Simona Rybáková succeeded at the World Stage Design 2022 exhibition in Calgary, Canada

Costume designer Simona Rybáková was a great success at the World Stage Design 2022 in Calgary (6-16 August 2022). She won the tied first place for the costume design for Bon Appétit! Staged by Laterna Magika, one of the companies of the National Theatre Prague. She shared her prize with Fruzsina Nagy, who is based in Hungary. The prizes also went to Karolína Gavroňová and Nina Olekšáková from Slovakia, who study architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, VUT in Brno. They won the third place with their project Parasite Theatre in the Theatre Architecture Competition category.

Bon Appétit!
The Bon Appétit! Production was staged by choreographer Jan Kodet in association with SKUTR directors – Martin Kukučka and Lukáš Trpišovský. They employed their enchantment with food for this project and presented dance theatre, in which they revealed the topic at various levels with humor and exaggeration. The members of Laterna Magika and Czech National Ballet made Jakub Kopecký’s austere and cold stage design dance, along with Simona Rybáková’s award-winning costumes. The important part of the production was Ivan Acher’s contemporary music.

Parasite Theatre
The project by Karolína Gavroňová and Nina Olekšáková was originally part of the school thesis. Its concept is based on the grid derived from the existing buildings around the site, complementing the structure of the surrounding masses. The regularity of the grid composed of equilateral triangles provides the design with simplicity and modularity, presenting options such as using the elevated floors for additional seating or even serving as an extended performance area. The Parasite Theatre is a changing adaptable organism, coexisting in symbiosis with art and the environment.

Serghei Gherciu, performance “Bon Appétit!” presented at Laterna Magika in Prague

Links OUT
PerformCzech supported the trip of theatre professionals from the Czech Republic as part of the Links OUT program. The participants of the trip to Canada were dancer Natálie Podešvová, light designer and producer Jan K. Rolník, and Jan Štěpánek, the head of the Department of Scenography at DAMU. The latter seized the opportunity to negotiate the partnership between DAMU and international universities. The upcoming two semesters will see the cooperation between the students at the Department of Scenography at DAMU and students at partner universities in Great Britain and Taiwan with the opportunity to present their joint project at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in 2023.

World Stage Design
World Stage Design 2022 is an exhibition, which is open to all scenography professionals. The professional meeting is held every four years. The fifth edition was organized by the University of Calgary in association with the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians. The exhibition welcomed hundreds of professionals and students, who had the opportunity to see many exhibitions, shows and discussions. Unlike the Prague Quadrennial, World Stage Design presents individual designers, not national exhibitions.

Serghei Gherciu, performance “Bon Appétit!” presented at Laterna Magika in Prague