Jiří Srnec
(*1931) Czech Republic
Creative activities
is a legendary Czech theatre producer, stage designer, director, artist, composer and the inventor of “black theatre”, in which a staged production is created from actors dressed in black who move against a black backdrop, thus rendering them “invisible” to the audience. This simple production principle has successfully represented Czech theatre culture throughout the world for the past fifty years. Its very first performance at the Edinburgh film festival in 1962 was greeted with enthusiastic ovations in the sold-out festival arena. Over the past decades the theatre has gone on 300 international tours and its performances have been seen by five million theatregoers in 68 countries around the world. The company’s most popular productions are Striped Dream, Legends of Magical Prague, Alice
in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Labyrinth, The Week of Dreams and White Pierrot in Black. In 2011 he received the Medal of Merit from Czech President Václav Klaus for his work and representation of Czech arts on the world stage.
