SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM INFORMATION- Fall 2022

September 1, 2, 3 @ 7:30pm; September 4 @3:00pm/ BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HALL, 321 EAST 73RD STREET, NYC

September 30, October 1 @ 7:30pm/ Colby College, Strider Theater, havel.colby.edu/program, TICKETS, Introduction by Miroslav Konvalina, Director, Czech Center New York

Since 1990, Czechoslovak-American Marionette THEATRE (CAMT) has performed re-imagined productions of century-old traditional marionette plays of itinerant puppet companies and original scripts. For the first time, CAMT presents a play by a contemporary author, Václav Havel’s “Audience.” Based on the personal experience in a regional brewery, it is [arguably] the funniest play by the formerly banished absurdist playwright who went from the prison cell to the presidential palace of Czechoslovakia.  A part of autobiographical “Vanek Trilogy”, Havel’s Audience follows his fictional alter ego Ferdinand Vanek.  The distinguished writer is reduced to manual work in a brewery, as punishment for writing plays that criticize the oppressive regime in 1970s Czechoslovakia – though the situation could be in any country where dissident thought is punishable. Summoned by the brewmaster, the writer takes part in a game of cat and mouse — pointless chat, clumsy interrogation, flattery, and alcohol consumption — with the implied threat of a more dire consequence – the loss of even such menial jobs or imprisonment. One way out of his predicament is for the writer to help his boss write weekly reports on himself, which he refuses to do, further offending his superior 

VÁCLAV HAVEL (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was the last President of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until its dissolution in 1992, and then  the first President of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003.  A statesman and former dissident, he was known in the literary world for his plays, essays, and memoirs. His political activities brought him under the surveillance of the secret police and he spent multiple stints in prison, the longest being nearly four years, between 1979 and 1983. Produced widely around the world, Havel’s plays were banned from the stage in his own country, and he was unable to leave Czechoslovakia to see any foreign performance of his works or to accept his three Obie awards in New York. Note: In 1989, Vít Horejš & Bonnie Sue Stein interviewed Havel in Prague, days before he became president. Village Voice cover story: Jan 16, 1990.

CZECHOSLOVAK-AMERICAN MARIONETTE THEATRE (CAMT) is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of traditional and not-so-traditional puppetry. CAMT’s first New York season in 1990 featured Johannes Dokchtor Faust, a Petrifying Puppet Comedye with a cast of antique Czech puppets discovered by Vít Hořejš at the Jan Hus Church, like Bohemian National Hall, a historic cultural center here in the heart of Manhattan’s original Czech neighborhood. Since 1992, before the renovation, CAMT performed here many times including productions that traveled throughout the formerly decrepit building. CAMT’s 1994 Faust was presented as part of the Obie Award-winning Faust Festival in SoHo. At La MaMa E.T.C., the company performed Once There Was a Village; The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald; Don Juan, or The Wages of Debauchery; The Prose of the Transsiberian and of the Little Joan of France; Rusalka,  the Little Rivermaid; and Golem, co-produced by La MaMa and was later featured in the 1998 Jim Henson International Festival. Other New York City and touring: The Very Sad Story of Ethel & Julius, Lovers and Spyes, and about Their Untymelie End while Sitting in a Small Room at the Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y.; The Bass Saxophone; Hamlet; Twelfth Night; Kacha and the Devil; The White Doe, Or, The Piteous Trybulations of the Sufferyng Countess Jenovefa; A Christmas Carol, OY! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa; and Twelve Iron Sandals. The company has played in 37 states in the U.S.A. and at international festivals in Poland, Turkey, Pakistan, and the Czech Republic.

VÍT HOŘEJŠ (translator/director, Vanek) was born in Prague and escaped Communist Czechoslovakia in 1978. In 1990, with fellow émigrés, he founded Czechoslovak American Marionette Theater (CAMT) in New York. He has translated, written, adapted, and directed over two dozen marionette plays for CAMT, is a resident artist at La MaMa Theater and has performed on stage, film, and TV. Published works: Twelve Iron Sandals (1985); Pig and Bear (1989); and Faust (1993). During the Pandemic, Vít, his marionettes and longtime musical collaborators streamed a series of 16 installments of Naptime Stories for the Absurd Times from a number of US and worldwide locations, starred in an Onur Tukel feature Film, Scenes From an Empty Church, (release July 2021) and Carnegie Hall/Centro Primo Levi film The Scandal of the Imagination. He co-produced “Faust on a String,” an award-winning documentary about Czech puppetry, and wrote the lead essay for Czecho-Slovak-American Puppetry (GOH Productions, 1994). Horejs has received commission grants from Henson Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Foundation for Jewish Culture, Columbia University & New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2018, he received the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences (SVU) Award in recognition of a lifetime achievement in fostering the art of Czech and Slovak puppetry.  

