MA DOT

Applications for study on master program Directing of Devised and Object Theatre in 2024/2025 are due until 15th of January, 2024, online auditions will take place on 27th of February 2024.

 

MASTER DEGREE IN DIRECTING OF DEVISED AND OBJECT THEATER

a 2 year English language program at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theater (KALD)

Prague, Czech Republic.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Master in Directing of Devised and Object Theatre offers advanced studies in the practice of theater-making with a twofold focus: learning the process of devising a theater performance from scratch, with a strong emphasis on a visuality of expression. Students will learn to create theater performances with strong visual, spatial, object, media (low tech) as well as participatory, documentary, immersive and political aspects, as well as working in other related performance forms such as scenographic installations, sound performances, sound walks, interactive and public space performance as well as other types of performances with non-traditional theater settings.

The process is based in devising techniques: creating thematic, conceptual, and/or documentary projects that are not based in pre-written plays, but are created mainly through the process of rehearsing, often as collaborative work of the whole creative team.

Students will learn to work with a variety of authentic, found, and created material: poetry, images, fragments of plays, songs, historical events, personal stories, scientific findings, common knowledge, pop culture etc. Students will further learn a conceptual approach to research and development of materials, creating specific performance structures (in the sense of narrative, space, and relationship to audience), from specific material, and proposing new ways for the audience to perceive/experience the performance. The course aims to provide the students with skills to become independent authors.

STUDY PROGRAM

The degree is in directing, where directing is understood as an expanded practice, with the potential to work within the fields of design, writing, and performing, to prepare students for work in theater forms without strict divisions of roles within the creative team. Students will be guided toward becoming independent creators making their own artistic work. Devising includes both creating and performing. The conceptual and performed aspects are often intertwined.

For their own projects, students are partnered with prominent practicing artists working in the fields of media, site specific, community theater, movement theater, documentary theater, puppet theater, visual theater, scenographic installation etc., for tutoring.

The main focus of the study is to develop student’s own language, style and aesthetics, and to explore their own voice.

Students will further have a possibility to create direct connections to and do internships with international artists and in international environments and institutions as well as connection to Czech artists and companies.

SKILLS ATTAINED

  • Directing theater performances without ´script´.
  • Devising performance from a variety of material.
  • Devising using one’s own material (not only interpreting already existing material)
  • Research and development of material.
  • Creation of a variety of dramaturgical structures and research of material.
  • Performing, and working with performers.
  • Directing understood as complex performance making including designing, performing, writing etc.

In previous years we had following guest lecturers

Julian Hetzel, Jakub Orendson, Rima Najdi, Yuka Oyama, Wojtek Ziemilski, Andreas Wilhelm, Antonin Šilár, Christelle Havranek, Kjartan Fønstelien, Nela Kornetova, Building Conversation, Sally Dean, Farm in a Cave, Mali Weil, Christina Lindgren, Gert-Jan Stam, Nela Kornetová, Lucia Repašská, Jaha Koo, Adéla Součková, Branko Jordan, Janis Balodis, Dominic Huber… 

In previous years we had students from the following countries

Germany, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Ecuador, Canada, USA. UK, Ireland, Holland, Lithuania, Belgium, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Columbia, Hungary, Italy, Chile, Palestine, Hong Kong, Iceland, Denmark, South Korea…

COURSE LEADER

doc.MgA. Sodja Zupanc Lotker, Ph.D. works as a dramaturg for independent devised theatre, dance, media and site specific projects, working often in unusual performance spaces in Czech Republic, USA, Brazil etc., for instance with CIA Dani Lima, Lotte van den Berg, Farm in the Cave, Cristina Maldonado, Jan Mocek, Julian Hetzel, Ahilan Ratnamohan as well as Wojtek Ziemilski. She was Artistic Director of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2008-2015, and has curated numerous exhibitions and events for the PQ since 1999. She has been teaching and giving lectures at Columbia University, Yale School of Drama, KhIO Oslo, Central School of Speech and Drama London, Kiasma Helsinki and a number of festivals and symposia.

STUDY PLAN

Below can be found annotations of subjects that accompany students during their two years study. Students will understand different approaches in the artistic field, and build the ability to think and discuss about performative art and primarily build their own way of artistic thinking and expression. Students are guided in their own artistic activity, which they consult individually with pedagogues and at the same time provide feedback to each other. Study is built on theoretical and practical subjects, which are supplemented in each semester by several workshops with Czech and foreign artists.

