AKCENT 21 is over, we are looking forward to AKCENT 22!


AKCENT 21 – International Festival of Documentary Theatre
presented theatre creators both from domestic and world scene, whose work stems from deep personal motives and touches on important events in the contemporary world. Video art, sound design, "real" people and their authentic stories came across on the stage of the Archa Theatre, Prague.

 

AKCENT – International Festival of Documentary Theatre has been presenting documentary theatre to the Czech audience for 11 years. AKCENT connects Czech audiences with world creators. AKCENT presents theatrical work based on authentic stories. AKCENT responds to current social issues.

Program

Wen Hui – I am 60

28. 10. 20:00 – 21:15
29. 10. 20:00 – 21:15

Chinese spoken with Czech surtitles only. Large auditorium. Duration 70 minutes.

An exceptional solo performance by Chinese dancer, choreographer and documentary filmmaker Wen Hui, this year's J. W. Goethe winner. The breath-taking solo stage composition combines an original screening of archive films with a personal statement by Wen Hui. Her dance is the fabric of a multimedia production in which the visual recordings of female representatives of early Chinese cinema are connected with authentic texts and stories of the present.
The production discovers for European audiences the Chinese progressive women's cinematography of the 1930s and reflects the growing feminist movement in today's China.

Choreographer and dancer, Wen Hui also makes documentary movies and art installations. Frenchmagazine Télescope describes her as “a pioneer of dance…a miracle”. Wen Hui graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 1989 with a degree in Choreography. In 1994, she studied modern dance in New York attending José Limón, Erick Hawkins and Trisha Brown’s classes. From 1997 to 1998, she received a scholarship from the Asian Cultural Council to further her study of modern dance and theatre production in New York. In 1994, she founded with Wu Wenguang, a documentary filmmaker, the Living Dance Studio in Beijing, the first independent art company in China. She has participated in curating and organizing numerous arts projects. For twenty years, Wen Hui has insisted on using theatre as an intervention in the society. Since 2008, she has begun to research the ways body forms the archive of personal, social documentation, using personal means to experiment how bodily memory catalyzes collision between history and reality.

Since its inception, the Living Dance Studio has become a pioneer in contemporary Chinese art.The company is committed to exploring the artistic process in an open arena, working with artists of all media and all disciplines, and creating performances that integrate dance, theatre, and all forms of audio/visual art. Its mission is both to perform the here-and-now realities in which we all live, and to bring public attention to the narratives and experiences that we can use to reflect on the past. The Living Dance Studio has presented its work in numerous local and global festivals including the Venice Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, the Festival d’Automne de Paris, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Archa Theatre/AKCENT Festival, SPIFI ART Festival Munich, IN TRANAIT BERLIN, TheaterHebbel am Ufer of Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, JULI DANST, Wiener Festwocheh, ZUERCHERTHEATEER SPEKTAKEL, DECEMBER DANCE Belgium, EUROKAZ FESTIVAL,Festival/Tokyo, Sesc Pompeia Sao Paulo, Singapore Arts Festival, Hong Kong Art Festival, etc.

Credits

Choreography & dance : Wen Hui
Dramaturgy and consulting : Zhang Zhen
Music : Wen Luyuan 
Video : Rémi Crépeau et Zhou Xueping
Lights and stage management : Romain de Lagarde 
Stagehand : Francisco Linares 
Administration and booking:Damien Valette
Coordination : Louise Bailly
Production : Théâtre de la Ville, Living Dance Studio et Damien Valette Prod
Coproduction : Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d'automne à Paris 

Wen Hui benefited from a residency at the Théâtre de la Ville - Les Abbesses and particularly thanks the technical team of the Théâtre des Abbesses
Laureate of the residency program from the French Institute at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris
With support from the Goethe-Institut in Beijing 
With support from micadanses-Paris
Benefited from a dance studio at the CND Centre national de la danse, Paris

With support from the French Institute in China.

Ambassade de France en Chine

 

Those Who Speak For Themselves

21. 11. 20:00 – 21:30

Jana Svobodová & coll.

Czech spoken. Large auditorium, open seating. Duration 90 minutes.

Theatre performance Those Who Speak For Themselves transforms Archa Theatre into a huge gallery where authentic life stories of twelve women become the exhibits. The audience is left with the decision whether they will experience all the stories or only certain parts of them and the order in which they will assemble them.  An important part of the unique theatrical installation by theatre director Jana Svobodová is the original music of Michal Nejtek.  

Those Who Speak For Themselves is a show in which the performers are not actors. They don't play roles. They only represent themselves. Stories intertwine, people meet unexpectedly. Like when you walk down the street, you think of something, someone passes by and you catch his sentence. And it folds into a new story. Then it becomes the only story, yours.

