ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRES IN POST-COMMUNIST PRAGUE by Gwendolyn Alaine Orel ...

328 Pages·2005·1.41 MB·English

by  Matthew Orel

TITLE PAGE
PERFORMING CULTURES:
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRES IN
POST-COMMUNIST PRAGUE

by
Gwendolyn Alaine Orel
AB English, AB Classics, Stanford University, 1987
AM English, Stanford University, 1987

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Pittsburgh

2005
COMMITTEE PAGE
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
This dissertation was presented

by
Copyright © by Gwen dolyn Alaine Orel
Gwendolyn Alaine Orel
2005
It was defended on
December 1, 2005
and approved by
Nancy Condee, Associate Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Attilio Favorini, Professor, Theatre Arts
Kathleen George, Professor, Theatre Arts
Kiki Gounaridou, Associate Professor, Theatre Studies, Smith College
J. Thomas Rimer, Professor Emeritus, Theatre Arts, Department of East Asian Languages and
Literatures
Dissertation Advisor: Attilio Favorini, Professor, Theatre Arts
ii
ABSTRACT
PERFORMING CULTURES: ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRE IN
POST-COMMUNIST PRAGUE
Gwendolyn Alaine Orel, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, 2005

The presence of English-language theatres (ELTs) in Prague in the nineties coincided with the
ongoing transition to a market economy in the Czech Republic, as the English language itself
became increasingly the international language of business and culture. Under Communism,
Czech theatre had been highly political through veiled protests against the system of power.
After 1989, Czech theatre began moving into spheres of commodification and tourism. How the
ELTs in Prague negotiated their place in a shifting society reveals a performance of identity.
The ELTs tracked the turning points in Czech post-revolutionary history of the 1990s.
The history of the ELTs has been constructed through personal and telephone interviews
and emails, as well as reviews, articles, manuscripts and production videotapes. Companies
analyzed include North American Theatre, Small and Dangerous, Black Box International
Theatre (which began its life as Studio Theatre), Exposure, and Misery Loves Company.
Structurally, this investigation covers three distinct periods of the Czech transition: the
optimistic early nineties; the mid-nineties, when the market economy flourished along with
increasing instances of corruption; and the late nineties, when disillusionment affected the Czech
Republic and most of the ELTs vanished.
ELTs in Prague primarily used four production strategies: 1) representing the
Performer’s Culture; 2) representing the Host culture in English; 3) bi-cultural and/or bi-lingual
productions, including nonverbal work, collaboration with Host culture theatre companies, and
multicultural casting, and 4) presenting plays about culture clash. Theoretical underpinnings for
this study include intercultural performance theory, reception and semiotic theory,
historiography, and theories of globalization and cultural tourism.
The achievements and disappointments of the ELTs reveal underlying principles of
production and reception applicable not only to Eastern Europe but to any region with a growing
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English-speaking subculture. Findings include the observation that production strategy and
mission are less significant than the cultural and economic contextualizing of the production
company. Curiosity about the English language dwindles as its usage grows. ELTs that were
most successful worked structurally with strategy number three in terms of performance venue,
schedule and style, contributing to the cultural life of the city rather than self-consciously using
theatre to cross borders.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE.....................................................................................................................................X
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................1
SECTION 1.1 LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTION.........................................................4
SECTION 1.2 APPROACHES TO ANALYSIS...............................................................7
SECTION 1.3 GLOBALIZATION AND ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRE IN
PRAGUE ....................................................................................................................11
SECTION 1.4 CZECH THEATRE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY.............................15
SECTION 1.5 CZECH THEATRE UNDER LATE COMMUNISM...........................20
SECTION 1.6 THEATRE AND THE VELVET REVOLUTION................................21
SECTION 1.7 POLITICAL TRANSITIONS..................................................................23
SECTION 1.8 TRANSITIONS IN SOCIETY.................................................................25
SECTION 1.9 THEATRE AFTER THE REVOLUTION.............................................27
SECTION 1.10 AMERICANIZATION IN PRAGUE...................................................29
SECTION 1.11 "YAPS," ENGLISH, AND THEATRE................................................32
SECTION 1.12 PRAGUE AND THE ELTS...................................................................39
CHAPTER 2. 1990-1993: “THIS IS THE TIME WHEN ALL AMERICANS ARE
GOOD” .......................................................................................................................40
SECTION 2.1 TEACHERS OF ENGLISH, TEACHERS OF CULTURE..................44
SECTION 2.2 NORTH AMERICAN THEATRE AND “A VERY AMERICAN
QUESTION” ....................................................................................................................46
SECTION 2.3 THE BIRTH OF STUDIO THEATRE AND THE OPENING OF THE
BLACK BOX ....................................................................................................................55
SECTION 2.4 THE FIRST SUMMER FESTIVAL: BLACK BOX EXPANDS........65
SECTION 2.5 ASYLUM: INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION.........................67
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SECTION 2.6 AN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LITERARY CULTURE IN PRAGUE:
BEEFSTEW FEEDS THE ELT SCENE............................................................................71
SECTION 2.7 SMALL AND DANGEROUS PRESENTS ORIGINAL
EXPATRIATE WRITING...................................................................................................73
2.7.1 “Cowboys and Indians”: Re-presenting Culture Clash................................77
SECTION 2.8 PERFORMANCE OF CAPITALISM: K-MART AND
COMMERCIALISM............................................................................................................80
CHAPTER 3. 1994-1996: “A BIZARRE BY-PRODUCT OF THE
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CZECH CULTURE”.......................................................82
SECTION 3.1 BLACK BOX TURNS A CORNER: 1994.............................................85
3.1.1 Grace...................................................................................................................85
