Programme

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  • Tuesday

    28/03/2023

  • Wednesday

    29/03/2023

  • Thursday

    30/03/2022

  • Friday

    31/03/2023

  • Saturday

    01/04/2023

  • The last years have shown: what wants to be considered system-relevant on the globalized world market has to prove economic relevance. We offer you exclusive strategies and business secrets on how you can work as a theater in a smart and playful economic way to become an indispensable part of our world.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • A musical adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera about the marketability of a world that steals itself. What are the rules of the game and who has the power? Who works for whom? Everyone with everyone, yet everyone against everyone. That is the only way to triumph over truth and hatred. Decency and morality aside, please, this is business. Shut the fuck up, we rule! The day will come, when the honest will understand, that the success of any mission is always in compromise. The day will come, when the good guys will realize behind every great deed there is leniency with crime!
    The Main Programme

  • Fragment of the review by Karolina Dąbrowska: Aleksandra Gosławska, using the stand-up format and the motif of ghosts of the past, future and present (…), takes the viewers to her world – presenting a bittersweet story about her own artistic path. Ghosts turn out to be inconspicuous objects – a one-fingered winter glove, a figurine of the Virgin Mary, or Virgil’s huge ear – which, thanks to Gosławska’s efficient animation, come to life on stage and lead a dialogue with the heroine. The ghosts show the heroine how the lack of self-confidence, negation of her own worth and skills, as well as putting the good of art before her own health affects her life. They tell the actress about the consequences of such actions, also presenting her with the worst scenario – joining the 27 Club next year. In her case, however, no stimulants will be needed, her lifestyle is enough. Gosławska’s monodrama combines the bitterness of the truth about the actor’s profession with the sweetness of jokes so typical of stand-up. The comedy of art, however, is based primarily on compassion. The failures that accompany the young artist on her way to the top seem extremely familiar to the audience gathered in the hall. Most people related to art – dreaming of acting or practicing this profession – have encountered rejection at castings, unpleasant remarks about themselves, repeated entrance exams or putting artistic ambitions ahead of their health. (…)
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Come and kick the festival off with us! On Tuesday, March 28, Moravské náměstí will light up and will be flooded with a wave of souped-up music. In the company of great musicians, great people and stalls offering drinks at hand, we will launch the first party of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER 2023 festival! Are you ready?
    OFF: Programme
    ENC: OPEN AIR STAGE
    OFF: Parties

  • A musical adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera about the marketability of a world that steals itself. What are the rules of the game and who has the power? Who works for whom? Everyone with everyone, yet everyone against everyone. That is the only way to triumph over truth and hatred. Decency and morality aside, please, this is business. Shut the fuck up, we rule! The day will come, when the honest will understand, that the success of any mission is always in compromise. The day will come, when the good guys will realize behind every great deed there is leniency with crime!
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • The Earthquake-Concerto by George Tabori directed by Ira Süssenbach For this performance, the Austrian-Russian director Ira Süssenbach re-worked the farce “Earthquake-Concerto”, originally written by George Tabori (2002) for the “Berliner Ensemble”. The original cast is reduced to three characters, but extended by a string quartet. The world is turning and yet everything always stays the same. Everything’s the same, but worse. Life makes no sense and is still the nicest thing God gave us. To endure this dichotomy – who, if not Tabori could understand that? A short summary of his life gives an answer: Born 1914 in Hungary, later emigrated to the US, but became a central figure in European theatre from 1971 to his death in 2007. Under different circumstances, these three characters would never have met. Yet, the circumstances are what they are: A relaxed evening in a mental health institution is disturbed by the mean musical gods, who have prepared a shattering experience for the characters. In a collective attempt to oust the losses of the past and the fears of the future from their minds, the three characters entertain themselves with harmless games, but keep the backdoor to the abyss of human (and canine) existence wide open. Existential pain and the search for intimacy, security or inspiration lead to surprising twists within this triangle of “prisoners”. As Shakespeare put it: “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover and the poet Are of imagination all compact” This staging is walking the tightrope between macabre humor and life-affirming morbidity, closing in on the frontier between absolute freedom and total insanity.
    The Main Programme