DIRECTING

Directing class will lead the students towards understanding principles of theater composition, rhytmisation and visualization. Students will practice directing and composition exercises in the group to become aware of relations of bodies, objects and space. They will also train how to work with the presence of performers and their actions to create performative situations. Furthermore, they will be encouraged to research and identify the directing tools that allow them to follow their own creative ways of thinking.

SEARCH FOR CONTEXT

In this course focused on art-based research, students learn to link artistic research to theory, to find resources and write about different practical and theoretical issues connected to their personal research interests. The course happens through research presentations, writing, and dialogue and sharing of research and writing practices and outcomes.

DRAMATURGY

Dramaturgy class will lead students towards understanding what contemporary dramaturgy is, how it works in devised theater and how it is made. Dramaturgy is understood as the core of the performance, its composition, structure or system, how that system is made and how it works, especially how it works in relation to the audience and their experience. Further we will develop the ability to understand the performative potential of raw and performative material, understand how it works and what it can add to the research of specific performance and the experience of it.

PERFORMING

Performance class will lead students towards understanding modes of presence on the stage. They will practice devising and composition exercises to become aware of the performative potential of objects, space, other performers, and audience. They will also train physical methods to develop self-awareness and gain an understanding of how to work with their presence and actions to create performative situations within the dramaturgical system of the performance. In the first semester students will focus on the performing potential of objects, in the second and the third on the body and stage presence.

SCENOGRAPHY

This course is focussed on discovering possibilities and qualities of different materials in space, time and dialogue with the human body. It is a kind of play with materials, which is reflected by the students. This experience serves as a basis for their further theatrical creation, especially for puppet and object theater. It deepens the metaphorical way of thinking. Students will be acquaintanced also with artistic strategy, how to understand a space, how to make relationships to a space and search for topics it offers.

DEVISING

Devising classes will lead the students towards discovering the performative potential of simple objects, situations, images. Students will be developing simple topics into a possible performance by discovering connections between objects, concepts and events. Students will use other indirect strategies for creating a performance, which might include principles of randomness, divination, or applying principles of algorithm and database to the theatre environments and systems.

COMPOSITION

In this course we focus on working with dramaturgy within composition, but also recording or creating recordings of music, sound, noise and various vocal expressions. It is a setting in which we explore the limits of performativity in sound, a dramaturgy based on the encounter of different sound objects. We will focus on the development of sound and music compositions, building their distinctive dramaturgy, finding adequate ways to technological, thematic and media solutions, revealing the different qualities of analogue and digital environments.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

This course is oriented towards the development of “audience abilities“ - students will go and see the performances (local as well as guests) and later analyze them. They should be able to discuss the performance, describe its dramaturgical structure, and present the artistic language in its complexity. At the same time, the students will be encouraged to compare their experience with their local aesthetical and theatrical language. Furthermore, we will develop the ability to contextualize and generalize means used in the performative arts and possibly compare them with our own artistic language.

MASTER ATELIER

In this course students learn to gather information about chosen topics, analyze them and discuss them in a group. The content of the seminar varies depending on students' focus of research and varies from dramaturgical potential of specific performative formats to development of dialogue methods in research, collaboration and performing. The pre-condition for the exploration is that the contemporary performance is a collaborative process that extends to the audience; that it’s a process of researching and thinking and that the performance is a set of conditions that inspire and activate the research and thinking.

PRODUCTION SEMINAR

The class is designed to offer an overview of the basics of hands-on work as producers. Students are encouraged to learn about and share practice from several different countries, making this a comparative study with only a partial focus on the Czech context. Corse is devoted to matching artistic vision with available resources, with modules about research and prep, resource analysis, budget creation and monitoring, project mapping, time allocation and the basics of applying for grants.

TUITION FEE

8 470 EUR per academic year.

Currently there is no applicable scholarship program at the academy.

Looking for additional funding? Postgrad Solutions now offer 15 bursaries across a number of subject areas. Click here to apply - How to apply for a Postgrad Solutions Study Bursary | Postgrad.com

Applicants must submit:

  • Online application form completed at prihlaska.amu.cz with the entrance exam fee (payable in the application via credit/debit card),
  • motivational letter, including the reasons why they have chosen the program,
  • compilation of samples of their creative work in PDF format with links to audiovisual documentation and including detailed descriptions, reflection on, and photographic documentation of the works (up to 10 MB file),
  • a written description of their envisioned Masters Study Project, their intentions in the course of study, and vision of their future professional activities,
  • CV with headshot.

Beside the online application form the applicants must send in hard version relevant qualifications (notarized copy of bachelor degree / diploma) by mail.

