The Ministry of Culture Award for achievements in theatre has been given to Zoja Mikotová for the development of distinctive poetics of poetic theatre full of motion, wit, and muses, and the artistic and pedagogical effort to bring together the world of the deaf and the hearing. The award has been on since 2003 to acknowledge the outstanding artistic, creative, and performing acts or the long-term artistic merits in theatre.

The Minister of Culture Martin Baxa presented the Czech State Award for Literature and Translation and the Ministry of Culture Awards in other disciplines at the National Theatre on 23 October 2022. The awards are presented on the occasion of the state holiday on 28 October (the anniversary of the declaration of independent Czechoslovakia). This year’s jury appointed by the Minister of Culture awarded eight outstanding figures of Czech culture.

Zoja Mikotová was born in Brno in 1951. She graduated in directing and pantomime methodology from the JAMU Theatre Faculty in Brno (1975–1980). She worked as a director and choreographer at the Radost Puppet Theatre (from 1980). Since 1990 she has been a director and choreographer in Czech and international theatres, in Hungary, Poland, Germany, Austria, and France. In 1992 she completed a fellowship at Gallaudet University in Washington, the only university for the deaf in the world, and she also founded the Drama Education Studio for the Deaf at JAMU. She was appointed Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor in dramatic arts in 2000. Her shows are characterized by unmistakable poetics and the effort to bring together the world of children and adults. She is a trailblazer in the artistic merger of the world of the deaf and the hearing. Zoja Mikotová’s work has shaped the aesthetic and value perception of children and teenagers.

Photo: Zoja Mikotová, photo: Theater of Moravian Slovakia