3.1.2 Alenka in Wonderland......................................................................................87
SECTION 3.2 THE SECOND SUMMER FESTIVAL: BLACK BOX AS A
HALFWAY HOUSE.............................................................................................................89
3.2.1 Karhan’s Men: Enjoying a Laugh at the Former Regime............................95
3.2.2 InsideOut’s International Arts Festival.........................................................100
3.2.3 Building Bridges Inside the Community.......................................................101
SECTION 3.3 THE THIRD SUMMER FESTIVAL: REPRISING AND REVIVING
................................................................................................................102
3.3.1 Lemonade Joe: Re-presenting Western Parody..........................................105
SECTION 3.4 BLACK BOX’S NEW LEADERSHIP: NANCY BISHOP
FORMALIZES THE MISSION........................................................................................108
SECTION 3.5 EXPOSURE: PLAYING IN TWO LANGUAGES............................113
3.5.1 Staging the Past in Two Languages: Exposure’s first full productions.....117
3.5.2 Just Another Blasted Love Song: Bilingual Success....................................119
3.5.3 The Infante: Spain in Prague.........................................................................124
CHAPTER 4. 1994-1996: “THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN
PRAGUE CULTURAL LIFE CANNOT BE DISREGARDED”.........................................126
SECTION 4.1 THE FOUNDERS OF MISERY LOVES COMPANY.......................129
SECTION 4.2 “THE TRUE HOPE OF PRAGUE ENGLISH-SPEAKING
THEATRE”: A STRONG BEGINNING........................................................................132
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4.2.1 The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine...............................................................132
4.2.2 A Nightingale for Dinner.................................................................................134
SECTION 4.3 MOVING INTO CELETNÁ..................................................................137
SECTION 4.4 MISERY LOVES COMPANY BRANCHES OUT.............................138
4.4.1 Big Knees..........................................................................................................138
4.4.2 Big Knees playwrights: Laura Zam and Sean Fuller..................................140
4.4.3 Class Acts..........................................................................................................145
SECTION 4.5 KING STAG: THE HIGH POINT OF INTERCULTURAL
THEATRICAL COLLABORATION...............................................................................146
SECTION 4.6 ANGELS IN AMERICA: ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRES
BRING AMERICA TO PRAGUE....................................................................................152
SECTION 4.7 THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI: A PRAGUE
PRODUCTION? .................................................................................................................163
SECTION 4.8 BLUE WINDOW AND THE AGE OF REASON: EXPANDING THE
MISSION AGAIN...............................................................................................................168
CHAPTER 5. 1997-1999: “NOW THAT DUNKIN’ DONUTS WAS THERE, OUR JOB
WAS DONE” .........................................................................................................................173
SECTION 5.1 OLEANNA: DRAMATIZING GENDER WARS..............................175
SECTION 5.2 TRANSLATING TRANSLATIONS: THE IRISH CONNECTION
AND INCREASING PROFESSIONALISM....................................................................178
5.2.1 The Summer of 1997: Black Box’s Prominence...........................................184
SECTION 5.3 MERGERS AND MISSIONS................................................................190
SECTION 5.4 DECEMBER AT CELETNÁ: DECEMBER OF ALL THINGS AND
QUILLS ..................................................................................................................191
SECTION 5.5 SEASICK OVER “OCEANS”...............................................................196
SECTION 5.6 EUROPE AND THE END OF EXPOSURE........................................200
SECTION 5.7 THE FINAL BLACK BOX SEASON...................................................201
5.7.1 The Final Black Box Production....................................................................203
SECTION 5.8 THE ASHES OF BLACK BOX AND MISERY LOVES COMPANY.
................................................................................................................209
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SECTION 5.9 CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A PROTOCOL FOR ENGLISH-
LANGUAGE THEATRE...................................................................................................211
SECTION 5.10 POST-SCRIPT: ENGLISH-LANGUAGE THEATRE AS A
PERFORMANCE OF GLOBALIZATION.....................................................................220
APPENDIX................................................................................................................................225
PRODUCTION CHRONOLOGY OF THEATRES COVERED IN CHAPTERS ONE
THROUGH FOUR.............................................................................................................225
NORTH AMERICAN THEATRE..............................................................................225
ASYLUM.......................................................................................................................226
STUDIO THEATRE/BLACK BOX THEATRE/BLACK BOX INTERNATIONAL
THEATRE.....................................................................................................................230
SMALL AND DANGEROUS......................................................................................240
MISERY LOVES COMPANY....................................................................................242
EXPOSURE...................................................................................................................249
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS...........................................................................................252
Christopher Lord’s Threshold: Poetic Transformations.........................................253
Peter DuBois’ Academic Experiments........................................................................256
RE: Kvést’s Conference of the Birds: Transformative Multiculturalism.............259
Artists for Prague International: Musical Community Theatre.............................261
ARTISTS FOR PRAGUE..................................................................................................271
BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................................................273
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Angels in America Press Coverage..............................................................................159

