ARTS - Politics & Theatre with Nancy Bishop

ARTS - Politics & Theatre with Nancy Bishop

Guest: Nancy Bishop, CSA and Emmy-Nominated Casting Director. And also a Theatre Director.

Theatre has always been an important part of Czech culture and national identity, often being used in subversive ways to undermine those who would dominate them. Nancy Bishop takes us all the way back to 1620 up though Havel and the Velvet Revolution, when Czech theatre has its ultimate triumph: a playwright becomes president!

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SECTIONS

02:12 - A Personal Connection and a Petition

04:11 - White Mountain and the Suppression of the Czech Language

06:53 - Czech Makes Inroads in the 18th Century, Count Nostitz and the Estates Theatre

09:26 - Czech and Irish Parallels, the 19th Century and the early Czech-Language Theatre

12:25 - The National Theatre - More Than a Building, Working Under the Radar, The Nazis Press German (Again)

14:25 - The Communists, the Counter-Charter and Theatre as Samizdat

16:47 - Theatre Under the Communists, and Havel's Take on Absurdism

23:46 - After the Prague Spring and Normalization

25:00 - The Velvet Revolution and Theatres as Places of Political Action 

 

Slip of the Tongue: František Palacký did not, in fact, attend the grand opening of the National Theatre in 1881, as he had died in 1876. But he was involved with it until his death. 

 

• Music by Fanette Ronjat  

 

Make sure to check out Nancy's website, workshops, books and more:

• Nancy Bishop Casting

Other places mention in this episode:

• Strawdog Theatre
• Francis Parker School

For events in Prague, go to the Facebook page The Prague Haps 

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Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt

• DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence for Podcasts Series-Corporate Communications and on numerous top 10 podcast lists. 
• CONSPIRACY CLEARINGHOUSE - A rather skeptical look at conspiracies and mysteries. Each episode will examine conspiracy theories, most of which are not true, a few of which might be a little bit true and even a couple that turned out, in fact, to be true. This is the podcast that dares to look behind the curtain that’s behind the curtain.