On Saturday, June 3, an unusual meeting took place in the premises of the Prašná bašta restaurant in Bratislava. And why unusual? Because after a long 30-year break, the participants of the first European meeting of young theater actors met again, which was held in 1987 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, under the auspices of the International Amateur Theater Association (IATA/AITA).
But in order to get a little closer to this event, we must first go back in time 30 years ago, when a 10-member Slovak theater group consisting of Juraj Heger, Vanda Vizárová, Karol Vosátko, Alena Vraňáková, Michal Spišák, Ildikó Töröková, Peter Mankovecký, Zuzana Orešanská, Marika Flešárová and Vladimír Dubeň, published for the first time during the harsh totalitarian regime in the former Czechoslovakia to the West to represent the quality of our amateur theater scene. The group was led by professional workers of the Educational Institute, Alena Štefková and Jaroslava Čajková.
What preceded this action. In 1979, at the Seminar on Children and Art in Sweden, it was decided to organize a regular European meeting of children's theater. In 1982, the first event of this type took place in Belgium, and since then it has been held every two years. In 1982, for the first time, a suggestion was made that a similar meeting would also benefit slightly older actors, between 16 and 25 years old. Already a year later, the trial "zero" year took place in London at the British, national level. Based on this experience, Great Britain was honored with the task of organizing the First European Youth Theater Meeting in the summer of 1987 in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Why Stratford was chosen is probably obvious. It is the hometown of one of the world's greatest playwrights, William Shakespeare, where he and his family are buried. A very beautiful and inspiring environment for theater production. The city is besieged by thousands of foreign tourists from all over the world precisely because of this historical fact. Well, during two weeks of the summer of 1987, more than 200 young theater actors from different corners of Europe expanded these unceasing masses. In this context, it should be mentioned that the Czech and Slovak groups already participated in this event separately and that one of the members of the Czech team was, for example, one of the most respected Czech directors, Petr Lébl.
And how did the Stradford meeting actually go? The representatives of the individual states were divided into two to 10 mixed working groups on the spot, where they met with theater actors from other countries. Each group was always led by two expert lecturers, mostly people from the field of professional theater, usually actors or directors from different European countries, who communicated with the participants exclusively in English. The groups worked independently in schools, studios or studios located in all possible corners of Stratford. After about a week of work, the partial works of the individual groups were presented directly in the streets of the city, where they were applauded by passing tourists and local residents. Well, the final results were finally combined into a continuous full-length performance in the famous Stratford Swan Theater under the supervision of the English director Peter James from the Lyric Theater Hammersmith. The whole performance, of course, was in the spirit of Shakespeare and excerpts from his famous plays. What makes us sincerely happy is that the Slovak team was one of the most successful and certainly the most popular during the entire stay, thanks to their musicianship and knowledge in the jointly organized evening events.
Group leader Alena Štefková came up with the idea to organize a meeting of members of a successful Slovak team after 30 years. And it was a really successful event. There was a lot to talk about and a lot to remember. It was especially interesting to learn that some participants were marked by the Stratford meeting for life. Professional directors such as Karol Vosátko and Michal Spišák, screenwriters such as Vanda Vizárová or actor and musician Peter Mankovecký, who unfortunately is no longer with us and looks down on us from the theater heaven, have grown up from young theater actors. But also for others, the love of theater or literature was transferred to their further professional or personal life. Well, what can I add? Perhaps the only thing is that after the meeting in Bratislava, the theater people agreed that there will definitely be more meetings. And the closest, perhaps, again in Shakespeare's city. So goodbye, Stratford!
Vladimir Dubeň