History of Faculty

On 27 October The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU) is declared open by the president.

On 28 June the organisational statute of AMU is enacted, and teaching begins at AMU in the next academic year. Teaching includes courses in music, dance, theatre, and film. The first Rector of the academy (1946 – 1948) is a violoncellist Ladislav Zelenka.

In the beginning of the 1947/48 academic year AMU establishes three faculties led by three Deans. Dance is included in the Theatre Faculty. Four courses are taught at the Theatre Faculty: Dramaturgy and Theory of Drama, Theatre Directing, Acting, and Theatre Design, which is led by Prof. František Tröster.

On 29 September the Drama Department of the State Conservatory is closed and its students become students of AMU.

The curriculum of the Theatre Faculty of AMU was approved on 12 July 1951 based on the Act of Higher Education as enacted in May 1950. Four Departments are established: Department of Acting, Department of Directing and Stage Design, Department of Dance Choreography and Pedagogy, and Department of Theatre Science and Dramaturgy (transformed from Theatre Science at Charles University in Prague in combination with the Dramaturgy course at DAMU).

The Theatre Faculty gains its own building in 26 Karlova street.

Establishment of the Department of Puppetry.

The Puppet Theatre (Loutka) of the Department of Puppetry is opened on 23 June, with a production of Tvrdohlavá žena (The Stubborn Woman) by Josef Kajetán Tyl.

Puppetry, Dance, and Design courses at DAMU start using space in the Ledebour Palace at Malá Strana.

Theatre Science and History is moved to Charles University. The Department of Directing and the Department of Dramaturgy are joined together. The Department of Dance is moved to the Music Faculty of AMU.

Establishment of the Department of Organisation and Management of Theatres and Art Institutions, led by Lubomír Poživil.

Starting in the 1985/86 academic year, Management and Organisation is made into an integrative programme for all courses at AMU, with theatre as one of possible specialties. Teaching is moved to the Film Faculty (FAMU).

Students at DAMU are the first to declare strike action on 20November.

Josef Krofta becomes Head of the Department of Puppetry and transforms it into the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre, with courses in acting, directing, dramaturgy, and scenography.

Establishment of the Department of Arts Management, led by Barbara Tůmová.

Establishment of the Department of Drama in Education, led by Eva Machková.

Establishment of the Department of Authorial Creativity and Pedagogy, led by Prof. Ivan Vyskočil.

DISK Theatre’s building in 3 Karlova street is handed over to the Religious Association of Czech Unitarians and DISK moves to rented spaces in Celetná Theatre.

Establishment of the Department of Theory and Criticism, led by Prof. Jaroslav Vostrý.

Establishment of the Institute of Drama and Stage, led by Prof. Jaroslav Vostrý.

Prof. Ivan Vyskočil opens the Institute for Research and Study of Authorial Acting.

First issue of the magazine of the study of stage creative work DISK. In 2005 the Edition DISK is founded.

Four doctorate programmes are newly accredited: Theory and Practice of Theatrical Art, Stage Creative Work and its Theory, Alternative and Puppet Theatre and its Theory, Authorial Acting, its Theory and Psychosomatics.

The research centre of the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre is founded.

The institute for drama and stage is transformed into Institute for Theory of Stage Creative Work at DAMU and becomes the centre of research and art at DAMU.