This performance is performed in Czech only!

 

Media

When the theatre hall is transformed into a gallery where the viewers choose what they want to see – Prague Daily Monitor, August 10, 2021

 

Credits

Concept, Screenplay & Director: Jana Svobodová
Dramaturgy: Ondřej Hrab
Music: Michal Nejtek
Sound design: Ladislav Štěrba, Jan Sedláček
Light design: Pavel Kotlík
Asistant director, production: Romana Sekáčová
Costume adjustment: Jiřina Veselá

Personal stories provided, production co-created and performed by:
Ivana Blašková
Zuzana Drápalová
Zuzana Lapšanská
Lara Hereu-Macho
Hana Kokšalová
Nikola Križková
Pavlína Müllerová
Jane Scalabroni
Hana Slaninová
Eliška Šíchová
Lucie Vrbíková
Martina Marie Živá

The theatre production was created at Archa Theater during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those Who Speak For Themselves is part of a documentary theater project supported by the EEA Grants.

Premieres: 29 and June 2021, Archa Theatre, Prague

 

EEA Grants

Working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.

Supported by the peoples of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants.

Those Who Speak For Themselves

22. 11. 20:00 – 21:30

 Those Who Speak For Themselves

The Only Story is Yours / Jana Svobodová & coll.

English spoken. Large auditorium, open seating. Duration 90 minutes.

Theatre performance Those Who Speak For Themselves transforms Archa Theatre into a huge gallery where authentic life stories of twelve women become the exhibits. The audience is left with the decision whether they will experience all the stories or only certain parts of them and the order in which they will assemble them.  An important part of the unique theatrical installation by theatre director Jana Svobodová is the original music of Michal Nejtek.  

Those Who Speak For Themselves is a show in which the performers are not actors. They don't play roles. They only represent themselves. Stories intertwine, people meet unexpectedly. Like when you walk down the street, you think of something, someone passes by and you catch his sentence. And it folds into a new story. Then it becomes the only story, yours.

This performance is English spoken!

 

Media

When the theatre hall is transformed into a gallery where the viewers choose what they want to see – Prague Daily Monitor, August 10, 2021

 

Credits

Concept, Screenplay & Director: Jana Svobodová
Dramaturgy: Ondřej Hrab
Music: Michal Nejtek
Sound design: Ladislav Štěrba, Jan Sedláček
Light design: Pavel Kotlík
Asistant director, production: Romana Sekáčová
Costume adjustment: Jiřina Veselá

Personal stories provided, production co-created and performed by:
Ivana Blašková
Zuzana Drápalová
Zuzana Lapšanská
Lara Hereu-Macho
Hana Kokšalová
Nikola Križková
Pavlína Müllerová
Jane Scalabroni
Hana Slaninová
Eliška Šíchová
Lucie Vrbíková
Martina Marie Živá

The theatre production was created at Archa Theater during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those Who Speak For Themselves is part of a documentary theater project supported by the EEA Grants.

Premieres: 29 and June 2021, Archa Theatre, Prague

 

EEA Grants

Working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.

Supported by the peoples of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants.

CANCELLED: Gross Domestic Product

23. 11. 20:00 – 21:15

 CANCELLED: Gross Domestic Product

Moving Station, Jiří Honzírek & coll.

Cancelled due to quarantine measures in the ensemble. Thank you for your understanding.

Czech spoken. Small auditorium. Duration 70 minutes.

If the citizens of our country, who are in foreclosures, inhabited an independent region, it would be the sixth largest region in the Czech Republic. The Execution Order of the Czech Republic entered into force in 2001, so this year we have its 20th anniversary. Do we have a reason to celebrate?


Credits

Directed by: Jiří Honzírek
Performed by: Denisa Cupáková, Jan Jedlinský, Daniel Gajdoš
Music: Ondřej Kolín
Technical cooperation: Petr Beránek
Dramaturgical cooperation: Roman Černík
Production: Petra Štěpánová
Photo: Michal Poustka
Special thanks to: Laco Toušek, Michaela Šímová, Jitka Kylišová, Jiří Prošek
Premiere: September 13, 2021, Moving Station, Pilsen

The production was created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

Ministerstvo kultury České republiky

Virtual Ritual

24. 11. 20:00 – 21:00

Jan Mocek

Czech spoken, simultaneously translated into English. Large auditorium. Duration 62 minutes.