  • The Earthquake-Concerto by George Tabori directed by Ira Süssenbach For this performance, the Austrian-Russian director Ira Süssenbach re-worked the farce “Earthquake-Concerto”, originally written by George Tabori (2002) for the “Berliner Ensemble”. The original cast is reduced to three characters, but extended by a string quartet. The world is turning and yet everything always stays the same. Everything’s the same, but worse. Life makes no sense and is still the nicest thing God gave us. To endure this dichotomy – who, if not Tabori could understand that? A short summary of his life gives an answer: Born 1914 in Hungary, later emigrated to the US, but became a central figure in European theatre from 1971 to his death in 2007. Under different circumstances, these three characters would never have met. Yet, the circumstances are what they are: A relaxed evening in a mental health institution is disturbed by the mean musical gods, who have prepared a shattering experience for the characters. In a collective attempt to oust the losses of the past and the fears of the future from their minds, the three characters entertain themselves with harmless games, but keep the backdoor to the abyss of human (and canine) existence wide open. Existential pain and the search for intimacy, security or inspiration lead to surprising twists within this triangle of “prisoners”. As Shakespeare put it: “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover and the poet Are of imagination all compact” This staging is walking the tightrope between macabre humor and life-affirming morbidity, closing in on the frontier between absolute freedom and total insanity.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • The workshop focuses on the potential of the performer’s creative resources in the process of creation. One of the goals of the workshop will be to find the resources for the creative process that will allow performers to open paths to different approaches and unexplored contexts of the artistic material. The primary stimuli will come from the anatomy of movement and the body, from playing musical instruments, and from working with text, objects and materials.
    OFF: Workshops

  • We will be doing pair and group acrobatics. We will be working with our centres of gravity, balancing in pairs, building human pyramids, but also using various other acrobatic-movement principles (contact improvisation, dance acrobatics, ikar games, banquet, …). We will not only be working on correct techniques, but also on the creative approach to acrobatics, and acrobatics will become our artistic means of expression. You do not need a partner for the course.
    OFF: Workshops

  • Premise: In post-Brexit England, young European actors are no longer welcome. They have worked for decades to erase their identities in order to fit an Anglocentric industry. Now is a matter of survival. Only Miss Brexit will be allowed leave to remain in the UK and pursue the Anglo-American dream. But what does it take to become Miss Brexit? Who will be capable of erasing their identity and talk like a Brit, think like a Brit, live like a Brit? Who will be willing to exchange their national cuisine for mash potato? Who will willingly forget their 20+ years of existence in pro of a promise of prosperity? In this show we will meet real people with unique stories. They all deal with the consequences of Brexit, that affects their lives in England and their future as performers. This satire explores the struggles of the post-Brexit migrant, revealing some effects of cultural assimilation for our future generations. Synopsis: Miss Brexit takes a diverse group of European contestants through a set of challenges in which European stereotypes morph into British stereotypes while exploring what it takes to become something you are not. In our show, only Miss Brexit is allowed to remain in the UK and pursue the Anglo-American dream. The show explores the complexity of barriers that migrant artists experience, as they search for practical alternatives to survive in an Anglophile world, turn their differences into assets, and respond creatively to the challenge of cultural exchange in an increasingly global world, where the UK is one of the leading hubs for multicultural theatre.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Fragment of the review by Karolina Dąbrowska: Aleksandra Gosławska, using the stand-up format and the motif of ghosts of the past, future and present (…), takes the viewers to her world – presenting a bittersweet story about her own artistic path. Ghosts turn out to be inconspicuous objects – a one-fingered winter glove, a figurine of the Virgin Mary, or Virgil’s huge ear – which, thanks to Gosławska’s efficient animation, come to life on stage and lead a dialogue with the heroine. The ghosts show the heroine how the lack of self-confidence, negation of her own worth and skills, as well as putting the good of art before her own health affects her life. They tell the actress about the consequences of such actions, also presenting her with the worst scenario – joining the 27 Club next year. In her case, however, no stimulants will be needed, her lifestyle is enough. Gosławska’s monodrama combines the bitterness of the truth about the actor’s profession with the sweetness of jokes so typical of stand-up. The comedy of art, however, is based primarily on compassion. The failures that accompany the young artist on her way to the top seem extremely familiar to the audience gathered in the hall. Most people related to art – dreaming of acting or practicing this profession – have encountered rejection at castings, unpleasant remarks about themselves, repeated entrance exams or putting artistic ambitions ahead of their health. (…)
    The Main Programme

