Featured image: Zuzana Kronerova, Hot Summer '68, GUnaGU Theatre, photograph by Ctibor Bachraty
The 2021 [Virtual] Spring Weekend festival offers live online readings of contemporary plays penned by award-winning European playwrights from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Seasoned New York City–based actors and directors will perform the readings. The festival will include works by young aspiring playwrights for the first time by featuring the winning plays from the Best Mini-Drama Student Contest organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation.
The 2021 Spring Weekend: Concerning Human Identity presents works by six playwrights who continue Vaclav Havel’s tradition of critical reflection by considering the notions of ethical ambiguity that pervade modern life, regardless of political circumstances. The second virtual edition delves deeper into matters of personal identity that concerned Havel, such as self-understanding and human responsibility.
Theater audiences are invited to follow stories of personal quests for better lives and ponder the topics of immigration, identity, and the American Dream. Several plays employ absurdist humor as they explore issues related to Eastern European transitions to democracy, for example, humankind’s dissolution with reality (Money, The Third Age) or the complexities that impact immigrant identities (Hot Summer of ’68, Change). The festival program also addresses generational passages of trauma (Ghetto Love) and questions the reality of the American Dream (Detroit. The History of a Hand, People’s Toast).
The 2021 Spring Weekend takes places online on Zoom. Each event is followed by Q&A. All Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival Spring Weekend productions are free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required to obtain the link and password for viewing. Donations received from viewers will benefit the Best Mini-Drama Student Contest, a Vaclav Havel Library Foundation program that supports aspiring playwrights from the US and Czech Republic.
More information: www.rehearsalfortruth.org
Registration: www.rehearsalfortruth.eventbrite.com
PROGRAM
Friday, April 16, 3:00 p.m.
Change (Czech Republic), People’s Toast (United States) | online live readings
Playwrights: Tomas Louzny (Change), Ellis Stump (People’s Toast). Director: Ellis Stump.
Saturday, April 17, 3:00 p.m.
Money, The Third Age, Portal (Czech Republic) | excerpts, online live readings
Playwright: Dodo Gombar. Director: Edward Einhorn.
Sunday, April 18, 3:00 p.m.
Hot Summer of '68 (How We Ran) (Slovakia) | online live reading
Playwright: Viliam Klimacik. Director: Christina Franklin.
Saturday, April 24, 3:00 p.m.
Ghetto Love (Hungary) | live online reading
Playwright: Tamas Reczei. Director: Lisa Arrindell.
Sunday, April 25, 3:00 p.m.
Detroit. The History of a Hand (Poland) | live online reading
Playwright: Jolanta Janiczak. Director: Vernice Miller.
ABOUT THE 2021 SPRING WEEKEND: CONCERNING HUMAN IDENTITY
The 2021 Spring Weekend: Concerning Human Identity is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA) in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Consulate General of Slovakia in New York. Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by New York City–based actors and directors.
The 2021 program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair of the Slovak Center – International Association of Theatre Critics; Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York; and Martina Peckova-Cerna, Head of International Cooperation Department, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos. Promotion partners include the Czech Center New York, GOH Productions/Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, and PACE.V4 (Performing Arts Central Europe).