HaDivadlo: Flat Hierarchy & New Leadership – Torcik Takes Charge

Classmates from the Brno Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts succeeded last year in the selection procedure. They want to build on the tradition of an author’s approach that HaDivadlo has developed for more than half a century, and at the same time try the potential of collective guidance without the inner hierarchy. The specific plans and the new visual style presented at the Saturday event called Letʼs Fly Together.

“So far we will decide as one body, for 90 percent of meetings we are all three, we are talking about all things together. After the first season we will evaluate it and maybe redistributed the tasks more specifically,” says Jan Doležel. “There is a much greater order in the collectivity than many people think,” adds Justina Grec. According to her, it is also a signal for society that the strict hierarchy is not always and in everything.

Some productions will create members of the artistic leadership collectively in direct and dramaturgical aspects, others in individual positions. They intend to play the role of internal dramaturgy for visiting creators.

The new leadership does not want to make a thick line behind the past of HaDivadlo, whose specific spirit has all known during his studies in the studio. Josef Kovalčuk, a co -founder of this scene, is applying for the legacy of Josef Kovalčuk. Among their educators was, among other things, the former protagonist Hadivadlo Břetislav Rychlík.

There was no earthquake in the acting ensemble either. Representatives of the older generation Cyril Drozda, Marie Ludvíková, Simona Peková and Miloslav Maršálek remain. “Our first production will be all -voltage. It is a great acquaintance for us all generations in the theater,” says Jana Vaverková. However, the ensemble was also complemented by peers of the new artistic leadership, young graduates EMA hunting, Šimona Horynová and Josef Kostka.

The theme of the beginning season is the team and will be intertwined in various contexts with three new productions. In the first one, HaDivadlo will focus on the story of Jana of Arc, which, according to Vaverková, went against the collective consciousness of her time, collapsed stereotypes and turned the run in a different direction.

Another novelty will be the dramatization of Mark Torcik’s book Divar Memory about the discovery of his own identity in the backdrop of a homophobic small town, whose inhabitants act here as a collective hero. The third premiere of the season is to become Max Frische called Mr. Biedermann and Arsonists.

HaDivadlo is located in a former cinema under the functionalist passage of Alfa in the center of Brno. “We enjoy it is an atypical space that was not originally designed to play theater. We have always started from the specifics of a particular space,” remarked Doležel.

Together with Goose on a String and the terrain platform, HaDivadlo is part of the city established by the Center of Experimental Theater. The new management wants to strive for dialogue and cooperation between the individual components of the center. In the last ten years he has been the artistic director of HaDivadlo Ivan Buraj, but he has recently moved to the Prague Theater in Dlouhá.