MARTA award in category: OUTSTANDING ACTRESS 

goes to: BARBARA MONETTI

For a convincing interpretation of the character Chantal and for consistent ensemble acting and interplay in the production in Dreamlessland (Theatre Academy in Rome Sofia Amendolea, Italy).

Congratulations!

MARTA award in category: OUTSTANDING ACTRESS 

goes to: JEANNE LE MOIGN

For inspiring use of different acting solutions of theatrical situations and creative approach in the collective creation of the script in YES!(maybe) (Bern University of Arts, Switzerland).

Congratulations!

MARTA award in category: OUTSTANDING ACTOR

goes to: ADAM BORYSOWICZ 

For inspiring metamorphosis in the mental and physical behavior of the character, for constantly fulfilling the stage presence and the ability to develop dramatic dialogues with other characters in Saint Joan  (AST NAtional Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow, Poland, Krakow).

Congratulations!

MARTA award in category: OUTSTANDING ACTOR

goes to: DANIEL GAJDOŠ

For plastic presentation of the ambivalent character, for believable development of the character, for use of surprising psychological positions and ensemble interplay in the role of Kazimír Majka in the production in  HÁDY – Touching the Past  (Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, Czech republic, Brno) 

Congratulations!

The Award of the Festival Director Michal Zetel

goes to BARBORA SVOROVÁ

“I have decided to grant the Award of the Festival Director for extraordinary individual achievements in the field of festival production. The new online format of the festival posed an enormous challenge for all our organizers, and even though the entire team participated in the result, one good soul towers above the rest, showing extraordinary stamina, enthusiasm, attention to detail and personal responsibility. For relocating the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER festival online, I am bestowing the Award of the Festival Director to Barbora Svorová, Head of Promotion of ENCOUNTER 2021.”

Congratulations!

This year’s SETKÁNÍ / ENCOUNTER festival is over and I still can’t believe how fast it has passed.

I have to say a huge thank you to EVERYONE who made it possible for this year’s festival to be created and run smoothly. Since preparing the online form is not a completely well-established method yet, I believe the output of the team was not the “standard” 200 percent, but 400 percent in this case! I would like to thank the creators who sent us the recordings of their work and thus provided us with a real theatrical experience, that’s going to be impossible to see in the form of a live theatrical performance and will also be banned by the government due to Covid-19 for some time now. Thanks to all the musicians we could make every festival evening a bit more pleasant and feel the party atmosphere right in our living rooms. Last but not least, thank you, dear audience. Without you, the Encounter festival would not have been as it was. I’m grateful that you found the time to “go” and observe the culture, even if only through your computer screen. THANK YOU!

We have no other choice but let ourselves be carried away by the wave of memories from this year and look forward to everything that the next one will bring us.

Kristýna Blahynka

we would like to share with you the final statistics of sold tickets sold. This year it was possible to buy tickets in several variants – basic ticket for individual performance for 50 CZK, accreditation for the entire festival (11 performances) for 500 CZK or a special ENC: SUPPORT ticket for individual performance, the price of which you could choose (100 CZK, 150 CZK, 200 CZK or 300 CZK) and thank to that financially support the Team, the Festival, the Drama or the Art.. Well, let’s look at the final numbers :

•       total number of sold tickets: 606

from that is:

•       number of all tickets for individual performances: 508
•       total number of accreditation: 98
•       number of basic tickets for 50 CZK: 449
•       number of ENC: SUPPORT for 100 CZK (Support the Team!): 33
•       number of ENC: SUPPORT for 150 CZK (Support the Festival!): 5
•       number of ENC: SUPPORT for 200 CZK (Support the Drama!): 11
•       number of ENC: SUPPORT for 300 CZK (Support the Art!): 6

And the “Individual sold tickets award” goes to the JAMU production Hády – Touch of the Past: 127

Thank you so much, you are wonderful !!

23rd March 2021, 14:05: I am sitting down behind my laptop and turning on the live stream of the opening ceremony. A little too late, but still. And just like that, nostalgia kicks in. I am going back in my memories to my first year at JAMU. Back then I had no clue what Encounter was when we were assigned a task to be a part of the opening parade. With that started a circle full of rehearsals, learning new things, preparations, chaos… and at the end of all that, the festival. Five days full of culture, running from theatre to theatre at the last minute, buying tickets fast, chill-zone in the gymnastics classroom, sunshine in our academy halls, freshly prepared coffee in the cafeteria, pretty smiling people everywhere, who spoke various languages, afterparties till sunshine, wake up and repeat. And when it all came to an end, we were anxiously waiting for the next year. But it never came.

