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Festival in the park marks a fresh start for Continuo

Novogo Fronta joins new troupe for a celebration of lively independent theater

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
July 25th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
The marionettes sometimes take wing in Continuo performances.
enlarge
Chapiteau of the Continuo Theatre

When: Nightly performances at 9:30 (July 26, 27 and 28) and 7 (July 29)
Where: Vítkov Park (Prague 3–Žižkov)
Tickets: 110–180 Kč, available through Tickestream and at the
performances
For more information and a complete schedule, check www.continuo.cz

Plenty of artistic groups use a milestone anniversary as an excuse to shake things up a bit — maybe write a new mission statement, or add some new performances to the repertoire. The Czech Republic’s Continuo Theatre is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year by shaking things up a hell of a lot. From starting 2007 with a complete turnover in performers to planning a world premiere for October, artistic director Pavel Štourač set his goals high. And just to make sure that no one in the company got too comfortable, he planned the troupe’s first summer festival in Prague, Chatpiteau of the Continuo Theatre, for this week in Vítkov Park.
“I think it’s very natural,” says Štourač. “There comes some tiredness and a need to change.”
In the early 1990s, Štourač and a handful of other artists began performing together as puppeteers in and around Prague. They moved out of the city to the south Bohemian village of Malovice to officially form Continuo Theatre in 1992. Removing the company from the city was done for several reasons, Štourač recalls, but most importantly for “a lifestyle that is connected to performing and creating this type of theater.”
In Malovice, the growing group was able to build sets, choreograph new materials and experiment with different forms of theater and dance in an old farmhouse that Štourač purchased. “It is impossible to rent space like this in Prague,” he notes with a laugh.
Removed from busy city life, Continuo Theatre spent the past 15 years creating a repertoire of work that expanded well past puppetry. Štourač hesitates to describe Continuo Theatre as performing any certain kind of art; the list of what the company does today includes theater, street circus, puppetry, movement, music, physical acting, circus and acrobatic techniques. All of these, Štourač says, are merely different methods of using the body to create art and convey meaning.
This week’s series is an effort by the company to showcase highlights from its history. Longtime fans of the group will find pieces altered, however, by a company made up entirely of fresh faces. In some way, then, the festival is a re-introduction of Continuo Theatre to Prague.
The new multinational company of puppeteers, dancers, musicians and street performers is staging three works from the Continuo Theatre canon this week: Too Much to the Touch, The Flow of Time and The Eclipse. And Štourač brought in other artists and companies to make Chapiteau a more comprehensive event.
“We’ve decided it should be a real festival and not only our performances,” he says. “So we invited our friends.”
Those friends include the singer Ridina Ahmedová and theater groups Divadlo T.E.J.P. and Teatr Novogo Fronta. The latter provides an especially good complement to Continuo Theatre, according to Štourač, as the two groups have been compatriots for many years in “fighting for independent theater in Prague.”
Is the festival accessible for an English-language audience?
“For sure! All of our performances are.” Štourač says. “It’s nonverbal theater, so there will be no problems for foreign audiences, no language for them to understand.”
So anyone can join Štourač and his new troupe and their friends this week for the culmination of 15 years of creativity and hard work, plus the thrill of seeing an artistic group beginning anew with green company members and its very first festival.

Brooke Edge can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


Other articles in Tempo (25/07/2007):

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