R\u00ed\u0161a is a young person with a remarkable talent for improvisation, who has been attending Talent for two years. When I first saw him improvise, I watched him in amazement. His playing was free of all ornament, ambition, pretence, and performative display. Just pure play and existence\u2014freedom and humour. A raw, full presence in the space of play. Grounded and focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When did you first feel the need to play in your childhood?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In fourth grade. We had a subject called drama education. Once, for the 25th anniversary of the school, our teacher asked whether we would like to create a class project. We created a performance in which we brought the classroom to life. We imagined what the things in the classroom think, how they perceive what is happening around them. The desks, bags, and pencil cases spoke.\n\nI enjoyed being able to express emotions\u2014I didn\u2019t have to keep them to myself. At that time, I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself. That pulled me out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do fixed texts mean to you versus creative freedom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI only understood it this year. Last year I was really lost in it. This year, a fixed text has started to feel for me like a kind of bridge\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bridge?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A bridge, a structure you walk across. You know where you are going\u2014from one shore to the other. There are twists and turns, but the direction is clear. When I used to work with improvisation, I was often in an undefined cloud. Only this year did I realise that when a person has a solid structure, a clearly defined text\u2014possibly one they have written themselves\u2014it is like learning technical procedures in school.\n\nAnd when you place a cloud of your creative acting inside that structure, the bridge becomes airy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you approach things on stage in a deliberate, thought-through way, or do they lead you on their own?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes the stage itself directs me. In the auditorium, nothing comes to mind, but the moment I walk up the three steps onto the stage, something suddenly switches in my head, like a valve, and I start thinking completely differently. Suddenly it\u2019s there.\n\nWhen I stand in front of people, I enjoy their gaze, looking into their eyes. From their eyes I catch some thought of theirs, something I can then play with, develop, open up. It already happens on a subconscious level. It leads me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are a trained plumber and you are training as a chimney sweep. Why these professions? How do they work together with theatre?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In ninth grade, during our practical classes when we were making a wooden holder for sandpaper, I got drawn to manual work. At that time, I wanted to become a paramedic, to drive around in an ambulance and deal with situations spontaneously.\n\nEven during COVID, at the end of primary school, I translated that into theatre\u2014a scene performed over an online meeting. I got myself headphones like a dispatcher and played an emergency call operator in online theatre. When the microphones came on, it felt authentic.\n\nOr I would imagine sitting in an ambulance and hearing a call from dispatch: \u2018Unit 105, we\u2019re here. You need to go to this and that street, there is a man with this and that problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did you go from wanting to become a paramedic to becoming a plumber?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While I was filling out applications for secondary school, I didn\u2019t know what other field to choose besides health-related schools, or what else to pick in case I wasn\u2019t accepted. The first thing that came to mind was gardening. If I didn\u2019t get into my first or second choice, I would become a gardener. My first thought was: okay, calm, outdoors, everything nice.\n\nBut at an open day I realised I didn\u2019t enjoy it. First, I have allergies to pollen and dust, and second, I don\u2019t like delicate, precise work. Then carpentry came up\u2014working with wood. It\u2019s nice, but it didn\u2019t speak to me.\n\nThen my mum said: what about plumbing? The first time I saw a plumber was when someone came to repair our boiler\u2014and they fixed it in such a way that two days later our place was flooded. I thought: these are people who don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re doing.\n\nAnd then, five hours later, our bathroom drain got clogged. My mum said: can you fix it? I struggled with it for about two hours, and in the end I cleaned it and the water started flowing again. And I enjoyed it. It started to fascinate me.\n\nBefore that, I thought you had to study, get a high school diploma, then university, end up in an office. I had already accepted that I would maybe do some manual work at home at best, and otherwise I\u2019d be stuck in some office on the ninth floor, it would be hot there, and by fifty I\u2019d have a big belly, be lazy as a louse, and resent the whole world.\n\nLearning the trade opened my eyes. When I reached my third year, I started thinking: what am I going to study next? I\u2019m just a plumber with a vocational certificate\u2014nothing more. Everyone around me was talking about follow-up studies and diplomas, but I didn\u2019t want to take the exams yet. I wanted to study, enjoy life a bit more, and only then finish school and work.\n\nSo I applied for chimney sweeping. I thought it was similar to plumbing\u2014just instead of water, there are fumes. I didn\u2019t know anything about it. I had only seen a chimney sweep once in my life. I thought: they just clean chimneys. It felt like beautifully dirty work.\n\nAnd when I cleaned my first chimney, it smelled wonderful\u2014exactly like in villages. Then our instructor explained that this is how wood smells, how coal, mazut, and petrol smell. I realised I was basically \u2018tasting\u2019 soot. Not only wine can be tasted\u2014soot and smoke can be tasted too.\n\nDo you know why chimney sweeps are said to bring luck? Because when a chimney sweep came to a village and cleaned the chimney, the \u2018red rooster\u2019\u2014meaning fire\u2014didn\u2019t come, so the house and the whole village didn\u2019t burn down.