Is it really so maddeningly difficult to get anything done in the Czech Republic? Or does it just seem that way to expats and foreigners used to a different pace of life? Occasionally a tale comes along that lends perspective to this endlessly vexing question.

The central character in this story is Renata Sabongui, a Czech native and accomplished ballet dancer and teacher who made a successful transition to a career as an arts producer. The performers she's brought to Prague include Mikhail Baryshnikov and the Alvin Ailey dance company, as well as ballet companies from Spain, Germany and the United States. She's also arranged tours for Czech performers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Egypt.

In the late '90s Sabongui was dividing her time between Prague and Washington, D.C., developing international projects and a dance training program for the National Theater. A regular visitor to the Kennedy Center, Washington's glittery complex for the performing arts, she couldn't help but notice all the other countries staging festivals, showing off their cultural accomplishments to American audiences — and wonder why there was nothing comparable from the Czech Republic.

"I went to see the Kennedy Center programming director, Roman Terleckyj, and told him, 'We have a nice culture too. Have you ever done anything about the Czechs?'" she recalls. "He said, 'No, suggest something.'"

Working intermittently on the project over the next couple of years, Sabongui did more than just suggest something. She put together an ambitious program that would showcase the entire breadth of Czech performing arts: a full production of the Janáček's Jenůfa, a concert version of Smetana's Libuše, a puppet play, a black-light theater production, and performances by folk dancers, ballet dancers and classical musicians. There were even discussions of a Czech film retrospective and an arts exhibit.

Spectacularly unhelpful

Then disaster struck in the form of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, which changed everything in Washington — including the Kennedy Center's schedule for spring 2002, which had included the Czech program. It was tentatively rescheduled for early 2004, contingent on Sabongui finding funding.

But she found little enthusiasm for her idea at the Culture Ministry. "It seemed strange to them that a private person was trying to do such a project," Sabongui says. "The attitude was, I must either be crazy or making a lot of money on it." When she met with then-Culture Minister Pavel Dostál, who had been to Washington not long before, Sabongui says his response was, "If the Kennedy Center is so important, how come no one took me there when I was in Washington?"

Eventually the Culture Ministry agreed to submit a proposal to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. But because it was so badly prepared, Sabongui was told, it did nothing but languish. As deadlines came and went with no commitment from the Czech ministries, Terleckyj was forced to remove the festival from the Kennedy Center's spring 2004 calendar.

But Sabongui is nothing if not a determined woman, so she began looking for support in other places. She found an unexpected angel in the new American ambassador, William Cabaniss, whose wife Catherine is a former member of the Kennedy Center advisory board. The Cabanisses held events at their residence and wrote letters of support. Sabongui also got a pledge of support from officials at Prague City Hall, with whom she had worked on previous cultural programs.

In April 2004 Sabongui went to Washington to finalize plans for a scaled-down festival. The original would have cost 30 million Kč ($1.2 million); now the goal was simply, "We'll do something small, based on how much money we get." While she was there, Sabongui contacted Martin Palouš, the Czech ambassador to the United States, who was spectacularly unhelpful.

"Why is the American ambassador writing me about a Czech festival?" Sabongui says he demanded to know. "I should be writing him!" Palouš's pride was stung so badly that when she finally succeeded in staging the festival, Sabongui says, he didn't come — in fact, he argued with her about the title, insisting it be called "Prague Spring in Washington, D.C." instead of simply "The Czech Festival."

Despite such obstacles, by February of this year Sabongui had commitments from a stellar lineup of performers: world-famous soprano Eva Urbanová, violin wunderkind Pavel Šporcl, and jazz stars Emil Viklický and Laco Tropp. But she still didn't have the money. It finally took donations from her husband's company, Euro-Trend, and friends at Unimex and Bohemia Glass to raise a comparatively modest 2.5 million Kč.

Real Chinese food

Finally, on June 14 this year, the curtain rose on a four-day Czech festival at the Kennedy Center that started with a colorful folk dance performance and ended with a recital by Urbanová. It drew good crowds and, judging by the reactions of the participants, sent both performers and audiences home happy.

"It was an excellent audience and a very good experience," says Urbanová. "I was very happy to sing there."

"I was thrilled when I was asked to play at the Kennedy Center," says Šporcl, who studied for five years in the United States. "It was very nice, and I think the audience enjoyed the concert very much." Šporcl enjoyed the opportunity he had to visit Smithsonian museums and a Baptist church service. "And I got to eat real Chinese food!" he enthuses.

Cabaniss, who says he and his wife are fans of Urbanová and Šporcl, appreciated the larger implications of the festival as well. "It was a wonderful opportunity for people in the United States to witness firsthand some of the top performers in the Czech Republic," he says. "Hopefully this is something we can continue to build on."

As for Sabongui, she's too much of a pro to be daunted by the difficulties she encountered. "Even my husband said to me, 'I'd go crazy!'" she says of her seven-year battle to stage the festival. "But I've been in theater long enough to know that things often don't go the right way."

Was it worth all the effort? "Yes!" she says emphatically. "Because Mrs. Urbanová got to make her Kennedy Center debut. And for me, it was prestigious to show Czech culture — we had good performances and happy audiences. Everything else that happened was minor."