial abilities.
IV. Czech Puppeteers under the Nazi
occupation
The historical events of 1938, when the Munich agreement led to the
dissolution of the Czechoslovak Republic and, in spring 1939, the occupation of
the whole Czech lands by nazi Germany, together with the ensuing outbreak of
the second world war, had a profound effect on the whole of the Czech nation.
The initial skepticism and despair was soon replaced by a national
determination not to submit to the pressure of the German occupants and protect
the threatened national identity, especially in the field of national culture
ant the arts. Needless to say, this new situation also had consequences for
Czech puppetry. With the annexation of the border regions, Czech puppeteering
lost almost a quarter of its puppet theatres. The outlawing of the Sokol
organisation in 1940 had a particularly harsh effect on Czech puppeteering, as
its puppet component was one of the most active elements of Czech puppetry at
that time.
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