My Country - DEKKADANCERS

The first ever theatrical, dance and puppet rendition of a Czech national treasure.

Bedřich Smetana & col. (Forman, Ivanović, Jirků, Pechar, Sodomková)

Bedřich Smetana’s My Country is a magical piece of music. Many of us are filled with a touching, melting beauty and perhaps even national pride when we listen to the first notes. Don’t you recognise the Vltava? For a native of this country, that is impossible.

You may remember the first time you heard this musical gem. At school? On the radio? In the car? At a concert? Probably not in a theater. Because in the theatre, as we found out, no one has ever done this entire work.

The creative team of the musical-theatre-dance performance The Jungle Book teamed up with other artists to stage that beautiful “first time”. The first encounter with My Country, this masterpiece of Czech classical music, will take place in the tent of Azyl78, in a setting rather romantic than concert-like.

Several artists will be working together on My Country. Where will their paths lead? What do they have in common and what moment will each of them have in their journey through this magnificent musical story?

Marko Ivanović, with his extraordinary talent, will transfer the musically colourful richness of the symphony orchestra from the concert halls to the roof of the circus tent.

Matěj Forman and a team of close collaborators will create the scenery and the overall visual world. He will direct some of the poems and meet the other co-creators on the way to telling the story.

Štěpán Pechar is the main choreographer of the whole project and will try to express some of the captured feelings of a wanderer passing through the Czech landscape in movement poems without words.

Janek Jirků will invite the spectators to walk through the selected poems in an attempt to find new puppet and artistic ways where “only” music has been enough for storytelling so far.

My kluci, co spolu chodíme, the popular improv group from Jatka78, along with other dancers, actors, puppeteers and true theatrical “patriots” will accompany My Country with their talent and raw will to collaborate.

The performance is intended for audiences of all ages – for lovers of music, dance, improvisation, puppets, art and narrative theatre scenes.

Music by

Bedřich Smetana

Musical arrangement, rehearsal direction

Marko Ivanović

Script, set design, direction

Matěj Forman

Concept, script, direction

Janek Jirků

Choreography, direction

Štěpán Pechar

Costumes and masks

Andrea Sodomková

Producer

Štěpán Kubišta

Cast

Lukas Blaha Bliss, Patrik Čermák, Florian Garcia, Josef Bobeš Havelka, Albert Kaše, Andrej Lyga, Natalia Metodijeva, Šimon Pliska, Eva Stará, Dora Sulženko Hoštová, Nela Štarková, Adriana Štefaňáková, Ondřej Vinklát, Andrea Vykysalá, Václav Wortner

Flute

Michaela Blažková, Eliška Bošková, Kateřina Jansová

Oboe

Vladislav Borovka, Jana Brožková, Jiří Zelba

Clarinet

Jan Brabec, Jan Mach, Marek Pavíček, Petr Sinkule

Basson

Tomáš Františ, Martina Homolková, Jaroslav Kubita

French horn

Kateřina Javůrková, Mikuláš Koska, Hana Sapáková, Jan Vobořil

Trumpet

Walter Hofbauer, Stanislav Masaryk, Marek Vajo

Trombone

Lukáš Besuch, Robert Kozánek, Lukáš Moťka, Bohumil Tůma

Tuba

Jakub Chmelař, Jakub Maňák, Václav Steklý

Timpani, percussion

Miroslav Kejmar, Pavel Polívka

Piano

Andrea Mottlová, Karolina Pancernaite

Accordion / banjo / ocarina

Tomáš Görtler, Zdeněk Zelba

1st violin

Marie Dvorská, Viktor Mazáček, Helena Skopová

2nd violine

Milena Kolářová, Filip Kubita, Vítězslav Ochman, Markéta Vokáčová

Viola

Pavel Ciprys, Jiří Poslední, Jan Šimon

Cello

Jan Holeňa, Jan Keller, Marek Novák

Double bass

Tomáš Karpíšek, Roman Koudelka

Sound design

Jan Středa, Juraj Mišejka

Light design

Jan Dörner, Lukáš Brinda

Head of production

Tereza Baschová

Technical production

Jiří Cmunt

Czech Philharmonic production

Adéla Bartáková, Bára Linková

Head of set design construction

Vojtěch Kočí

Head of technical crew and rigging

Romana Stachovičová

Stage manager, rigging assistant

Petr Pasler

Puppet creation, production and technology

Petr Pasler, Tereza Komárková, Josef Sodomka, Jitka Barnetová, Renata a Martin Lhotákovi

Painting

Barbora Zichová, Veronika Doutlíková, Matěj Forman

Artistic and craft collaboration

Jana Lábrová, Čahoun Míra Vosecký, Šárka Sedláková, Marek Rejent, Romana Slavíčková, Marie Juklíková, Antonie Hlavicová, Krištof Pochman, Daniela Paseková, Ema Sodomková