\n\nOr there is a legend from the time of Maria Theresa. When chimney sweeps cleaned chimneys, which were large enough for a person to climb into, one of them came to Maria Theresa after finishing his work. She asked him whether he had cleaned the chimney properly. He said yes. She touched him to check if he was telling the truth\u2014and because chimney sweeps don\u2019t lie, her glove turned black from soot. And she said: \u2018You are indeed lucky.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you see the connection between your vocational training and theatre and creative work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It fits together nicely. Craftsmen are serious\u2014they look serious while working, and serious when dealing with customers. The whole day is serious. I needed to lighten that.\n\nA craftsman has to behave properly in front of customers, but at the same time, when something doesn\u2019t work, he gets angry\u2014but he must not show it. Then again, there is the euphoria when things start to work\u2026 I found that quite comical. That a person changes emotions like socks. Like drawers you open and close.\n\nAnd when you are doing something, almost all of them are open at once. That is theatre. You keep switching all the time. And then you start laughing at yourself. That is actually the best part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a game.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I don\u2019t play with life, I don\u2019t enjoy it. It becomes cyclical and routine. But when a person plays, every day is different. We often feel that we have a routine life. But if we broke it down into small parts, we would realise it is not routine at all\u2014that we are constantly playing a different game.\n\nIt is like playing billiards. Every ball goes somewhere different, but the core is life itself. The game flows and the ball rolls. You can let it be if you feel it is becoming repetitive, or you can open up the game again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the performance I, you played a stove maker\u2014a craftsman. During a post-performance discussion, someone from the audience asked how you liked the character of the stove maker.<\/strong> Ty jsi odpov\u011bd\u011bl, \u017ee spousta lid\u00ed si mysl\u00ed, \u017ee lidi, co pracuj\u00ed manu\u00e1ln\u011b, jsou hloup\u00ed. A \u017ee tou rol\u00ed ukazuje\u0161, \u017ee to nen\u00ed pravda.<\/strong> \u017de ten nejm\u00e9n\u011b n\u00e1padn\u00fd \u010dlov\u011bk, kter\u00fdm ostatn\u00ed opovrhovali, byl zrcadlem v\u0161ech ostatn\u00edch. Takov\u00fd archetyp moudr\u00e9ho starce.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My master and my grandfather are exactly the kind of people I was playing. There are many people like them. With chimney sweeps, for example, people see only the shell\u2014a person covered in soot or tar. But if they looked inside, they would see much more: perhaps a flourishing tree full of wisdom and experience that can be passed on to others.\n\nIn general, people tend to look at others only from one angle. They don\u2019t see the full complexity of a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think these are our stereotypes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Either it is a personal stereotype, or people simply don\u2019t want to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is either the ego or the roles in which communication between people takes place. For example, in a customer\u2013shop assistant position. The shop assistant doesn\u2019t need to know what the customer has inside, what they live by. They only talk about the price, the customer pays, the assistant gives them the goods, and then it\u2019s goodbye\u2014thank you.\n\nBut if the shop assistant asks the customer something, communication starts to unfold. They begin to learn something about the customer. And the customer learns something about the shop assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does communication mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspiration. Like the opposite poles of a magnet\u2014plus and minus. They attract each other. When a person looks into another person\u2019s eyes, it is an impulse. Eyes radiate a certain energy.\n\nOr when someone starts talking, sharing their experiences and perspectives, something can emerge from that. When people communicate too little, it becomes grey. One asks: \u2018How are you?\u2019 and the other answers: \u2018Fine.\u2019 That says nothing.\n\nBut when a person truly talks about how they are, communication unfolds. You start learning something new. If everything were handled through communication, people would sit together, listen to each other\u2014even different opinions\u2014and many things would be resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does life mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How one lives it\u2014through work, free time, experiences, family, and friends. Everything comes together into one: that I enjoy living and being here.\n\nI cannot give priority to one thing over another, because they are all reasons why I live. Without family, I would have no support and no one to share many things with. Without work, I would not clear my head from family life. Without acting, I would not be myself. Without mountains, I would not see inspiration. Without sailboats and wind, I would not experience freedom. Without music, I would not experience relaxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn connection with the Rozmach group, children aged 13\u201315, where since March you have been stepping in for a girl who left us. Unfortunately, the performance<\/strong> in the end it didn\u2019t work out, which we all regretted. I am interested in your feelings about the process.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I went into it as another opportunity I could step into\u2014a chance to discover something new and also to help. I didn\u2019t know what would come out of it or what my role would be, but I was very curious.\n\nAnd what did it give me? That many things can change quickly\u2014even in life. From one hour to the next, there was a different opinion; from one person to another, there was a different opinion.