  • ENC: TALK is a space for introducing the individual members of the festival jury, and for opening a discussion on topics that are close to the jury and may resonate with today’s audience. Aminata Keita | Feminist: My Latest Production and the Topic of Abuse of Power at Colleges Sonia Murcia Molina | Art Without Boundaries: Youth Theatre as an Educational and Social Tool Sascha Kühne | Silence Bálint Antal | Co-production Experiences in Theatre Education; Opportunities for Universities, Practicing Artists and Students Individual juror presentations will be followed by discussions moderated by Tomas Oakland (student of JAMU) and the audience will be given space to ask questions.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Fragment of the review by Karolina Dąbrowska: Aleksandra Gosławska, using the stand-up format and the motif of ghosts of the past, future and present (…), takes the viewers to her world – presenting a bittersweet story about her own artistic path. Ghosts turn out to be inconspicuous objects – a one-fingered winter glove, a figurine of the Virgin Mary, or Virgil’s huge ear – which, thanks to Gosławska’s efficient animation, come to life on stage and lead a dialogue with the heroine. The ghosts show the heroine how the lack of self-confidence, negation of her own worth and skills, as well as putting the good of art before her own health affects her life. They tell the actress about the consequences of such actions, also presenting her with the worst scenario – joining the 27 Club next year. In her case, however, no stimulants will be needed, her lifestyle is enough. Gosławska’s monodrama combines the bitterness of the truth about the actor’s profession with the sweetness of jokes so typical of stand-up. The comedy of art, however, is based primarily on compassion. The failures that accompany the young artist on her way to the top seem extremely familiar to the audience gathered in the hall. Most people related to art – dreaming of acting or practicing this profession – have encountered rejection at castings, unpleasant remarks about themselves, repeated entrance exams or putting artistic ambitions ahead of their health. (…)
    The Main Programme

  • Tartuffe is one of the most well renowned comedy pieces by Moliere. It has been seen a million times and we all know it by heart. Although there are still myriads of unexplored teritory in this classical play. The creators of the show don’t see Tartuffe merely as a text that questions religious hypocrisy, as much as it also communicates about patriarchy, economic inequality and any kind of undemocratic hierarchy. The main shift of perception is regarding the character of Orgon. Moliere’ s attitude towards the character of Orgon is quite sympathetic. Even though Orgon is the one with power over family and is in effect causing their turmoil, Moliere sympathizes with his blindness and stupidity and gives him another chance at the end of the play. Well here is where the creators of the show took a different turn and looked upon the same problem as Moliere with different glasses. The final product is a Tartuffe for 21st century, dealing with new characters, genres and styles. A Tartuffe that runs like an well oiled machine blasting its way into an abyss.
    The Main Programme

  • One night, three duos. On Wednesday we’ll gather at Art Bar Druhý Pád. We will navigate the evening full of extravagance and dark tones with the help of the duos Berlin Manson (SK), Laokoon (CZ) and Blue Uandi (CZ). Do you dare?
    OFF: Programme
    OFF: Parties

