Puppetery Museum in Chrudin (http://www.puppets.cz) History of Museum The Museum of Puppets was opened in 1972 in a renaissance building called the Mydlar House. It was built by a Chrudim burger - Matej Mydlar in 1573-1577 and a little minaret-like tower was added later by his son Daniel.

The museum funds were based on a private collection of Prof. PhDr. Jan Malík (1904-1980), an inexhaustible organiser of events connected with puppets, a practical puppeteer and a theoretician, historian, pedagogue and collector. He also asked each UNIMA ("Union Internationale de la Marionnette") national centre to donate a sample of their national puppets to the museum. Over the first 30 years, the museum collections grew in size greatlyand new additions are continuously made. Today the museum owns about 7.000 puppets and some 60.000 other exhibits (stage designs and scale models, decorations, graphic art inspired by puppetry, posters and programmes, photographs, manuscripts,publications and many more). A performance with puppets, as any other stage performance, is a transient experience. It is alive only at the time of acting. That is why we must be all the more thorough in assembling any and all available material on the art of puppetry, records, and, today, also videorecordings. What can be preserved is the puppet itself. It is true that it cannot tell us much about the quality of the performance, but it is (in most cases) a work of art in itself. It may attract you by its expression, it may be a demonstration of the techniques used, of various national puppet traditions,of the characteristic style of its creator, carvers,... It may be quite an emotional experience just to look at it. All of these are the reasons why there is such a museum as ours. This is why it collects and deals with documents related to the development of Czech and, as far as possible, international puppetry. This is why it exhibits puppets both in its own premises and in other places in our country and abroad.

Where the museum is housed

The first and initially also the only building in which the museum was located was the beautiful renaissance Mydlá?´s House (No. 74). The house was built (or rather remodelled) by a Chrudim burger, Mat?j Mydlá? (whose name derived from "mýdlo" meaning soap, as his profession was to make soap and candles), in 1573-1576. On the face of the three-storey building you can see two loggias with five arches each. On the first floor your eye will be arrested by the figural ornamentation. The standing figures, from the left, illustrate piety, justice, thrift and strength, while the reposing figures represent peace, war, love, watchfulness and power. The inscription bellow comes from Chapter 20 of the Book of Moses John´s Book, Chapter 4 verse 16: "God is Love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In the year of 1573", bearing the initials MM. Bases of columns on one of the loggias bear the motifs of the head of a clown, a bull and a stag, and there are several rosettes and letters IHS (Meaning Jesus hominum Salvator - Jesus, the Saviour of Man). The third gallery was first made from sandstone, and there used to be a moulding and allegorical figures. However, as the walls had already been in poor condition, it was pulled down and replaced with a wooden gallery at the beginning of the 19th century. Soon after the house was completed in 1577, Mat?j Mydlá? passed it on to his son Daniel. He is believed to have had the characteristic minaret-like double tower built from bricks and carved stone. The first tower rises five storeys high and can be accessed by winding stairs. At the level above the house it has hexagonal form and square windows. The other tower, built on the east side of the house, exceeds the first tower and its highest section is in the shape of a minaret with eight small windows. It is hard to say when exactly the towers were built, but we know for sure it was before the end of the 16th century. There are no written records of why they were built. As from the very beginning they had been called an "observatory", it is generally believed that they also used to serve for watching the stars. Mat?j Mydlá? knew renaissance style from his travels. At the time, the architecture of Chrudim fell behind other towns in Bohemia. That was why he wanted to build as magnificent a palace as possible. Other wealthy citizens of Chrudim then tried to remodel their houses and the town soon became quite spectacular. The last owner of the house was Marie Kozlanská who legated it to the municipality in 1952. Nowadays, Mydlá?´s House is a public place - there are permanent as well as temporary exhibitions, which are altered annually. On special occasions, it is also possible to climb up the tower. Soon after it was first opened, the museum annexed the neighbouring building, house No. 73. Formerly a Gothic-style building was remodelled into a renaissance house (probably in 1577), while its supports (corbels) had been preserved. It now houses the museum offices and part of the depository. In 1990, the museum bought the building on the other side of Mydlá?´s House - No. 75, which dates back to the 16th century. The two buildings were interconnected to gain more exhibition area and to provide space for other visitor-oriented activities.

Art gallery

The gallery was opened in March 1995 when reconstruction of house No. 75 had been completed. Since then, a number of short-term exhibitions have been held there (6 to 7 a year), and these are not always devoted to puppetry. The initial idea was to attract more people and bring them more often to the museum by offering them as varied display as possible. The first cycle included works created by actors whose hobby is to paint. The museum also wants to show its visitors creative arts devoted to children, toys and works of art based on toying with fantasy, creative activities of puppet stage designers, theatre-related photography, children's art inspired by a given theme.... and much more.
Playroom with puppets
The motto of the room is "Please touch". This is to compensate for our request (often futile) not to touch any exhibits in the museum. Naturally, especially children, want to have a go. And this place, the playroom, is where they can. The playroom was set up with the help of stage designers from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre of the School of Dramatic Arts (DAMU) in Prague. Students of one class had this task to solve as their semester project. Then it was up to us to turn their ideas into reality. The stages (one small stage for puppets and one for marionettes) are the work of Jan Zich and the puppets were made by Bára Zichova, his wife.

