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AKCENT 2024 - Don't Give Up!
The 14th edition of the AKCENT festival showcases the work of theater creators who, amidst the overwhelming virtual onslaught of cheap entertainment, connect with authentic moments of our lives.
This year's edition continues under the Archa-Centre of Documentary Theater brand, offering a rich program of productions, workshops, and discussions. It highlights the efforts of theater artists seeking to address the current social climate through their craft.
The Portuguese troupe Hotel Europa will debut 'Climate Emergency', a production that blends refined video art, choreography, and personal narratives.
British non-binary performer Zov Velez will present a solo performance 'Much Better Now!'—a powerful mix of personal storytelling, choreography, and immersive light and sound design. Velez, both the author and protagonist, uses a looper, sound, light effects, and projection to craft environments that delicately convey the experiences of a gender-neutral artist raised in the working-class of East London.
SpideLight Ensemble, a UK based theatre company are debuting their latest performance 'The Old Places' an autobiographical blend of stories looking at the nostalgia of their memories and the reflections of loss.
The stage presentation of 'Radio Dvaka' emerges from theater workshops led by the STODOLIO association with children from Dvakačovice, Eastern Bohemia. In a fictional radio broadcast format, the children reveal the hidden history and fate of their village and its inhabitants.
A workshop on the Viewpoints Technique in Documentary Theater will be open to both professional stage artists and the general public.
The Skaters, a project developed in collaboration with the Archa Center for Documentary Theater and Center Plechárna na Černý Most, explores how skateboard tricks can offer a unique perspective on the world. Young skaters will learn theater techniques to help articulate their dreams.
Each performance will be followed by a discussion between the audience and the creators.
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Climate Emergency
Hotel Europa
17th - 18th November, Ponec Theatre, Prague.
This new production of the Hotel Europa puts the life stories of climate activists on stage, seeking to learn about their personal histories, the beginnings of their struggles, their motivations, how this ‘urgency’ has changed their lives, how they live, what they do, what they want, what they dream of.Climate Emergency is the order of the day, with scientists attributing several natural disasters around the world to climate change. Various activists are demanding urgent changes in our relationship with the planet, while governments insist on not putting in place measures that could reverse this situation.
Created by - André Amálio and Tereza Havlíčková
Dramaturgy - André Amálio
Movement - Tereza Havlíčková
Interpretation and Co-Creation - Andreia Galvão, João Oliveira,
Matilde Graça, Yolanda Santos
Music - Vicente Silvestre
Support for Musical Creation - Edison Otero
Set Design and Costume Design - Ana Paula Rocha
Technical Direction and Light Design - Joaquím Madaíl
Much Better Now!
Zov Velez
26th November, Ponec Theatre, Prague.
In this solo production, performer Zov Velez invites audiences to witness a personal journey of strength in the face of conformity. While operating all technical elements from the stage, Zov creates a fusion of storytelling, voice, sound, projection and dance in their poetic retelling of personal experience.
Zov Velez is a non-binary working class artist, whose work centres Sofia Veléz is a UK based creative whose work focuses on 'radical existence' and fictioning experiences of social inequity using layered performance styles and unconventional movement, offering choppy non-narratives that reflect experiences of the out-casted, including gender nonconformity, queer and class-based struggles.
Performed in English with Czech subtitles.
Credits
Writer - Zov Velez
Dramaturgy - Jana Svobodová
Multimedia Advisor – Martin Krupa
Light Design - Pavel Kotlik and Zov Velez
Translation and Subtitles - Ondřej Hrab and Helena Koutna
The Old Places
SpiderLight Ensemble
10th December, Ponec Theatre, Prague.
A collection of stories about places that existed somewhere in the timeline of our own lives. Fragments of our history, bathed in nostalgia. Scrambling to piece together our connection to these places, lost to memory.
The SpiderLight Ensemble is a theatre company based in Bristol, UK. Their ethos is based around collaboration, and they explore storytelling in an authentic, autobiographical way. Themes of identity and queerness are often present in their work; they enjoy being physically expressive, abstract and experimental. Their devising practice is rooted in a sense of play, with great importance placed upon judgement-free exploration.
Created, written and performed by:
Poppy Franklin Ward
Rae Stewardson
Ellis Dorian Freeman
Photo Credit:
Alasdair Jordan
WORKSHOPS
Viewpoints Technique in Documentary Theatre
Workshop
Archa Centre - Jana Svobodova & Zov Velez
27th November, 10am- 4pm
Ponec Theatre Rehearsal Space, Prague.
The workshop will present the Viewpoints method in relation to an authentic text. Workshop participants will master the technique of obtaining an authentic text and its scenic application in the form of spatial improvisation.
The workshop is intended for everyone who is interested in creating documentary theater.
Radio Dvaka
Stage Presentation
Archa Centrum + Stodolio
6th December, Ponec Theatre
Presentation of the first stage of the preparation of Jana Svobodová's new production, which is being created in the village of Dvakačovice. In the chronicle of the village, 40 years of the time when the communists ruled the country are missing. During the autumn theater workshops, the director involved local children in exploring the memory of a place she herself remembers well as a child.
Skaters
Workshop
Archa Centre + Plechárna Skejťáci / Skateboarders
8th December, Ponec Theatre
A tailor-made workshop for a group of skaters who meet in the community center Plechárna. In cooperation with the artists of the Archy-Centre of Documentary Theatre, young skaters from Plechárny will discover the magic of theater technology.