  • “Lysistrata” is a comedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes about a women`s extraordinary act that ends the Peloponnesian war between Athenians and Spartans. Women change the dominant masculine discourses as they withhold sexual privileges from the men as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace. Women`s figure is presented as a “Destroyer of War” in a male-dominant society, which defines the genre of the play – comedy. In our case, the topics we raise in our performance due to ongoing issues change the perspective of the genre. The situation before B.C. 411 turned out to be circulating for centuries and was expressed in different forms in different eras. I am referring to the role of women in matters of public action and the decisive importance of their actions. It is a shame that the female gender, which has so much experience in fights and victories, still has to defend its freedom today. The play by Aristophanes tells about women`s strategic actions, where the end justifies the means and, despite all the obstacles, they achieve the desired result.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Discussions following the performances are an integral part of the festival programme. They constitute a space for meeting (audience, festival participants, creative team, actors, jury, …) and debate, for questions and topics related to the performance. Two moderators will guide the participants through the discussions. Some refreshments will be provided on-site.
    The Main Programme
    Discussion

  • The workshop focuses on the potential of the performer’s creative resources in the process of creation. One of the goals of the workshop will be to find the resources for the creative process that will allow performers to open paths to different approaches and unexplored contexts of the artistic material. The primary stimuli will come from the anatomy of movement and the body, from playing musical instruments, and from working with text, objects and materials.
    OFF: Workshops

  • The Shadow Workshop is inspired by ancient oriental practices when shadow theatre was performed during the day – the audience watched the shadows created by sunlight in a dark cave. Instead of sunlight, we will be using artificial light in the dark room 013, and everyone will be creating puppets from paper, coloured plastic and natural materials based on their imagination. We do not provide any templates because we believe that everyone creates their best shadow puppet according to their own ideas and abilities.
    OFF: Workshops

  • “Sect?” We find that we all have some intuitive definition when we hear the word. Equally intuitively, we can quickly define our attitude. Sects are bad. Does anyone disagree? But can we also honestly ask ourselves, without first answering, what a sect is to its adherents? The Latin word Secta (direction, path, conduct, principles, bias, doctrine) probably derived from the words Sequi (to follow someone, to follow, to accompany) or Secare (to cut off, to chop off, to separate from something). Why do people join sects? Why do they need them? In what world does this need arise? What is a sect? Planet Earth will be recycled. The only chance to evacuate is to come with us. Follow us.” Next Level is a diploma performance by fourth-year students of the Acting Department of AST in Krakow. The performance is based on Mark Miller’s book “Sect made in Poland” and collected documentary materials. The leitmotif is the most extreme and tragic manifestations of Polish spiritualism of the 1990s. A moment of fascination with undiscovered worlds, UFO, spirituality in a sense different from that offered by religious systems, or a longing for lost community. The play is balancing between the absurd and the tragic, highlighting both the post-transformation yearning for political and spiritual leaders and the love of sensationalism, which has become easier to chase in a world of big media concerns. “Next Level” is an insightful and poignant play about the search for spirituality and community and the abuses associated with it. It is a search for answers about the causes of sects and the reasons why we remain in them even knowing their toxicity.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Come and kick the festival off with us! On Tuesday, March 28, Moravské náměstí will light up and will be flooded with a wave of souped-up music. In the company of great musicians, great people and stalls offering drinks at hand, we will launch the first party of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER 2023 festival! Are you ready?
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • The dramaturgical basis of the performance is related with a selection of the most attractive and conflicting elements from the plot of the ballad “Erlking”. The journey of the Father and the Son through the gloomy villages of Erlking associates with the eternal human wandering, the unawareness of the future, with the effort and powerlessness caused by the losses that life brings. The students are challenged by the creative team to explore the emotional sensibility of a man in the contemporary world, which rises from the Erlking within us and develops into an unceasing stream of desires. Bit by bit the Erlking’s daughters – Longing, Love, Delight, Grief, Deamon, Deadth, approaching, become a force of nature, over taking like an anthill, obsessing over fragile human nature.
    The Main Programme

