ARTAMA

Jiraskuv Hronov — Festival of Amateur Theatre

Orga­ni­zed by The Nati­o­nal Infor­mation and Con­sul­ting cen­ter for Cul­ture (NIPOS-ARTAMA, Pra­gue), autho­ri­zed by Minis­try of Cul­ture of the Czech Repub­lic and the town Hronov.

HRONOV – a small town in the North-east of Bohe­mia, it lies on the banks of the River Metuje, surroun­ded by beau­ti­ful nature, near the Polish bor­der. It was foun­ded by the Kni­ght Hron. The famous Czech wri­ter Jira­sek, who was born in Hro­nov, advan­ced with his the­a­tre plays the the­a­tre tra­di­tion of this town. 

The Oldest Festival

Jirás­kův Hro­nov, annual fes­ti­val of ama­teur the­a­tre in the Czech Repub­lic with inter­nati­o­nal par­ti­ci­pation. The fes­ti­val will enter its 80^th year in 2010. In Slo­va­kia, a simi­lar the­a­tre fes­ti­val currently called Scé­nická žatva Mar­tin, which takes place in the city of Mar­tin, has been in exis­tence for a little lon­ger: the 88^th year will be held in 2010. However, the fes­ti­val tra­di­tion was interrup­ted in the past.

If you know about a the­a­tre fes­ti­val with a simi­larly long or even lon­ger tra­di­tion, ple­ase inform us about this event, so that we have not con­si­de­red the two fes­ti­vals in Hro­nov and Mar­tin the oldest unjustly. Contact per­son: Dr. Milan Stro­t­zer, NIPOS-ARTAMA, P. O. BOX 12, 120 21 Praha 2, e-mail: mistr@nipos-mk.cz; ple­ase mark your let­ter or e-mail as “The Oldest Festival”

Sum­mary of 79th Jirás­kův Hro­nov 2009

The pro­gra­mme of 79th Jirás­kův Hro­nov was cho­sen from more than 1000 the­a­tre pro­ducti­ons, mainly through the sys­tem of com­pe­ti­tive regi­o­nal and nati­o­nal fes­ti­vals held for dif­fe­rent kinds of theatre.

The main pro­gra­mme was cre­a­ted by 30 pro­ducti­ons from 30 the­a­tre groups pla­yed in 74 performances.

 The off pro­gra­mme con­si­s­ted of other 23 pro­ducti­ons and per­for­man­ces from 23 the­a­tre groups pla­yed in 24 performances.

 On the whole, the fes­ti­val hos­ted 53 the­a­tre pro­ducti­ons from 53 the­a­tre groups in 102 per­for­man­ces. Besi­des, there were 30 music and non-theatre productions.

 In the course of the fes­ti­val there were 15 the­ma­tic the­a­tre workshops going on (usu­ally las­ting 8 days) and a daily dis­cus­sion club and so-called pro­blem club focus­sing on the pro­ducti­ons in the main pro­gra­mme. The edu­cati­o­nal part of the fes­ti­val was atten­ded by nearly 300 par­ti­ci­pi­ants in the­ma­tic semi­nars and workshops, other peo­ple took part in the two clubs.

 The total num­ber of par­ti­ci­pants was 2000 peo­ple inte­res­ted in the­a­tre from the Czech Repub­lic and abroad.

The dates for the 79. sea­son 2009, 1st – 8th of August

The “Jiraskuv Hro­nov Fes­ti­val“ is a Czech nati­onwide fes­ti­val for ama­teur (volun­tary) the­a­t­res with fore­ign par­ti­ci­pation. This fes­ti­val is the cul­mi­nation of the best per­for­man­ces coming from regi­o­nal fes­ti­vals which have run throu­ghout the coun­try. This fes­ti­val is the ‘best of the best’ of ama­teur the­a­t­res from Czech Repub­lic from the last sea­son. The fes­ti­val is followed up with fore­ign groups which are nomi­na­ted from dif­fe­rent known ama­teur the­a­tre fes­ti­vals from the whole world.

The pro­gram of “Jiraskuv Hro­nov Fes­ti­val“ is drawn up from dif­fe­rent forms of the­a­tre (ver­bal, non-verbal, pan­to­mime, dance, music, expe­ri­men­tal, poetry, pup­pets or for chil­dren the­a­ters) pla­yed by dif­fe­rent groups (adults, chil­dren, stu­dents, folk peo­ple, etc.). The fes­ti­val inclu­des dif­fe­rent edu­cation possi­bi­li­ties (workshops, dis­cus­sion forum for pla­yed per­for­man­ces). There are usu­ally 12 or more workshop groups wor­king during the entire fes­ti­val period. Each group follows dif­fe­rent the­a­tre forms. Each group is led by a Czech or fore­ign the­a­tre expert. Com­mu­ni­cation lan­gu­age in the groups is usu­ally Czech but there is always one group in Eng­lish for fore­ign par­ti­ci­pants every year.

Fore­ign tea­cher for Hro­nov 2009:
Guillermo Horta Betan­court
about him (PDF)

There are always big sides pro­grams during the fes­ti­val period (con­certs, exhi­bi­ti­ons, dance or other form of shows).

CEC  STANDING  COMMITTEE  FOR  ARTISTIC  DEVELOPMENT offers
TIP     HRONOV,  CZECH   REPUBLIC    30 July -  8  AUGUST  2009  TIP

The renaissance of  TIP,   THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, will take place in Hro­nov, Czech Repub­lic during the 79th JIRASKUV  HRONOV Fes­ti­val,  30 July – 8 August 2009.  More infor­mation (PDF)

Sum­mary of JH 08 (PDF)

Report about JH 08 writ­ten by Joke Elbers, Dutch Cen­tre of AITA/IATA (PDF)

Con­tact:

PhDr. Milan Stro­t­zer, pro­gram direc­tor
NIPOS-ARTAMA, P.O.Box 12
Bla­nická 4, 120 21 Pra­gue 2
Czech Repub­lic
e-mail: mistr@nipos-mk.cz
tel: 00420 221 507 956, fax: 00420 221 507 955

Michal Hecht, admi­nis­tra­tor of Czech IATA cen­ter
NIPOS-ARTAMA, P.O.Box 12
Bla­nická 4, 120 21 Pra­gue 2
Czech Repub­lic
e-mail: hecht@nipos-mk.cz
tel: 00420 221 507 971