Randy Gener Appointed Editor-in-Chief of Prague Quadrennial Newspaper

Gener will also host daily gallery talks at USA National Exhibition entry to Prague Quadrennial, the “Olympics of Theater Design,” June 16–26

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, 6.1.2011 — Randy Gener, the Nathan Award–winning editor, writer and drama critic, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Prague Quadrennial Newspaper in the Czech Republic.

Gener returns to Prague, having served in June 2007 as Editor and Columnist of Prague Quadrennial Today as well as Scenofest Team Leader of the press/publication project of the Prague Quadrennial‘s educational events, known as Scenofest, organized in joint cooperation with OISTAT, the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians.  In 2007, with the generous support of the Ford Foundation/Institute of International Education, Gener also presented two lecture presentations on narrative design and contemporary currents in U.S. theater design.

Under construction: PQ's Intersection architecture. Photo by Miroslav Halada 

A broadsheet, the Prague Quadrennial Newspaper will take a lively, irreverent, pop-culture approach to covering PQ events. Published in English and Czech languages, the daily paper will be distributed throughout the city center of Prague for the 11-day duration of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.  One of the world’s largest theater events held every four years since 1967, the Prague Quadrennial will take place from June 16 to 26, 2011.

“The PQ is the planet’s largest competitive exposition of contemporary stage design and theater architecture,” states Randy Gener in “All the World’s a Pavilion” (American Theatre, September 2007).  “PQ is to the Czech Republic what the Venice Biennale is to Italy  — a global tapas where everyone who cares about the stage flocks to look, sample and judge the state of new theater from around the world.”

In addition to producing and editing a daily paper, Gener will co-host a series of gallery talks with renowned U.S. designers at the USA National exhibition, From the Edge.  The talks will be held daily at 4:00 pm at Veletzrini Palace, Prague’s national gallery.  From the Edge’s gallery talks will showcase, among others, SITI Company’s BobRauschenbergAmerica; The Civilians’ This Beautiful City; Ping Chong & Company’s Cocktail and Inside Out; 3-Legged Dog’s Fire Island; Goodman Theatre of Chicago’s Desire Under the Elms; Second Stage’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity; Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Love Unpunished; Nancy Keystone and Justin Townsend’s productions of Apollo and Suzan-Lori Parks’s The America Play.

Curated by the costume designer and Carnegie Mellon University professor Susan Tsu for the USITT, the United States association of design, production and technology professionals in the entertainment industry, From the Edge will be the 10th time the USA is represented at the Prague Quadrennial where it will compete with a record number of 62 countries for the Golden Triga and other medals.  The USA will also participate in the Architecture competition, the Student Section competition and the Extreme Costume exhibition.

Under construction: PQ's Intersection architecture. Photo by Miroslav Halada

Randy Gener is a New York City–based writer, editor, curator and drama critic. His nonfiction writing, journalism and art criticism have appeared in The New York Times, Expressen, Norwegian Shakespeare and Theatre Magazine, Mumbia Theatre Guide, The International Herald Tribune, The Star Ledger, The Village Voice, The Daily News, Time Out New York, New York magazine, Gannett Newspapers, Korean Theatre Journal and other publications in Europe, Asia and the United States.  A major contributor to the encyclopedia Cambridge Guide to the American Theater, as well as scholarly books and play anthologies, Gener is Section Editor of Critical Stages, the web journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization founded in Paris in 1956.

In 2010, Gener won two travel media awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association for excellence in travel writing, the SPJ Deadline Club Award for Best Arts Reporting from the New York chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (“for shedding light on government censorship and repression of artists”); and Journalist of the Year 2010 from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.  Gener is the 2009 recipient of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism — the highest U.S. award for dramatic criticism and one of the most distinguished awards in the American theater — for his essays in American Theatre magazine, published by Theatre Communications Group.  Gener was conferred a 2010 Pamana ng Pilipino Presidential Award by His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III, President of the Philippines (the title translates as “Legacy of the Filipino Nation”).

Krétakör's Apology of the Escapologist. Photo by Péter Francsikai 

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is organized and funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and realized by Prague’s Arts and Theatre Institute.

Under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus, the Mayor of the City of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda and the Mayor of Prague 7 Marek Ječmének.

With the support of the Culture Program of the European Union. Supported by UNESCO, Trust for Mutual Understanding, the City of Prague, Czech-German Fund For The Future.

