PSC400 | Celebrating 400 Years of Shakespeare

THANK YOU! We are the first theatre company in the WORLD to share the newly accepted Shakespeare canon in one year – 41 plays, 154 Sonnets & Poetical works – through a wide variety of artistic forms including Theatre, Puppets, Dance, Film, Photography, Music, Visual Arts and other Special Events & Creations. We DID IT because our artists and audiences gave their blood, sweat, tears and support to this massive undertaking. This is what we all accomplished together:

We entertained and enlightened over 30,000 people in Prague and around the world who experienced our PSC400 Season through 161 Total Performances of 32 Theatrical Productions and 24 Special Events & Creations including Public Lectures at the US Embassy’s American Center, our month long Summer Shakespeare Intensive and Stewart Kenneth Moore’s Graphic Novel based on our production of Macbeth now sold on Amazon among numerous other offerings.

We made HERSTORY by creating original PSC content from 31 different directors and of those 31 Directors – 20 were women and only 11 men! We are enormously proud that this year we crushed the “normal” ratio of female-to-male directors and could be such strong advocates for women working in the arts.

We presented productions in association with the National Theatre of the Czech Republic, the Summer Shakespeare Festival at Prague Castle, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company among others as well as 7 Partner productions with outstanding organizations such as Divadlo Bez Zabradli, Divadlo Na Zabradli, Svandovo Divadlo, Vinohrady Divadlo, Prague Fringe Festival 2016, Australian Shakespeare Company’s Youth Ensemble Bravehearts and Prague Youth Theatre.

We were honored to share the very best of PSC through 7 International Touring Productions with audiences in the United States — working with our friends at Main Street Theater Company and Orlando Shakespeare Theater in partnership with UCF as well as internationally with audiences through our colleagues at the Doha Film Institute at the Katara Cultural Village – Qatar, the Valle Christi International Festival – Rapallo, Italy and the legendary Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

We reinforced that Shakespeare is a writer that belongs to the world by sharing the work of over 150 artists from 14 different countries who performed Shakespeare on a variety of world stages such as The Estates Theater, Prague Castle, Divadlo Kolowrat, the Great Hall of the Library of Alexandria, the Walt Disney Theatre in Orlando Florida, the Katara Opera House Doha, Main Street Theater Company, Rapallo City Center and the Swan Divadelni Klub.

Supported by the Avast Foundation, we created ShakeMeUp – the world’s first and only online international student Shakespeare film festival. With over 30 schools committed to participate, representing almost 2,000 students, 100 teachers, 18 countries from 5 continents, including Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Rwanda, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States of America we are providing teachers around the world a unique capstone to their curriculums which will help them perk and sustain their students’ interest in the Bard’s timeless works.

We continued to build the next generation of theatre artists as we fired the imaginations, enriched and educated of over 3,000 primary and secondary students through our English language Shakespeare workshops and Educational tours of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in the Czech Republic.

We also produced some non-PSC400 events – 34 performances of 8 non-PSC400 Productions including The Order of the Blue Chrysanthemum, Santaland Diaries, Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker and Venus in Fur (performed in Czech and English and on tour with Main Street Theater Company), among others.

None of this would have been possible without the support of our audiences and Major Sponsors & Partners including: Kolowrat-Krakowsky family, the City of Prague, International School Prague, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic Jan Thompson OBE and the British Embassy Prague, the Avast Foundation, the US Embassy Prague, the Transit Authority, Seen Media, playshakespeare.com, Shakespeare Theater Association and Barrandov Studio a.s.

Thank you!!! Keep reading below to discover more about our HERSTORIC PSC400 Season!

*************

For over four hundred years William Shakespeare has captivated audiences and fired imaginations around the world. In celebration of the 400^th anniversary of his death in 2016, Prague Shakespeare Company embarked upon the PSC400 – a year-long artistic celebration of Shakespeare’s work. During the course of 2016, PSC presented the entire canon – all 41 plays (including the newly accepted Shakespeare plays Sir Thomas More, Edward III and Cardenio or The Double Falsehood) and all of his 162 poetical works (including all the sonnets and other poems) – in a wide variety of public performances including theatre, dance, puppet, mime, music and visual art presentations.

PSC400 public events included performances, exhibits, lectures, educational workshops and initiatives as well as special presentations from PSC affiliated artists and organizations such as Lisa Wolpe’s Shakespeare and Alchemy of Gender; Gregory Gudgeon’s multi-media exploration of Richard II; Jay DeYonker’s Dance and Movement exploration of Julius Caesar; How to Kill Hamlet, a movement piece inspired by William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, created by Andrea Miltnerová and Jan Komárek; Bear Theatre Company’s dramatherapy workshop inspired by Timon of Athens; Prague Youth Theatre’s The Taming of the Shrew; an original dance work choreographed by Chloe Roberts and Tucker Knox of All is True (Henry VIII); Elizabeth Rose Russell’s experimental film of Hamlet; an exhibit of Stewart Moore’s paintings and drawings of PSC’s Macbeth and a summer “Shakespeare food festival” celebrating famous Shakespearean dining scenes among many exciting others.

Highlights: English-language theatre productions from PSC of Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Edward III, The Merchant of Venice and a special “Wars of the Roses” adaptation of Henry VI, parts 1-3 & Richard III as well readings of all of Shakespeare’s poetical works including world-renowned translator Martin Hilský’s and celebrated composer Daniel Dobiáš’ evening of music and sonnets Fools For Love, his controversial will and other historical documents.

Prague Shakespeare Company Artistic Director, Guy Roberts stated, “As the most comprehensive celebration of Shakespeare’s work in continental Europe during 2016, PSC400 will transform Prague into a unique center for cultural exchange, discussion and exploration – bringing together artists from diverse traditions and audiences from all walks of life. 2016 will be the Year of Shakespeare in Prague, celebrating the profound influence Shakespeare’s works continue to have 400 years after his death and after a year of exposure to the entire of canon of Shakespeare, the benefits for everyone in Prague who experiences PSC400 – artists, students, local and tourist audiences as well as our patrons and sponsors will reverberate for years to come.”

PSC400 was presented under the auspices of Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jan Thompson OBE and was supported by the Kolowrat-Krakowsti family, the City of Prague and the International School of Prague.