An original gaming performance takes its viewers to the parallel world of online video games. It is an exploration of a digital society which is formed by millions of people around the world who log into the vast gaming worlds every day. The virtual spaces offer its users endless possibilites to enjoy themselves without contraints of harsh reality. But every game has its rules. Urbanist Osamu Okamura, YouTuber Atlet, photographer and gamer Adéla Vosičková and will form an expert gaming panel to unpack hidden mechanisms, prototypes, rituals, that shape seemingly weightlesness world of online videogames. What norms, rules and codes are allowed to surpass in virtual space? And in reality? What role does the gaming principles play in our society? By means of original use of a live video, 3D animations and YouTube formats, the performance unveils hidden links between real and virtual living spaces set at the backdrop of fast growing gaming industry changing the ways how we understand reality.   

 

Credits

Concept, directing, set: Jan Mocek
Performers: Osamu Okamura, Adéla Vosičková, Ondřej Pokorný (Atlet)
Artistic collaboration: Irina Andreeva, Sodja Lotker, Táňa Švehlová
Lighting: Patrik Sedlák
Sound: Ladislav Štěrba
Video: Ondřej Pokorný (Atlet), Jan Mocek
Photo: Adéla Vosičková

Co-produced by Archa Theatre and SixHouses.
Performance was supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture.

Ministerstvo kultury České republiky

Premiered: October 2 & 3, 2019 at Archa Theatre

The History of Korean Western Theatre

26. 11. 20:00 – 21:00
27. 11. 20:00 – 21:00

Jaha Koo / CAMPO

Korean spoken with Czech and English surtitles. Large auditorium. Duration 60 minutes.

Celebrating the centenary of Korean theatre, the South Korean theatre maker / composer Jaha Koo realized that there is actually no space for Korean theatre tradition: what is regarded as Korean theatre is largely determined by the Western canon. But why are the South Koreans so proud of this Western interpretation? And why does everyone keep referring to Shakespeare? It raises questions about tradition, self-censorship and authenticity.

In this final piece of his Hamartia trilogy, Jaha Koo resolutely focuses on the future. Meticulously, he exposes the tragic impact of the past on our lives, unveiling the small cracks in modern Confucianism - an ideology that continues to define the moral system, way of life and social relations between generations in South Korea. With a new generation of South Koreans in mind, he attempts to break with a tradition full of self-censorship and keeping up appearances. Because only when based on an authentic version of history, he can pass on a future to the next generation.

Like the performances Lolling & Rolling and Cuckoo, which respectively focused on South Korea's past and present, The History of Korean Western Theatre is an intelligent documentary theatre performance in which Jaha Koo interweaves personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts. Often themes that contain a clash of Eastern and Western culture: from cutting string of tongue to make it in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference on a macroeconomic level.

 

Credits

Concept, text, direction, music & video: Jaha Koo
Performance: Jaha Koo, Seri & Toad
Dramaturgy: Dries Douibi
Scenography & drawing: Eunkyung Jeong
Artistic advisor: Pol Heyvaert
Technical: Korneel Coessens, Jan Berckmans, Bart Huybrechts, Koen Goossens (& Jonas Castelijns)
Hardware hacking: Idella Craddock
Research: Eunkyung Jeong & Jaha Koo
Research assistance: Sang Ok Kim
Interview: Jooyoung Koh, Kiran Kim & Kyungmi Lee
Production: CAMPO

Co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Münchner Kammerspiele, Frascati Producties (Amsterdam), Veem House for Performance (Amsterdam), SPRING performing arts festival (Utrecht), Zürcher
Theaterspektakel, Black Box teater (Oslo), International Summer Festival Kampnagel (Hamburg), Tanzquartier Wien, wpZimmer (Antwerp), Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris) & Festival d’Automne à Paris residencies Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), wpZimmer (Antwerp), Decoratelier Jozef Wouters (Brussels), Doosan Art Center (Seoul) with the support of Beursschouwburg, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie & Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.

more at ►https://www.campo.nu/en/production/16588/the-history-of-korean-western-theatre

 

Flanders / State of the Art

About festival

The AKCENT  – International Festival of Documentary Theatre was born in 2010 at the Archa Theatre from the need to present a new theatrical form to the Czech public, one for which the term "documentary" was later established. From the very beginning, AKCENT set itself the ambition to connect European and world artists with local theatre-makers whose theatrical expression is grounded in authentic events, stories or social positions. AKCENT contributed to the development of a theatrical methodology that is not based on the interpretation of a text written in advance by a playwright. It gave impetus to a creative process directly inspired by the current social situation. AKCENT has presented the work of world-famous artists as well as prominent figures from the local scene.

Contact

Archa Theatre
Na Poříčí 26
110 00  Praha 1
Czech Republic

Jana Svobodová
director of Akcent Festival
jana.svobodova@archatheatre.cz

Ondřej Hrab
curator of Akcent Festival
ondrej.hrab@archatheatre.cz

Jindřich Krippner
production
jindrich.krippner@archatheatre.cz

Supported by

Hlavní město Praha 

Flanders / State of the Art