Press contact for media:

Nathalie Frank

International Public Relations

Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space

June 16 – 26, 2011

Celetná 17 | 110 00 Prague 1

Czech Republic 
Tel. +420 224 809 102 
Fax +420 224 809 225

Cell. +420 774 255 867
E nathalie.frank@pq.cz

Links to PQ communication channels:

www.pq.cz

for press: www.pq.cz/en/pres.html

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pq2011

Twitter: www.twitter.com/pq2011

Intersection: http://www.pq.cz/en/intersections.html

FOR EDITORS AND JOURNALISTS:

WHAT IS THE PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL?

The world’s largest performance design event, the 12^th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is a presentation of contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres, including costume, stage, light, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera, drama, site specific, multi-media performances, and performance art. 

Coming to Prague will also allow visitors to discover a unique outdoor performing exhibition, Intersection: Intimacy & Spectacle, presenting thirty internationally acclaimed artists, including Romeo Castellucci, Anna Viebrock, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Nathaniel Mellors, and Josef Nadj.  Additionally, a large number of projects will take place in public spaces throughout the city — a unique occasion to discover Prague through the eyes of the world’s contemporary arts.  

Visitors will also be able to explore various disciplines essential to the performing arts thanks to projects focused on lighting and sound design, architecture, and costumes, as well as talks with personalities such as Arata Isozaki, Es Devlin, Eiko Ishioka, Richard Sennett, Alan Read, and many more.

Romeo Castellucci's Persona.  Picture composed by Romeo Castellucci.

Participating countries in the International Competitive Exhibition Argentina // Armenia // Australia // Austria // Belarus // Belgium // Brazil // Bulgaria // Canada // Chile // China // Colombia // Croatia // Cuba // Cyprus // Czech Republic // Denmark // Estonia // Finland // France // Georgia // Germany // Greece // Hong Kong // Hungary // Iceland // India // Israel // Italy // Japan // Kazakhstan // Republic of Korea // Latvia // Lebanon // Lithuania // Macedonia // Mongolia // Mexico // Netherlands // New Zealand // Nigeria // Norway // Peru // Philippines // Poland // Portugal // Republic of South Africa // Romania // Russia // Serbia // Singapore // Slovakia // Slovenia // Spain // Sweden // Switzerland // Taiwan // Turkey // United Kingdom // Uruguay // USA // Venezuela

Participating artists in the Intersection project Romeo Castellucci / Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio // Josef Nadj // Anna Viebrock / Till Exit // Nathaniel Mellors // Ana Borralho & João Galante // Markus Schinwald // Mareunrol’s // Brett Bailey // Hooman Sharifi // Ilya and Emilia Kabakov // Monika Pormale // Hans Rosenström // Josef Bolf // Guerra de la Paz // Monika Pormale // Terike Haapoja // Egon Tobiáš // Elevator Repair Service // Ioana Mona Popovici & Simon Vincenzi // Ulla von Brandenburg // Caroline Evans & Hansjorg Schmidt // Bohdan Holomíček & Eva Hrubá // Abbey Theatre // Harun Farocki // Dace Džeriņa // Paul Divjak // Dejan Kaludjerović // Kateřina Fojtíková // Tomáš Svoboda // Stage Code & La grande bande // Handa Gote // Jan Lepšík // Alice Nellis // Árpád Schilling / Krétakör // Claudia Bosse / theatercombinat

WHAT IS FROM THE EDGE?

USITT–USA National Exhibit website: 2011exhibit.usitt.org/pq2011

Pat Oleszko's Betty Boob on the beach

From the Edge, the exhibition representing the US at the 12^th Prague Quadrennial, celebrates vital new designs mirroring the socio-political issues consuming American performance makers today, such as issues of identity, healing, and obsessions with death and loss after 9/11 and hurricane Katrina; the pull of conscience that is inevitable when engaged in war; the politics of eating, tensions relative to race and gender; anxieties about technology… thus featuring the work of 36 design collaborations, both self-reflective and self-critical in nature.

The US will also compete within the Architecture Section of the Prague Quadrennial with an exhibit From Sea to Sea, presenting hundreds of spaces for the performing arts that have been constructed in the US since 2006, from the traditional regional performance center, concert hall, community store theatre, primary school theatres, and ad hoc outdoor venues to experimental performance spaces. The US will also participate in the Student Section with Emerge, a project showcasing the work of over 250 American student designers from 47 colleges and universities, and including a participatory portion inviting viewers to see the exhibit evolving while the students will be creating. As part of the Extreme Costume competitive exhibition, costumes by Pat Oleszko, Constance Hoffman, and Achim Freyer will be on display.  

In the past U.S. exhibitors have often received some of the PQ’s most prestigious awards.  The US exhibit won the Golden Triga in 1987, the Silver and the Golden Medal in the Thematic Section in 1991 and in 1995, and a Special Honorary Diploma in 2003.