Milan Sládek

Milan Sladek in 1977 in the Federal Chancellery in Bonn

Milan Sládek (born February 23, 1938 in Streženice , Okres Púchov , Czechoslovakia , now Slovakia ) is an internationally renowned pantomime , director and author . The artist, who lives in Cologne, became famous for the art figure he embodied, Kefka . In his mime art he seeks the confrontation with other means of expression in the performing and visual arts in order to arrive at an individual form of classical pantomime inspired by the Commedia dell'arte .

biography

Sládek grew up in Bratislava , where he graduated from the art school in 1957, specializing in wood carving. Even at this time, when the foundations for his later interest in various forms of puppet theater were being laid, he presented his first self-taught solo pantomimes at the student theater of the Comenius University in Bratislava . In the following years Sládek studied acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and became a student of the avant-garde Prague theater maker Emil František Burian , at whose theater D 34 Jerzy Grotowski, among others, presented his first works under Burian’s direction.

In 1959 Sládek was given a permanent job at Theater D 34 , where he soon afterwards founded the first mime ensemble in Czechoslovakia together with the local solo dancer and chief choreographer Eduard Zlabek . On March 11, 1960 Sládek's fictional character Kefka appeared before the Prague audience for the first time . After the ensemble moved to Bratislava in 1961 and played at the Slovak National Theater there, international attention also grew to the innovative pantomime performance of Sládek's ensemble, which thanks to its experimental performance and openness to all theatrical possibilities - black theater , figures and masks , dance , Clowning and spoken theater - caused a sensation.

First time in 1965 by Germany - - In the following years Sládek went on international tours and performed at various international festivals, including the Berlin Festival in 1964 and the Theater Festival East-West in New Delhi in 1966. In the banned DEFA film Miss butterfly he was to be seen as a pantomime. In 1968 he was given the task of founding and managing the theater studio in Bratislava, where he set up his first pantomime theater. In the aftermath of the events of August 20 and 21, 1968, which went down in history as the end of the Prague Spring , Sládek's pantomime theater was one of the first to close. Sládek left Czechoslovakia in the same year and first emigrated to Sweden , from where he moved to Cologne in 1970 .

The Compagnie Sládek , which has now emerged, enjoyed a high international reputation and continued to play at international venues on tours and invitations to festivals. In 1974, together with Eduard Zlabek and Julia Lindig , Sládek finally opened the Kefka Theater in Cologne , at that time the only permanent pantomime theater in non-socialist Europe, where both own and guest productions were presented and young mimes were trained. In 1976, on the initiative and under the artistic direction of Sládek, the international pantomime festival Cologne GAUKLER was brought into being, which for a long time was a platform for artistic exchange for mimes and actors of all stripes and a crowd puller in the German theater scene. Important stations in his work during this period were The Beggar Opera , Kefkas Don Juan , Carmen and King Ubu .

In 1987, Sládek was appointed professor for pantomime at the Folkwang University of Music and Performing Arts in Essen . In 1991, the premiere of Sládek's version of The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Seoul attracted international attention. Inspired by the traditional Japanese puppet theater Bunraku , Sládek combined a professional opera performance with a puppet theater. After the events of 1989 and in view of the subsequent upheavals in the formerly socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Sládek returned to his homeland, where in 1994 he finally took over the management of the Theater Arena - International Institute for Movement Theater in Bratislava. From 1996 to 2002, on the initiative of Sládek, the international pantomime festival KAUKLIAR '96 took place in Bratislava , and in 1997 the Arena Theater reopened .

For some time now, Cologne has been the starting point for Sládek's international appearances and projects. Based on a production of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in Tokyo in 2005 was the following year on the occasion of the Mozart year in Jugendstiltheater in Vienna , the premiere of a long unknown and rediscovered only recently pantomime from the pen of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a production of the Theater Forum Schwechat presents. Together with the Austrian composer Johannes Holik , Sládek reconstructed the score and the libretto of the carnival pantomime "Pantalon und Columbine", in which Mozart himself appeared as a harlequin , using the original recordings and using original compositions by Mozart that were never published . Sládek himself took on the role of the servant Pierrot , another classic character of the Commedia dell'Arte.

Productions and stagings

A selection:

First solo pantomimes ( 1955 );
Evening of Mime ( 1958 );
The Bump ( 1960, 1963 );
The rag dealer ( 1961, 1967, 1975, 1983 );
The Komoedia of the Rich and the Poor Lazarus ( 1964, 1981 );
The Gift ( 1971 );
Milan Sládek - mimes ( 1977 );
Kefkas Don Juan ( 1978 );
Mask Improvisations ( 1982 );
Carmen ( 1983, 2000 );
King Ubu ( 1984, 1999 );
Apocalyptica ( 1989 );
The Marriage of Figaro ( 1991 );
The Coronation of Poppea ( 1993 );
Grand Pierrot ( 1994, 1997 );
The Threepenny Opera ( 2001 );
Magic Night ( 2003 );
Orpheus ( 2003 );
Andy Andy ( 2004 );
The Threepenny Opera ( 2005 );
The Komoedia of the Rich and Lazarus ( Premiere: May 4, 2006 )
Pantalon and Columbine - a Mozart pantomime ( world premiere: June 27, 2006 )
The Way of the Cross (music by Marcel Dupré) ( March 31, 2007 )
Jupiter and the Others (November 15, 2007)
Milan Sladek new solo program (world premiere 23 February 2008 ) ...

Prizes and awards

Grand Prix de Nancy, 1965
First Prize Istanbul Theater Festival, 1967
Prize of the Ministry of Culture for the 50th anniversary of the CSSR, 1968
Golden Bull of the City of Bratislava, 1998
Ludovit Stur Medal, presented by the Slovak President Rudolf Schuster, 2000
Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, awarded by Federal President Johannes Rau, 2000

Art exhibitions

1978 Theater Kefka Cologne
1986 Theater Kefka Cologne - Forum Leverkusen
1987 Gallery at the Maxwehr, Landshut
1988 City of Cologne, Cologne City Hall
1988 Del Bello Gallery, Toronto
1989 Kultureel Center, Tilburg
1991 Frankfurt Book Fair
1991 Folkwang University in Essen
1991 Art Association Grevenbroich
1992 Däberitz cellar gallery, Bergisch Gladbach
1992 2nd Litfass Biennale, Munich
1993 Hof-Galerie, Essen
1993 Ruf Gallery, Munich
1994 European Parliament, Strasbourg

Publications

Milan Sládek and Frank Meyer (editors): pantomime theater. Cologne 1985: Bund Verlag. ISBN 376630948X

Web links

Commons : Milan Sládek - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Sládek, Milan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Slovak pantomime, director and author
DATE OF BIRTH	February 23, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH	Streženice , Okres Púchov