Sorry it's been so long since my last post, I have been doing a little glob trotting and my internet quality was poor at best, preventing any blogging. That said I am back now so lets get on with the exploits!
I had been anticipating this trip for wile simply because I had signed up for the trip through Dalhousie University. The class it's self is a course on Baroque Culture but the main selling point is that it is held in the beautiful Cesky Krumlov, a small town in the Czech Republic. Cesky Krumlov features rock climbing, horse back riding, fishing, rafting and an old town that is globally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old town of Cesky Krumlov is the towns main attraction, with tourists flocking from far and wide to enjoy the towns wonderful architecture and beautiful Sgraffito, oh Did I mention the Castle? Cesky Krumlov is home to the Second largest castle in the Czech Republic (second only to the castle complex in Prague), and in reality, that is my reason for being there. The castle of Cesky Krumlov features one on two Baroque theatres still in existence today. Our class was held in the castle offering a unique opportunity to witness first hand, whats left of Baroque culture.
The Baroque Theatre in Cesky Krumlov:
The tour of the theatre, it was really interesting to see how people lived but for me, the most interesting part was the behind the scenes look at the Baroque Theatre. This was a privilege afforded to us by being on the course. The opportunity to see the historically accurate machinery that is still used in the few productions that are still performed in that theatre. We saw a lot of machinery, too much for a single blog post, but I would be more then happy to tell anyone in detail and in person. The two systems I liked the most were the Chariot and Pole system, and the floor lighting. Both are things I hope to work into shows some day, in some form or another.
Part of the stage machinery that drives the Chariot and Pole system:
A diagram and description of the Chariot and Pole system:
Peter Perina describing how the floor lighting system raises and lowers to dim as needed:
The Five Pedal Rose Festival was pretty standard stuff, nerdy people dressed up in historical garb swings sticks at each other. The coolest part was the dressing up bit but even that got old, mostly because the costume was particularly well made. However meat and beer were plentiful as well as jousting events and human sized chess, so it wasn't that bad.
Among the events and shenanigans of Cesky Krumlov I was also able to take in a producton of the Marriage of Figaro in Prague, a production of Faust in Vienna's Bergtheatre, Not to mention the two Baroque period Operas I saw in the Cesky Krumlov's Baroque theatre. The Marriage of Figaro was well performed, but the design wasn't well thought through, and was not only distracting, but even impaired the performance of the actors. The Baroque Operas were an interesting contrast because technically spectacular (even with the period technology) however the story lines where incredibly hard to follow (probably because it was in Czech with no subtitles). The production of Faust was stunning, well performed, and very visually stimulating. I feel the Bergtheatre was able to get away with a lot because they don't have the same safety restrictions we do in North America. These safety restriction do protect a lot of people, but are often exaggerated, and really limit what we can do as technicians and designers.
That said i am going to end this post for today (I still have another blog to launch today). I hope you all enjoyed this post and feel free to ask me any questions you may have.
Cheers
Cody
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