THERESA LINNIHAN (Brewmaster, puppet maker) joined the company of CAMT in 1996 playing Polonius in their production of Hamlet. For the next two decades she served as performer, designer and associate director as the company developed original, provocative productions, re-imagined classics and toured to puppet festivals in Turkey, Pakistan, Korea and The Czech Republic. In 2016 she relocated to Minneapolis, MN. There, for the past five years she’s worked with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater and Barebones Puppets, building and performing for parades and pageants which reflect the sorrows and celebrations of a community that ignited a global call for justice and healing.  Theresa is also a long standing member of The Puppeteer’s Cooperative currently producing an online, animated version of The Tempest as well as The Decameron of Now, an online invitation for stories in the era of Covid.

ALAN BARNES NETHERTON (Production Design) has performed many roles for the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, as well as many other theater and tv/film companies, on stage and screen.  He is a master puppeteer and all things theatre. A raconteur, mount maker, carpenter, poet, project manager, prototyper, artisan manufacturer, amateur astronomer, an artist and a bonafide, verified, certified real-deal walking renaissance man. (www.TheABN.nyc)  But well above all these things, first and foremost, at the pinnacle of his being – Alan Barnes Netherton is a dedicated Father and Husband.

SUZANNA HALSEY (Pre-show video) was born and educated in Czechoslovakia, and has lived and worked in New York for more than 40 years. Since her arrival in New York, she has worked as a Czech language specialist and teacher, studied filmmaking and for more than 6 years worked in the film/video industry as an editor. She became active in non-profit organizations, such as the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU-NY) and Friends of Czech Greenways, produced several multimedia shows, founded Ex Libris Czechoslovakia to promote Czech literature in English translation and coordinated the promotion of cultural and environmental preservation and sustainable tourism along the Czech Greenways. Suzanna enjoys the cross-cultural matchmaking of ideas and people, and is always open to new challenges and experiences. www.czechmatters.com

KIKA VON KLÜCK (Live video)was born in Brazil during the military dictatorship. After graduating in Theater, she arrived in New York City in 1992 and went to NYU Film School to study Film Editing. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, she defined herself as a Multimedia Facilitator and worked as a Fashion Stylist, Art Model, Translator and Interpreter, Researcher, Photographer, wrote and compiled reports on Cultural Trends, Demographic Segmentation and Behavior Economics. Throughout this whole time, she has been developing Performance Lectures and Ritual Actions based on Feminist Archaeology and Comparative Mythology. Currently, Kika focuses on Brand Strategy, Technology Trends and Innovation Research.

AMBER RIGGLE (Stage Manager) is a freelance stage manager and technician. She graduated from Ball State University with a Bachelor of Science in Stage Management (favorite credits include Fun Home, Constellations, Shrek the Musical, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre). She left the Midwest to work onboard Carnival Cruise Line as a Backstage Manager, and moved to New York City during the halt in operations as a result of the pandemic. She now works primarily at 59E59 Theaters as a Production Technician, in addition to regular gig work around the city (favorite gigs include the Belfast Girls at Irish Repertory Theater, MetFest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the East to Edinburgh Festival at 59E59 Theaters). This is her second production focusing on the works of Václav Havel, and her third with GOH Productions. In her free time she enjoys writing, exploring NYC’s hidden worlds, and visiting the Tompkins Square dog park with her godson, Juniper.

BONNIE SUE STEIN (Producer/Rehearsal Director) is a producer, director, performer, writer, and artist; Executive Director of GOH Productions, founded in New York City in 1984.  She has worked in production and international exchange in over 25 countries.  With Bohemian Hall and Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, she has been production manager for Rehearsal for Truth Festivals and Annual Galas.  She has been involved in all of CAMT shows, including some of the first productions at the decrepit Bohemian Hall in the 1980s. In 1989, with Vit Horejs, she interviewed Vaclav Havel days before he became president of Czechoslovakia for a feature story in the “Village Voice”.  She creates lens-based artworks with IGUANA Collaborative with Sherry and John Erskine. gohproductions.org

Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre (CAMT) is produced by GOH Productions, a nonprofit organization and has received public funds from SBA; the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Council Member Carlina Rivera. Additional support: Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences SVU, Czech Center, and Materials for the Arts and BrouCzech Beer.

Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre/GOH Productions/309 4th St, Suite 3B, New York, NY 10009   info@czechmarionettes.org  www.czechmarionettes.org

Press Agent: Jonathan Slaff Associates,www.jsnyc.com

Special Thanks: Milan Babík (Havel and Our Crisis/Conference Convenor), Captain Lawrence Brewery, Pavla Niklova, Marek Soltis, Josef Balaz, Rome Brown, David Morrison, Roy Rosenstein, Barbara Cox, BrouCzech Beer, La MaMa Theatre, Theater for the New City.

In Memoriam to artists we admire: Tiina Aleman (editor, translator), Jemeel Moondoc (composer), Peter Brook (director), George Bartenieff (director), Sizzle Ohtaka (musician),

Hair by Don Juan’s Barber Shop, 303 East 4^th Street, NY NY 10009,  Phone: (646) 996-3132

PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PRODUCTION:

2022 photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HRiNkodWA275RZhs7
2021 photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rvNkkwB4kdUj98Hp9

REVIEW OF NEW YORK 2022 PERFORMANCE