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PREFACE

The joy of writing a history of living subjects is the ability to do research at a beautiful site like
Prague’s Café Slavia, overlooking the Vltava River across from the National Theatre. However,
sifting a coherent narrative from conflicting memories and impressions was often challenging.
At times it seemed that everyone involved in a production had a conflicting view. Finally I had
to limit my interviews and primary sources in order to start on the work itself, though I continued
to solicit corrections and contacts by email. Use of the internet and email made tracking subjects
down much easier than it would have been otherwise (and is itself a fascinating site of
globalization), and my subjects were often very generous with their time and materials, but I am
aware that there are yet perspectives and documents that I was unable to obtain.
Many individuals allowed me to borrow for extended periods their scrapbooks,
photographs, videotapes, writings and personal journals, especially (but not limited to) Randall
Lyman, Laura Zam, Raphie Frank, Deborah Morrison1, Richard Toth, Victoria Jones, Leah
Gaffen, Christopher Lord and Jesse Webb. I am particularly indebted to Elizabeth Russell of
Black Box, who had very organized archives with which she trusted me. Nancy Bishop first
invited me to work with Black Box in the summer of 1997. Because of her openness, I have also
been able to consult my own journals and memories for that period. A grant from the Andrew
Mellon foundation for pre-doctoral dissertation research enabled me to spend the autumn of 1998
and all of 1999 in Prague, where I was able to conduct many interviews, use the archives of the
Divadelní ústav (Theatre Institute), and continue my work with Black Box. The Divadelní ústav
continued to assist me, both personally and through their online database, after I left Prague.
Kent Thompson of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival graciously allowed me a paid leave of

1 In the interests of clarity for the reader, I refer to interviewees primarily by the names they were known by in
Prague, rather than using subsequent married names; hence Victoria Shobris rather than Victoria Dougherty,
Victoria Jones rather than Victoria Toth, and so on.
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