Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1996 - 21

two women
and Their Contribution to Contemporary Czech Scenography

Zborilova' Alice in \Fonderland.

by

_

Jarka M Burian
0

iven the relatively small size and population of
its homeland, Czech and Slovak theatre has made a
disproportionately large contribution to twentieth
century western theatre. And no theatrical component
has been more consistently prominent in the Czech
and Slovak theatre than scenography. The work of
Vlastislav Hofman, Bedrich Feuerstein, Antonin Heythurn,
FrantiSek Troster, Ladislav Vychodil, and Josef Svoboda has
won wide acclaim. The work of others (some still practising)
has not gone unnoticed, even abroad: FrantiSek Zelenka,
FrantiSek luzika, Vladimir l\yvlt, Jan Dusek, Jaroslav Malina,
Miroslav 1elena, Jozef Ciller Ivo ZIdek, Jan Vancura. (The list
is not exhaustive.)
But in tllis rich tradition of scenography, where wereand where are-the women?
In other western theatres knO\\~l to us, the role of women
(rom the late seventeenth until the twentieth century was that
of seamstresses, actresses, playwrights, and-rarely-theatre
managers. It was no different in Czech and Slovak theatre, and
it took Czech and Slovak women somewhat longer than their
western counterparts in this centll1y to extend their theatre
work to costume design and, eventually, stage direction. Scenography in the sense of slage design was among the very last
professional theatre activities to be entered by Czech and Slovak women.

Two women scenographers have drawn most attention in
recent Czech theatre: Marta Roszkopfova 0947-) and Jana
Zbohlova 0953-). Products of different schooling in different parts of the country, sharing certain stylistic characteristics
but essentially distinct in their total stage imagery and resultant effects, they are now in mid career and have made their
mark in a field stiU dominated by men. 1
Some indication and illustration of their work was made
available to TD&T readers in Delbert nruh's provocative series of articles, "Postmodern Issues in Action Design," in the
early 1990s. 1 A fuUer consideration of their backgrounds,
range of work, and scenograpllic orientation will help clarify
the special qualities of their contribution to contemporary
Czech theatre, as weU as their distinctive feanlres vis-a-vis each
other..!
Costume design was the primary activity for each in the
early part of her career, and the high quality of each one's
work was rewarded by the gold medal in cosnUlle design each
won at the Novy Sad (Yugoslavia) Triennale; Jana Zboi'ilova in
1981, Marta Roszkopfova in 1984. Nevertheless, each has prefen'ed to do scenelY and costumes together as one unified design project, which is what now happens most of the time;
occasionally one or the other may stiU do only costumes, but
hardly ever only scenery. Stage lighting is also their province.
In most Czech productions it is still tacitly understood that
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