Now, when I was remembering it all during writing, I got teary-eyed. Though it might be true that I am somewhat feeling like sitting in a theatre while watching online performances, all of the rest is missing, mainly the sense of belonging and sharing. Encounter is not only about the theatre, it’s about friendship, love, sharing emotions, getting to know each other, and mainly – meeting (encountering). And for us, JAMU students, Encounter is even more important. We are the ones who get to host artists from all over the world for a few days. Take them between us and create one big theatre family for a moment. A family that is hard to say goodbye to. And for a year we were totally separated. Alone amidst the unknown and hoping for better times. This year we feel that there is a will, that Encounter is alive. It was never really gone, just as our theatre heart, it was sleeping under the burden of restrictions. And I believe that next year we’ll get to relive it in its full glory as we know it.  

Ondřej Komínek

as a Technoclip

The “devised theatre” project by Michal Nagy and Irina Andreeva reminds of the 1990s music videos when Electro and Techno styles controlled all the music and dance productions. The Sutura project is expressed by these music styles as well.

Three clips evoked me:

• past – children’s joy, carefreeness, and naivety
• present – danger, fragile interpersonal relations between closest persons

• future – ecological disaster, plastics without green vegetation everywhere

Do we want this kind of future for ourselves and our future generations?

Strong engaged and appellative movement performance that builds on fragile bindings of changes and time layers.

Adam Nagy

Sutura

One of the Off-programme performances of this year’s ENCOUNTER festival is the production Sutura, which was created as a graduate project of Michal Nagy a student of the JAMU Physical Theater Department in collaboration with artist Irina Andreeva and the Novogo Fronta Theater.

It is a physical theater with strong visual aspects. The creators and the actors at the same time, Michal Nagy and Irina Andreeva used the entire stage space for their performance. The dance elements were united with the rhythm of the music and the lighting effects. The production shows that particular situations, things, and relationships are somehow connected with ourselves, with our inwardness, with our very existence. This kind of connection – human and supernatural, is portrayed by slow and graceful movements. In contrast to that, the dynamical and fitful actions might be an illustration of possible broken ties that were previously integrated. The stage space is mostly shrouded in gloom, representing that other dimension mentioned.

Bára Erben (UPOL)

Guilt or innocence? Hero or antihero? These are questions to which I think there cannot be an unequivocal answer for any literary or dramatic character. It is especially difficult with such a complex character as Anna Karenina no doubt is. To reduce her behaviour to one or the other side is virtually impossible. There will always be someone who sympathizes, there will always be someone who hates: after all it depends on your point of view, on your understanding. I think that this issue was also considered by the creative team of the performance Tohle není vaše Karenina (“This Is Not Your Karenina”), which was, in my opinion, entirely captivating, thrilling and painful all at the same time. Goosebumps. I had those the whole time. 

Dominika Horváthová (VŠMU)

“WOULD I BE ABLE TO TAKE RISKS..?!”

• a critical impulse of the monodrama Tohle není vaše Karenina (“This Is Not Your Karenina”) directed by Alexandr Minajev and Daniela Samsonová

Hana Drozdová as a present-day Karenina represented a prototype of an ambivalent woman. On the one hand, unbridled fire, on the other, a fragile breeze. Throughout the monodrama, she went through every single inner feeling in an extraordinarily sensitive manner. The deep vibrations of her acting were so very often dangerously close to our own hearts. They provoked, entertained, but also evoked sympathetic, almost self-critical, feelings. The actress’s precise use of facial expressions and gestures were a proof of that. Thanks to their sharp dynamics, they were perhaps more theatrical, but all the more provocative and convincing. 

A key part of the monodrama was also the frequent work with movement in various situations: dance, (making) love, playing with the son, suicide… The movement was highly stylized, as well. On the other hand, at times, it felt as if it was pushing the already expressed into the background. In other words, it was almost “destroying” the text and its expressive power. Therefore, the wild-tame movements of the actress could have been slightly more reserved in some situations. The spectator could nevertheless be witness to an interesting clash between word and text, although the victor was always quite clear. 

The actress also portrayed the other characters: her husband, Karenin; the lover, Vronsky; and the son, Seryozha. However, she was most convincing only while portraying the son, thanks to her distinctively affectionate child-like voice and playful gestures. I saw her potentially acting variations in the cases of her husband, Karenin, and her lover, Vronsky, more as being idiosyncratic parts of her monologues. Any distinct stylization was not present with these two men. At points, the actress seemed as if she had not really enjoyed her acting. Information poured from her mouth in too fast and unclear a fashion. As a result, the spectator could only vaguely imagine certain parts. 

I regarded the following as the key symbols of the monodrama: the wolf mask, the video projections, and the electric train. As the play progressed, and following from the actress’s actions, these symbols truly pointed out the key elements of the story. The wolf mask presented the wild manner of Karenina’s lover; the video projections served to underscore the various locations of the story (train station, horse races…), as well as its atmosphere (passionate vs. hopeless); and the electric train was meant to denote a memory of the first meeting between Karenina and Vronsky. Apart from that, the set was dominated by more-or-less filled, or completely empty, hanging goblets, whose creative potential, though, was not fully utilized. Originally, I thought they were supposed to hint at the uncertain inner life of Karenina. However, they were only used as a microphone and to emphasize Karenina’s suicide (the pouring-out of a red fluid from the goblet) at the very end. The occasional country music in the monodrama was mostly quite difficult to comprehend and, in some situations, again quite contradictory to what was portrayed by the actress. It distracted and really reshaped the intimate atmosphere of the play. 

