THE 2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL | JUNE 21-30, 2021
2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL: EMBRACING THE INEXPLICABLE
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival returned to in-person format at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City. The festival’s fourth edition offered to audiences a program of two full plays and three stage readings originating from Central Europe, the US, and South Africa. An online panel discussion provided a much-needed space for experts in performing arts to address the pressing matters of the industry’s future, and an award-winning documentary centered on the world of artistic dissent during late Communism in Czechoslovakia.
The festival introduced two works by young, aspiring playwrights, winners of the 2020 Best Mini-Drama Student Contest. Additionally, three special events extended the live arts experiences to the entire community, with a marionette production for children, a folk music concert, and a preview of a kinetic and audiovisual installation.
Entitled “Embracing the Inexplicable,” the 2021 edition was truly special, conceived as an occasion for our international community of artists and audiences to reconvene in order to heal collectively and embrace the uncertainties amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were thrilled that the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival was back in person, after almost two years. We couldn’t wait to present live theater again. With health measures in place to ensure safety for everyone, we wanted the festival to bring community back, as collaborators of a kind, to share new experiences in the true sense of Vaclav Havel’s theater—as ‘a space for authentic human existence.’ ”
The program invited participants to reimagine the ordinary while collectively witnessing rich Central European performance traditions such as theater craft and music. Using marionettes, the Czech & Slovak Tales with Strings took the youngest on a journey through classic fables, while the Eletfa played a folk concert to honor the Hungarian heritage of Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood.
Concurrently, the festival encouraged spectators to reconsider the current reality. Vaclav Havel’s iconic one-act play Audience returned to the stage this time in a marionette performance by the award-winning Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre. Lux Phantasmatis, a mesmerizing installation by Pavel Zustiak and Keith Skretch of the Palissimo Company, embodied a presence within absence, matter within a void. Exposing a void stood at the core of Megan Furniss’s The Tent, whereby members of a South African community became polarized when their tolerance is tested.
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s iconic play The Madman and the Nun allegorized a hopeless, unpredictable, and almost comically cruel world. Could one maintain some sense of dignity and sanity in a universe full of uncertainties? The Art of Dissent, a documentary featuring artists working to create a civic society in Communist Czechoslovakia, offered clues for navigating the inexplicable.
>> About Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival
Organizers
The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF)
Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA)
CO-producers
Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre
GOH Productions
Czech Center New York
Polish Cultural Institute New York
One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater
Palissimo Company
Arts and Theatre Institute, Prague
Consulate General of Slovakia in New York
MAIN SUPPORTERS
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
New York City Council Member Ben Kallos
SUPPORTERS
Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York
Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka – Member of the KBC Group
PACE.V4 – Performing Arts Central Europe, Visegrad Countries Focus
International Visegrad Fund
FESTIVAL TEAM
Pavla Niklova | Executive Director
Katerina Kyselica | Marketing & Communications
Bonnie Sue Stein | Production Manager
Marek Soltis | Technical Manager & Sound
Liljano Barjaktari | Lighting
Jiri Mirovsky | Technician
KADS New York, Katerina Kyselica | Festival Visual Identity
Madeline Windland | Photography
Katarina Mirovsky | Accounting
Moss Johnston, Shannon Rodriguez | Front of House
VENUE
Bohemian National Hall, New York City
2021 PROGRAM
AUDIENCE (CZECH REPUBLIC) | PLAY
Playwright: Vaclav Havel. Director: Vit Horejs. Performed by: Vit Horejs, Theresa Linnihan.
THE MADMAN AND THE NUN (POLAND) | PLAY
Playwright: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. Direction and choreography: Daniel Irizarry. Cast: Nicole Betancourt, Ishani Das, Michael Leonard, Axh Marie, Folami Williams, Daniel Irizarry.
THE ART OF DISSENT (Czech Republic) | film
Directed by: James Dean Le Sueur. Music: Tom Larson.
PERSONAL SPEAKER, CONNECTION/LESS (US) | STAGE READINGS
Playwrights: Abigail Henkin, Cole Kordus. Director: Celia Krefter. Cast: Marie-Josee Bourelly, Surya Buddharaju, Emefa Dzodzomenyo, Geo Kester, Joel Meyers.
ELETFA (HUNGARY) | CONCERT
Musicians: Raul Rothblatt, Gyorgy "Gyuri" Kaaan, Bence Kalan, Miklos Kertesz. Dancer: Andrea Kalan.
THE TENT (SOUTH AFRICA) | STAGE READING
Playwright: Megan Furniss. Director: Zane Gillion. Stage directions: Namisa Mdlalose. Cast: Hamilton Clancy, Timothy Covington, Zane Gillion, Pierre Louise le Grange, Megan Metrikin, James Scruggs, Caren Skibell.
SCREENING THEATER | PANEL DISCUSSION
Panelists: Joana Nuckowska, Vijay Mathew, Martin Zavadil, Gert Naessens. Moderated by: Becka McFadden.
Photographs by: Katerina Kyselica, Madeline Windland