Fixed expozition

Permanent exhibitions:
Groundfloor
Without barriers
The exhibition shows a basic cross-section through the history of puppetry in the Czech lands pointing to the origin of puppets and to a number of specific aspects of the art of puppetry in the world. In this limited space we try to show at least the essential items, ideas and events from the development of this specific kind of art to those, who are not able to climb the steep stairs to see the rest of our treasures. The historical building is protected by the Czech Care of Historical Monuments (Heritage) Organization. We hope to inspire our visitors to a deeper understanding of the puppet theatre and to show them the many possibilities it has.

Floor II.
Traditional Czech Puppet Theatre
From the latter half of the 17th century, puppet theatre was performed in the Czech lands by touring groups from other countries. In the 18th century the Czech language started to be used. These shows were the only form of theatre performed in villages and spread the use of the Czech language, helped to give rise to national awareness and rouse interest in history. At that time puppeteers presented both Czech and translations of foreign plays. The importance of this activity, carried out by a number of Czech folk puppeteers and puppeteer families, is reflected in the legendary figure of Mat?j Kopecký /1775 to 1847/, called the Father of the Czech puppet theatre. Touring puppeteers performed until the 1960´ s.

Floor II.
Family Puppet Theatre
In the second half of the 19th century the popularity of puppet theatre led to the growth of family puppet theatres. Puppets and decorations were made for them in series and a number of plays were published. Many artists, columnists and men of letters realized that the influence of puppet theatre could be used for educational purposes and so puppet theatre was also played at schools. After 1912, Mikoláš Aleš-designed puppets were made and more companies started to make puppets and decorations which led to yet higher interest in puppet theatre.The display represents puppets made in series by the end of the 19th century up till the beginning of World War Two. Such puppets were used in families or small theatres.

Floor III.
Foreign Puppets from the Collection of our Museum
Since the time it was established, our museum has accumulated a significant number of documents related to puppet theatre from over seven dozen countries. We are happy to have in our collection not only examples of European puppeteering but also unique articles of the shadow theatre of Indonesia, Vietnamese water puppetry, folk marionettes with faces carved on two sides, a hand puppet made of thimbles from India, a folklore mask and stick figures from Ceylon, Chinese finger and shadow puppets, and actors' masks from the Japanese Nó theatre, and samples of puppetry in Africa and America. The most interesting articles are on display in our permanent exhibition.

Floor III.
Luminescent Theatre
The luminescent Theatre is of Czech origin. It was invented by Mr. František Tvrdek /born 1920/. The first performances took place in 1958 and now the theatre has a tradition of almost forty years. It has also noted significant success in other countries. It is based on illuminating puppets and decorations coated with special paints by means of ultraviolet light. This technique can be used not only in theatre but also on television.Nowadays Mr. Tvrdek works as the head of the "Tvrdek Ultraviolet Show" group. The permanent exhibition displays samples of his work.

One-year period exhibitions

Floor I
WE EXISTED IN THE PAST AND WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST IN THE FUTURE - (puppet theatres of our clubs)
The boom of amateur puppetry at the turn of the 19th century reached its peak in the 1930´s when there were almost 3.000 puppet theatres in the Czech lands. Most of them belonged to clubs and societies. Using marionettes, they linked on the tradition of folk nomadic puppeteers, but the target audience had changed - they mostly performed for children. That was why lots of new plays were written, and methodological brochures and Loutká?, the oldest puppetry magazine in the world, started to be published. However, many clubs and theatre companies had to stop their activities in 1952 (clubs and societies were banned), others found institutions to run them. Since the 1990´s many have resumed work on club basis.
(Opened from 1.2. 2003 till January 2004)

Floor II
ŠÁRKA VÁCHOVÁ - (puppets and drawings)
(born 1947 in Prague). She studied at a Secondary School of Creative Arts (1962 - 66) and the Academy of Music and Drama - the faculty of puppet stage design (1969 - 73). Since she has been designing and making puppets, sets and costumes for TV, puppet theatres and films. She was awarded the 2nd prize for the film "Paní Bída" (Lady Poverty) in a Festival of Animated Films in Chicago. In 1983 - 99 she was teaching at the Academy of Music and Drama. In 1999 - 2000, she wrote and directed "Váno?ní koledy" (Christmas Carols), an animated puppet serial. She participated in forming an artistic conception of and making toys for the children´s oncology ward, department of displaying methods and children´s neurosurgery ward in the Motol hospital in Prague.
(Opened from 1.3. .2003 till January 2004)

Floor III
KINGDOM MADE OF PAPER - (table paper theatres)
At the close of the 18th century it was possible to buy sheets of paper from which simple theatre could be made. The paper was either coloured or could be painted. Typically, paper figures were used in these theatres. They were highly popular especially during the Biedermeierstill era, around 1830. Both children and adults used to cut, glue, colour, and manipulate figures by hands or on paper strips or sticks. Religious and mythological dramas, comedies and even parts from operas were played. In later years paper theatre was somewhat forgotten, but it has started appearing again.
(Opened from 1.3. 2003 till January 2004)