Vladimír Soukenka

Description

This monograph by stage designer and architect Vladimír Soukenka traces his theatre work from his early drama productions in the 1980s at the Workers’ Theatre in Gottwaldov (now the Zlín Municipal Theatre) to the present day. Important precursors of his work were his engagement in Laterna magica, where he was invited by his teacher from the Academy of Arts and Crafts, Prof. Josef Svoboda, in 1983, and his work as a television architect. Both of these experiences were used in his stage designs for opera and ballet productions realized mainly in Ústí nad Labem, Pilsen and Brno. All his work is filled with an interest in the kinetics of the scene and an effort to apply theatrical application of “cinematic” approximation – focusing the viewer’s attention on the detail of the scene. All of this is fully manifested in his best productions, the operas The Magic Flute (1990), The Queen of Spades (1995) and especially in his underrated innovative set design for Janáček’s Kátá Kabanová (2008).