  • Tartuffe is one of the most well renowned comedy pieces by Moliere. It has been seen a million times and we all know it by heart. Although there are still myriads of unexplored teritory in this classical play. The creators of the show don’t see Tartuffe merely as a text that questions religious hypocrisy, as much as it also communicates about patriarchy, economic inequality and any kind of undemocratic hierarchy. The main shift of perception is regarding the character of Orgon. Moliere’ s attitude towards the character of Orgon is quite sympathetic. Even though Orgon is the one with power over family and is in effect causing their turmoil, Moliere sympathizes with his blindness and stupidity and gives him another chance at the end of the play. Well here is where the creators of the show took a different turn and looked upon the same problem as Moliere with different glasses. The final product is a Tartuffe for 21st century, dealing with new characters, genres and styles. A Tartuffe that runs like an well oiled machine blasting its way into an abyss.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Rollerblade Disco! Retro Party at the První Patro club will take us back to the 90s. During the set of DJ N_DREW, you will definitely forget what era you are in!
    OFF: Programme
    OFF: Parties

  • “Lysistrata” is a comedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes about a women`s extraordinary act that ends the Peloponnesian war between Athenians and Spartans. Women change the dominant masculine discourses as they withhold sexual privileges from the men as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace. Women`s figure is presented as a “Destroyer of War” in a male-dominant society, which defines the genre of the play – comedy. In our case, the topics we raise in our performance due to ongoing issues change the perspective of the genre. The situation before B.C. 411 turned out to be circulating for centuries and was expressed in different forms in different eras. I am referring to the role of women in matters of public action and the decisive importance of their actions. It is a shame that the female gender, which has so much experience in fights and victories, still has to defend its freedom today. The play by Aristophanes tells about women`s strategic actions, where the end justifies the means and, despite all the obstacles, they achieve the desired result.
    The Main Programme

  • Discussions following the performances are an integral part of the festival programme. They constitute a space for meeting (audience, festival participants, creative team, actors, jury, …) and debate, for questions and topics related to the performance. Two moderators will guide the participants through the discussions. Some refreshments will be provided on-site.
    The Main Programme
    Discussion

  • In this voice workshop, we will be focusing on our individual energies and body centers to find authentic resources and nourishment for our voice. Through exercises that connect us to the contents and themes of these centres, we will gradually discover our voices’ roots in deep resonance; we will discover the emotionality, playfulness and variety of our voices connected to our own inborn emotionality and vocal clarity, and thei softness and sensitivity. The work is inspired by the philosophy of the human chakra system.
    OFF: Workshops

  • The workshop focuses on the potential of the performer’s creative resources in the process of creation. One of the goals of the workshop will be to find the resources for the creative process that will allow performers to open paths to different approaches and unexplored contexts of the artistic material. The primary stimuli will come from the anatomy of movement and the body, from playing musical instruments, and from working with text, objects and materials.
    OFF: Workshops

