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SKUPA’S PILSENfirst took place on 26-29 January 1967 to mark the 75th anniversary of the birth and 10th anniversary of the death of the "father" of the puppets Spejbl and Hurvínek, Josef Skupa. An instrumental role in its creation was played by MUDr. Lubor Zahrádka, Ladislav Dvořák and Stanislav Nový. "It was intended – and also seen – as the repayment of a debt owed by the city of Pilsen to a long-standing Pilsener who made the capital of Western Bohemia famous throughout the world in the cultural sphere just as in the consumer field it had been made famous by beer and in the industrial sphere by the Škoda works" (M.Česal) It was thus only logical that most of the events were connected to Skupa in some way – including the unveiling of a memorial plaque and bust in Prokop street, close to the former site of the Trades Hall, which once housed the Holiday Camp Puppet Theatre, and the granting of the freedom of the city of Pilsen to Josef Skupa and his wife. The programme also included performances by four professional and two amateur groups. In the following two years, the festival continued to take shape – one suggestion was that it would be a festival of productions for adults. It was only in 1970 (when the festival was moved to a June date) that it established itself as a balanced "competitive review of Czech professional puppet theatres," that culminated in the award of the Skupa Prize for the best production (20,000 crowns) and individual prizes. Until 1978 it took place every year, subsequently becoming biennial. Since 1992 only individual prizes have been awarded, and the festival has been opened up to all professional puppeteers, including agency and private groups, soloists and so on. There has also been an increasing number of participants from abroad. The festival also features a wealth of accompanying events, including exhibitions, concerts, outside performances, screenings, workshops and so on. The 28th Skupa’s Pilsen takes the form not only of a competitive review of selected productions by Czech theatres, but also of a presentation of Czech puppet theatre for guests from abroad, with the aim of supporting the export of Czech puppetry abroad.The festival programme also aims – at least in part – to map the state in which puppet theatre of the Visegrad 4 countries and the EU find themselves twenty years after the fall of the iron curtain. However, the organisers are no longer able to ignore the nature and breadth of the offers they receive from those interested in taking part, and which form a realistic picture of the development of the theatre genre known as "puppet theatre." The dividing line between "puppet" and "non-puppet" theatre is becoming more or more blurred, whether we like it or not. Clinging dogmatically to a purely "puppet" status has not been a viable stance for some time. We have therefore decided to broaden the description of the festival to include the little word "alternative," in order to make it "legally" possible for the festival to include productions that make only sporadic use of puppets as material, but which can be included under the heading of "alternative." The orientation of this year's festival towards older age groups, young people and adults remains unchanged. The festival features a total of 24 groups (with 24 productions), of which three are from abroad (from Slovakia, Poland and France). Of the 17 Czech groups represented, four are statutory puppet theatres (from Prague, Liberec, Kladno and Pilsen), eight are independent groups (La Putyka, Buchty a loutky, LokVar, ANPU, Divadlo jednoho Edy, Mimotaurus, Divadlo Líšeň, Cirkus Žebřík) and five are groups of students (or recent graduates) from theatre schools (DAMU, JAMU). In addition, it also features two international projects, "Earthless," by the Czech-French group Décalages – Movement Theatre and "Jánošík", the product of a collaboration between Divadlo DRAK from Hradec Králové, the Staré divadlo Karola Spišáka from Nitra, and Warsaw's Teatr LALKA. The main programme is complemented by two exhibitions: "Setting Out with the Forman Brothers Theatre" + "20 10 12 13 me" and several concerts. The festival is organised by the ALFA theatre, under the aegis of UNIMA.
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