The release of a unique publication – Painted Curtains of the Theatres in the Czech Lands

From Aš to Žamberk, from Mikoláš Aleš to František Ženíšek, from the smallest company performing on a fold-out stage in a remote village to the National Theatre in Prague – Painted Curtains of the Theatres in the Czech Lands is a narrative, illustrated publication currently being released and presents a complex overview of a unique area of the rich cultural heritage of Czech theatre. Across more than 400 pages the authors present annotated reproductions and illustrations of several hundred curtains from various periods and places in the Czech Republic, structured according to key motifs – for instance, there are chapters on Muses, Myths in Czech history, or Images of Home – or according to function – curtains for puppet theatres, iron curtains, and curtains with scenographic functions.

‘The documentation began to put together in the late 1990s in connection with the project “The History of Amateur Theatre in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia”, and the entire process crystallised in the creation of an electronic, encyclopaedic Database of Czech Amateur Theatre. This publication provides the public with a unique opportunity to get an overview of hitherto scattered riches that have not yet even been taken in as a whole by art historians or theatre critics’, explained theatre historian Jiří Valenta, editor of the publication and one of the founders of the Database of Czech Amateur Theatre.

This comprehensive book has a graphic design by Martin Taller and is published by the National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS) as an accompaniment to the Database of Czech Amateur Theatre (www.amaterskedivadlo.cz). The book was published with the support of a grant from the EEA Financial Mechanism / Norway as part of the project ‘Maintaining and Presenting the Cultural Heritage of Czech and World Theatre’. Painted Curtains of Theatres in the Czech Lands will cost 500 CzK and will be sold by the Arts and Theatre Institute and by NIPOS or on-line at www.nipos-mk.cz, where it can be obtained with a 15% discount.