Outline

date	April 23, 2010 (Friday), 16:30–18:00, April 25, 2010 (Sunday), 11:00–12:30
Venue	Multipurpose Lecture Room, 1st Level Basement, Building 26, Waseda Campus,Conference Room 301, 3rd Floor, Building 26, Waseda Campus
Organizer	Japanese Theatre Research Course, sponsor; Czech Centre co-sponsor
outline	One of the main research themes of the Japanese Theatre Research Course is a comparative study of stage construction in Japan, China and Central Europe; from its inception the Course has been doing research on Europe with a focus on the Czech Republic. Thus far it has sent survey teams there twice, and in the 2008 academic year it invited Pavel Slavko (director of the the Český Krumlov Castle museum), who restored the Český Krumlov Castle, and engaged in comparative studies of Japanese and European stage construction. To promote comparative studies with the Czech Republic, this time it invited Vlasta Koubska, head of the Prague National Museum’s Theatre Collection, to lecture on the Czech Avant-garde Theatre from the perspective of its costumes and stage design.

Details

The Prague National Museum has one of the finest theatre collections in Europe, including a collection of more than 300,000 posters. For the first time in Japan, an exhibit derived from this collection consisting of costumes from the Czech Avant-garde Theatre, “Czech Costume Design: From the Real to the Imaginary,” was held at the Theatre Museum, opening on April 22nd, 2010. Ms. Koubska was the main curator for the exhibit.
At her lecture on the 23rd, entitled “The World of the Czech Avant-garde Theatre as Seen from Its Stage Design,” Ms. Koubska used rare illustrations of set design in the Prague National Museum’s collection to talk about the special features of Czech avant-garde theatre; how stage design and costumes were used in theatrical space; how productions were staged; and what impact theatrical methods of the 1920s and 1930s has had on the art of today. At her seminar on the 25th on “The Prague National Museum and Czech Theatre,” she began by introducing the history of the Prague National Museum and its holdings, then talked about Czech theatre history from baroque theatre to the avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century based on illustrations of costume designs. At both the lecture and the seminar her talks were followed by lively question-and-answer periods that gave a good sense of how thoroughly captivated the audience was by the variety and brilliance of Czech theatre, which in Japan has hitherto received only limited introduction.
Ms. Koubska had originally been scheduled to come to Japan on April 18th and present a series of three seminars and one lecture. But all flights in Europe were cancelled as a result of the eruption of the Iceland volcano on April 14th. The date of Ms. Koubska’s arrival in Japan had to be postponed, and the schedule hastily changed and adjusted. Thanks to the total cooperation from the Czech Centre, especially its director, Petr Holý, and of course Ms. Koubska herself, as well as the efforts of UEDA Yōko, an assistant at the Theatre Museum, and all others involved, we were able to welcome Ms. Koubska and hold her lecture and seminar. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them and all those who managed to attend despite the repeated schedule changes.