\n\nAs the performance date was approaching and we still had nothing, so it was necessary to fully switch on, I found it funny how people started excusing themselves from attending rehearsals: \u2018I\u2019m not coming to the session today.\u2019 I could have created our performance about that: \u2018I\u2019m not coming.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a pity you didn\u2019t suggest it. Maybe the performance would have eventually come into being.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t want to interfere. I wasn\u2019t a permanent member of the group. What I liked was how, in the middle of the year, everyone had their own little island. Everyone was like Robinson Crusoe.\n\nWhen I joined the group around March, they already had the performance mapped out. I thought: now we\u2019ll start pulling together as one. But the rope slowly started to unravel\u2014strand by strand. Everyone had their own thread, but on their own island. The threads were intertwined only very loosely, so the rope was never whole and we couldn\u2019t really pull it together. Everyone was holding onto their own small thread on their own island, insisting on their own opinion.\n\nAt one point it looked like we had finally agreed on something. And then the next week\u2014boom\u2014it all fell apart into fragments again. We were back where we started. Like a ship sinking and us ending up in the water again. The first ship sank, we tried to save it, then the second one sank too, and we were back at the beginning.\n\nBut I still believed it would work out. And then the next week\u2014boom\u2014back into fragments again. I started losing my way as well; everything became foggy. But I still believed and I still saw the performance on stage. Then another week, even more fog, and by the last one I couldn\u2019t see it on stage at all. I thought: it\u2019s gone to pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was an hour before the weekend intensive\u2014two weeks before the performance. I couldn\u2019t see the group on stage anymore. And when I don\u2019t have an inner image of it, it feels wrong. I lost faith that we would actually perform it.\n\nThen came the weekend intensive. From our group Vos\u00ed hn\u00edzdo, Hanka arrived and created a script from their texts\u2014about how the whole year had unfolded, their feelings. I thought: they\u2019ll manage it, at least those twenty minutes. I saw them sitting on chairs, speaking. I was in a state of euphoria.\n\nAnd then came their decision: \u2018We are not going to perform it.\u2019\n\nI believed they would change their minds and eventually come to perform at the festival (note: Vr\u0161ovice Talent Festival). And when I didn\u2019t see them there, it finally clicked that they really wouldn\u2019t perform it. Not anymore. They were missing at the festival. It felt like someone had cut out a piece of film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do you think it turned out this way?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the parents hadn\u2019t been there\u2014if they hadn\u2019t come to watch them, and the kids hadn\u2019t felt that they would be judged, criticised, or that they might disappoint them\u2014I think they would have come together and performed it.\n\nIt reminded me of something our instructor once said after a competition: \u2018You let yourselves be shaken.\u2019 It was the same situation. We were shaken at the competition, and they were shaken by the parents.\n\nAfter that competition, I told myself I would never let myself be shaken by anyone again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m sorry about it too. It would have been a nice ending to the Saturday, and to their year of work as well. A group of teenagers talking about their feelings that over the course of<\/strong> the process they went through, why the performance didn\u2019t work out. Just darkness and a spotlight. It could have been powerful and inspiring for the audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Incredibly so. But every bad experience is also a good experience. A person learns from it, and next time they either won\u2019t do it, or they\u2019ll do it differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the most important thing in life for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Manual work and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are your dreams?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To get my skipper\u2019s licence and set sail on my own boat. I love freedom. And I also like everything that is uniform. Whatever is uniformed is beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You like letting others shine. Yet you yourself are a distinctive actor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When someone shines, I feel fulfilled for them. I\u2019m happy that they are happy. In theatre and in personal life. I do everything I can to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the ensemble you perform with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mutual help. Everyone is made of a different dough, we complement each other like a puzzle. Everyone thinks differently, and the fragments of the mosaic come together into a beautiful whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would you say at the end of our conversation to the kids from Rozmach?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to get stuck in cycles and thoughts, to keep an open mind for new ideas and things, and to listen to others. They had enormous potential to come up with something.\n\nBut in creative work, you also have to know when to step back, so that a performance can actually emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for the interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Erika Merjav\u00e1<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" R\u00ed\u0161a je mlad\u00fd \u010dlov\u011bk s v\u00fdrazn\u00fdm improviza\u010dn\u00edm talentem, kter\u00fd k n\u00e1m do Talentu doch\u00e1z\u00ed dva roky. Kdy\u017e jsem ho poprv\u00e9 vid\u011bla improvizovat, u\u017easle jsem se na n\u011bj d\u00edvala. Jeho hran\u00ed bylo opro\u0161t\u011bn\u00e9 od v\u0161ech pozl\u00e1tek, ambic\u00ed, fal\u0161e, p\u0159edv\u00e1d\u011bn\u00ed. Jen \u010dist\u00e1 hra a existence, svoboda a humor. Ryz\u00ed a pln\u00e9 byt\u00ed v hrac\u00edm prostoru. V\u011bcn\u00e9 a … Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3045","page","type-page","status-publish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t