If accepted, applicants must apply for official validation of their previous degree(s) to AMU:

When applying, please follow the instructon published at AMU website After validation is finished sucesfully, the official Letter of acceptance will be issued and delivered to applicant.  Letter of acceptance is required document for Visa aplication. We recommend to all non-European applicants to contact the Czech Embassy in their country so they can apply immediately after receiving our official Letter of acceptance.

CONTACT

For more information about the studies please contact project manager

Táňa Švehlová tana.svehlova@damu.cz

She can help you with questions about application, admission and she can also connect you with current students, course leader or study department.

DAMU in Prague
Karlova 26, 116 65 Praha 1, Czech Republic
phone: +420 234 244 270

SHOWCASE

The Disappearing in the Supermarket

December 2-4th, 2022

at Prague Academy of the Performing Arts and other venues/places in Prague

The Disappearing in the Supermarket is a showcase of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts program MA in Directing Devised and Object Theater. For 3 days you will be able to see the best performances of three generations of students of this program. And you will be able to meet the students from Lithuania, Finland, Taiwan, Lebanon, Japan, Mexico, Columbia, Poland, Germany and Hungary, as well as with their teachers and tutors.

Some performances are participatory, some are in a more classical setting but in all of them the relationship of audience and the performance play an important part. The students of the program each have a very different approach to performance, and you will be able to experience different aesthetics and attitudes, and the performances are all unique experiences. But all of them come from serious exploration of the artist's relationship to the world into which they also invite the audience.

Facebook event with more info! https://www.facebook.com/events/637718238012972

To reserve tickets for shows and more info, please write to: tinkaencheva.avramova@damu.cz

Shows

  • From One Moon to Another I Leap - 2nd Years ( Levin Eichert, Snæfríður Sól Gunnarsdóttir, ,Aljoša Krapež, Carmen Lee, Kirstine Nielsen)
  • Sensorium - En-ping Yu
  • River Room - Eszter Koncz
  • Performing Arden - Arden Tan
  • PULSE - Arnis Aleinikovas
  • Dream in the Supermarket - Michał Salwiński
  • Yours Now - Katharina Joy Book
  • Shituations - Sai
  • Fugue in the Key of Falling - Valtteri Alenan
  • Do You Know A Place That Doesn’t Exist Anymore - Mara Ingea
  • Take Less Space and Disappear - Eglė Šimėnaitė
  • Anamorphosis - Susana Botero
  • HIGH - Daniel Victoria

ABOUT KALD DAMU

Study programmes at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre focus on exploration of the very essentials of what theatre is, how it can be perceived, what social functions can it fulfil nowadays, what are possible directions of its development, where are its borders and crossovers.

The studies are based on the fusion of the long-standing pedagogical experience of Czech puppetry school and tendencies rooted in Eastern European theatre of avant-garde and movement of „open theatre“.

Beside the craft skills, theoretical and historical knowledge, the artistic research here is focused on areas of primary roles in theatre – it is testing division to traditional roles as director, dramaturg, actor, stage designer, costume designer, composer or dancer. Emphasising collective creative work, these roles are disturbed, overlapped, intersected a de-hierarchized. These tendencies apply especially in process of rehearsals, which we understand as core of the creation.

The above mentioned practices are researched in areas of figurative and puppet theatre, DIY, happening, performance, dance, visual expression, contemporary music or for example musical, documentary, political or physical theatre, or as contrary, in archaic theatre or theatre with non-European roots. Theatre principles are extended to radio and musical compositions or experimental film, as the theatre does not necessarily have to be staged in theatre venues and is able to transmit its principles to different artistic forms. And vice versa – theatre tries to transform inspirations and tools from other artistic forms into stage work.

The source of inspiration doesn’t have to be only dramatic literature, but also, for example, research papers, discoveries from botanics, mineralogy, alchemy, hermeneutics, philosophy or psychology, as well as mathematics, obscure cinematography, novels, poetry, essays and treatises, chronicles, jazz, baroque music, or metal.

The common territory of studies is a post-dramatic theatre, devised theatre, postspectacular, puppet, object, physical. More than on studies of established methods and craft rules, the focus is moved to space for questioning, searching different or new language. Theatre is not absolutely known phenomena, it is a space for continuously necessary defining of oneself. Should contemporary theatre stay alive, it must be more a question than a verified genre. And, moreover, the theatre professions as directing or stage design, are not the goal of studies, that has to be perfectly handled.

An important aspect is, besides studying of theatrical or performative language, common and open studies of students of all disciplines, sharing experience and knowledge and open reflecting of each other’s work. Accent is also placed to theatre history, contemporary theory and teatrological methodology as essencial context to practical tasks and stage projects.