THE ARTS AND THEATRE INSTITUTE IS PREPARING THE THIRD THEATRE NIGHT

The Arts and Theatre Institute is preparing the third Theatre Night aiming to attract audiences of all ages and interests to theatres. The Theatre Night is a time of extraordinary experiences because the visitors have a chance to see and witness things theatres do not offer during the season. In the past years, the audiences had the opportunity to visit workshops, lectures, book signings or backstage tours and could also participate in pulling down the stage, discussions with directors or touring the backstage in small and big theatres. This year is going to take place on the third Saturday in November.

The second Theatre Night surpassed the first successful year in 2013. The project took patronage of 120 theatres from 29 Czech and Moravian towns with the theatres welcoming 50,000 visitors. Due to the high number of participating theatres and viewers, the Czech Theatre Night was one of the biggest events of its kind in Europe. Even the second edition managed to fulfil one of the main aims: to attract visitors who would not go to the theatre under normal circumstances. The audio track was aired in Czech radios and theatres before the beginning of the performance for several weeks. The building of the Arts and Theatre Institute opened during the second edition and it offered an interesting education programme and an information centre for the visitors.

An extensive survey was performed during the Theatre Night last year, which is supposed to help to map theatre audiences in the Czech Republic (unlike the situation in other art disciplines, there is no relevant study about it). The theatres participating in the Theatre Night are provided with the results of the survey in order to have a chance to learn about their viewers and modify their programme, PR, marketing and other activities accordingly. The results of the Theatre Night 2014 can be downloaded at /pro-media/. The ATI is also preparing another survey for this year, which is going to be distributed among participating theatres and the audiences.

There is going to be an exhibition of 23 photos from the past Theatre Night in July. The photographers are the winners of the amateur competition, whose images were selected by a jury (the ATI production team and representatives of professional theatre photographers). The first stop of the exhibition is going to be Ledeč nad Sázavou, which is also the location of “Mimochodem” theatre. The exhibition is going to tour various theatres, such as DISK, Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre or AMPULKA theatre in Třebíč.