  • The dramaturgical basis of the performance is related with a selection of the most attractive and conflicting elements from the plot of the ballad “Erlking”. The journey of the Father and the Son through the gloomy villages of Erlking associates with the eternal human wandering, the unawareness of the future, with the effort and powerlessness caused by the losses that life brings. The students are challenged by the creative team to explore the emotional sensibility of a man in the contemporary world, which rises from the Erlking within us and develops into an unceasing stream of desires. Bit by bit the Erlking’s daughters – Longing, Love, Delight, Grief, Deamon, Deadth, approaching, become a force of nature, over taking like an anthill, obsessing over fragile human nature.
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Friedrich Schiller's legendary romantic drama THE ROBBERS. A story in which everyone wants something more for themselves and each ‘I’ fights for its own happiest ending. ‘My heaven and my hell is within’. Ergo, ego. 84 robbers performed by 6 graduating actors. 6 characters in the barrel of a gun. GIVE ME MOOR!
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Words like safety, safe space or inclusivity are constantly zipping around us. Especially in the region of the so-called Visegrad countries, they are almost buzzwords now. The problems that caused such a frequent use of these terms are many. To begin locally – students are standing up to harassment and abuse of power at Czech (art) universities. Internationally – and outside of the school system – there was the assault on two LGBTQ+ people at the Bratislava club Tepláreň (SK), the restriction of women and queer rights in Poland and Hungary and, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine which affects us all. So, what does it mean to be safe? Do we cross country and genre boundaries but reinforce personal ones? Could we be safe and still make great, inspired art? In other words, do we even want to be safe? And what has artistic freedom and responsibility to do with all this?
    OFF: Programme
    Discussion

  • Our production is inspired by the play of the important representative of the Russian “new drama” Ivan Vyrypaev. It reflects our thoughts on the theme of the meaning of human life. The feeling of loneliness, with which an increasing number of people are confronted nowadays. The natural need to belong somewhere, to be heard and accepted, leads many to extremist attitudes. Our hero also craves for love and attention, balancing on the thin edge between dream and reality, between rational thinking and emotions. In order to know ourselves it is not enough to know only our emotions, but also our thoughts. How long is the journey between an idea and its realization?
    The Main Programme

  • Our production is inspired by the play of the important representative of the Russian “new drama” Ivan Vyrypaev. It reflects our thoughts on the theme of the meaning of human life. The feeling of loneliness, with which an increasing number of people are confronted nowadays. The natural need to belong somewhere, to be heard and accepted, leads many to extremist attitudes. Our hero also craves for love and attention, balancing on the thin edge between dream and reality, between rational thinking and emotions. In order to know ourselves it is not enough to know only our emotions, but also our thoughts. How long is the journey between an idea and its realization?
    The Main Programme
    The Jury’s Path

  • Are you thinking that the festival’s OFF programme has nothing to surprise you with anymore? Then you are wrong! We are not afraid of the harder genres, and we are sure that our visitors have hidden beasts within them! Come, unleash them and get carried away! Moshing guaranteed!
    OFF: Programme
    OFF: Parties

  • Discussions following the performances are an integral part of the festival programme. They constitute a space for meeting (audience, festival participants, creative team, actors, jury, …) and debate, for questions and topics related to the performance. Two moderators will guide the participants through the discussions. Some refreshments will be provided on-site.
    The Main Programme
    Discussion

  • They’re fragile. You have to listen to them. Otherwise, you can’t really know them, it’s something on the borderline, and you can never be sure they’ll be around forever. You can only see inside them if you destroy them and there’s no going back. Really, no. It’s a half-life. Something between a desire for knowledge and an omelette. The end is likely. Ad infinitum etc. An original monodrama based on the theme of obsession. What is its natural measure? Love, the need to care, accumulation and materialism, the desire for touch, recurring thought, and physical action as obsessive principles laid on the border of (dis)comfort.
    OFF: Programme

  • The nervousness of an audition, the uncompromising film environment. Hollywood, drugs, sex and rock & roll…PRODUCT is a new blockbuster that brings together the evergreens of American cinematography. A theatrical project of an immersive nature, in which the viewer has the opportunity to model the situations together with the actor. Together we create a script, a film, and a product. Be brave, be your favourite actress, and be a star.
    OFF: Programme

  • The possibilities of authorial expression through play, personification and stylized acting, drawing from the tradition of Commedia del Arte and buffoonery. Personas. Landscapes where imagination comes alive and possibility becomes reality.
    OFF: Programme

  • The final night. Gipsy swing music. Beer and great company. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect way to end the festival? At the afterparty we won’t be mourning the end of the festival: we will enjoy it to the last drop with a great DJ!
    OFF: Programme
    OFF: Parties