Concert of a Czech virtuoso guitar player Lukáš Sommer

The concert will be held on 11/17/2019 at Club Hey Nonny, 10 South Vail Avenue, Arlington Heights, IL 60005  and it is a benefit for the TG Masaryk School in Cicero, Illinois. The TG Masaryk School promotes Czech language and culture throughout the Chicago area.

Tickets for sale available here.

 

 

Audience

Václav Havel’s theater play Audience was performed by Czech actors Jan Potměšil and Tomáš Karger from the Kašpar Theater Company in roles of Vaněk and Sládek. There were Q&A with the actors after the performance at 5 pm. Audience was performed in Czech language with English subtitles.

Audience premiered in March 2001 at Celetná Theater in Prague as part of a larger project, Na Havla!, when Václav Havel was still the President of the Czech Republic. Since 2013, it has been performed in the studio space of the Kašpar Theater Company -- first as part of the Apartment Theater of Ferdinand Vaněk, later in the Clubhouse, with Jakub Špalek also directing. The actor Jan Potměšil was one of the student activists during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.

Audience belongs to a trilogy of partly autobiographical one-act plays also known as the Vanek Trilogy, comprising Audience (1975), Protest (1978) and Mistake (1983), based on Havel’s experience of being forced to work in a brewery and under constant harassment from the Communist regime. Taking place in the brewery’s office, Audience is a meeting between the brewery’s manager Sladek and employee Vanek. While the manager is clearly opening too many beers and inducing binge drinking, it is less clear what he wants from Vanek, though it ultimately transpires he has a deal to offer: a promotion against information on Vanek’s political activities. In the play, there are references to Czech artists of that time (e.g. singer Karel Gott, actress Jiřina Bohdalová and writer Pavel Kohout).

The Kašpar Theater Company  also performed Audience at the Davis Performing Arts Center at the Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2019, and at the Bohemian National Hall in New York on October 4, 2019.

 

Garage

On October 13, 2019, at 3:30 pm, the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago presented a discussion about the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution with the guitarist of the band Garage and journalist Jan Macháček at Chopin Theatre in Chicago. A concert of the band Garage & Tony Ducháček will followed.

Garage is a legendary Prague rock underground band established in 1979. During 1980s it combined official concerts (it was forbidden to play for money), semilegal and illegal concerts. Garage became a symbol of total artistic and uncompromising freedom. Naturally during the 1989 revolution it was asked by students to support them on strike and dramatic November and December days it played for students on strike in Prague. In years after 1989 it became very popular especially among young people. Garage was inspired by New York music scene, by artists like Lou Reed, John Cale, Patti Smith or Iggy Pop, by bands like Velvet underground, New York Dolls, Ramones, Talking Heads etc. The lead singer Tony Duchacek writes very unique lyrics inspired by rough street and suburban life and slang, which is another connection to Lou Reed or Iggy Pop.

After 1989 revolution there was a peak of Garage career. Band was touring and travelling extensivelly inside the country and in Western Europe. It played on major festivals in France, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium. In June 1991, Garage had a concert in New York Central Park during festival Summer stage. With a song Berlin, Garage won a contest of the best foreign song on Radio France International (1993) and played at the MIDI fair in Cannes. The group was presented and interviewed by MTV Europe.

Amazingly after 40 years of uninterupted existence Garage is still around and with us during the US tour in Washington, DC, New York  and Chicago!

Kafka and Beyond -  9/19 - 9/ 22/ 2019

Bohemian Stories - 9/ 24/ 2019

The Good 100 -  9/26 - 10/ 13/ 2019