As a whole, the performance felt very attractive, especially with respect to the acting. Provocative (the necessity to decide on the guilt/innocence of Karenina and her adultery), at the same time extraordinarily intimate and compassionate (empathy with Karenina’s outburst of passion). But most of all…it compelled us to ask the self-critical question: “Would I be able to risk as Karenina did?!”

Petronela (Ela) Brotková (VŠMU) 

The heroine of the Shape of Things production, Evelyn, sees a raw unwrought material in an inconspicuous young man, aptly named Adam, whom she can transform completely according to her ideas, and then present the resulting perfect Adam as her final term project. However, the manipulative Evelyn, looking only at her interests, changes the lives not only of Adam’s but also of his friends.

She calls this project in a somewhat oxymoron manner a “living statue” that forces us to search for Evelyn’s intention to some extent. Is she trying to humanize art in this way, or to depersonalize Adam’s character?

Stage equipment and costumes are not eccentric in any way. The characters’ clothing reflects their characters well, including Adam’s transformation. And perhaps it is this mundaneness of the scenography that is supposed to evoke in us a certain feeling of insecurity. As absurd as Evelyn’s project may seem to us, we cannot deny that it is not unrealistic.

Alexandra Trávniková as Evelyn can convince you at one point that she wants only the best for Adam, and then you have goosebumps from her cold treatment. On the other hand, you believe everything in her project portrayed by Martin Zachar. Rooted timidity, fear, kindness, and anger mixed with the humiliation with which he masked his heart broken by colossal deception and the woman he was determined to marry.

The play by the American playwright Neil LaBute, staged by the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, opens up a topic focused on the boundaries of art, their surpassing and, to a certain extent, the ethical question of this action. In the end, when the plot culminates and the truth comes to the surface, we are forced to judge how far are the boundaries within ourselves, which we would no longer cross, and thus somehow imaginarily lean to the side of the creator or the created.

Anežka Staňková (UPOL)

All four performances are equal, and the protagonists seem to me just as I envisioned them when I read the abstract. Evelyn, pretty and ambitious, Adam, doubtful and tasteless, Jenny, fearful and Phil, just as straightforward as Evelyn, though he cannot stand her. The movement of all the heroes makes the story run swiftly forward, and the spectator does not feel the need to check their watch the whole ninety-five minutes, but at the same time, they will not experience anything new. The concept of the play is not feeling like an experiment, considering the context of the festival. The finale of the performance gives us two “surprising” endings – our agreement with the deed, or disagreement, where Evelyn’s arrogance brings up such an antipathy that very few people are on her side by the end. The production does not ask the spectator to use their imagination, so that they can leave the theatre (this year the computer screen) and think about the hidden meanings of the play till the end of the day. The fact is, that sometimes it is not bad to just sit down and flow with the story. But it raises a question, if it is not better to look at the text from a new perspective. 

On the other hand, the scenography is the most spectacular aspect of the performance. It brings the spectator an unorthodox five-part division where each situation takes place. At the same time, it utilizes screen projection, the audience and “the bridge” over the stage, so the elements that greatly boost up the atmosphere. Though it is a pity that this year we have to be online, where we cannot enjoy the atmosphere to its full potential, thus it being not that prevalent for us at this moment.

My emotions from the performance are mixed. It is funny, it is current, it is thrilling, but it lacks a spark. It lacks a spark, which would keep me up at night and that is what I am looking for in a performance.

Zuzana Macourková (UPOL)

Working with language, choreography, styled acting, stage design and costumes, they create a story that is universally valid all over the world. Impersonalized, mostly screamed dialogues are conducted in English, but the characters intersperse the sentences with Spanish, French or Hindi expressions. In addition to the main characters, a nameless crowd also appears on the stage. Its rhythmic, puppetry movement thematizes existence in the “Dreamless Land.” A land where people live ashy lives only for work – or, more brown in this case (if we take into account the sand-coloured uniform costumes of everyone on the scene). In a place where people do not have dreams, there is no time to think and have any life-giving individuality.

The stage set consists of an empty wooden floor. The bakery building is indicated only by a rectangle made of paper tape glued to the ground. A few bags of pastries serve as props. The music that frames the whole story is just as simple. The recurring theme “One two three four, give me one, give me more” is sung by actors a cappella. In addition, the metal coins on the gypsy scarf are constantly ringing into their tones. In Dreamlessland, money is the reason people don’t have dreams. The coins in their heads completely covered them.

The creators were thus able to effectively demonstrate how money destroys relationships and turns us into unhappy people, whether we have the means or not. The production shows what a universal problem we created on our planet without dreams and how we can no longer solve it. Just as it will not be resolved on the stage, where in the end the actors remain embarrassed and everything disappears into a question mark rather than a dot.

Natálie Bulvasová (DAMU)