Scenographic engineer Josef Svoboda and Laterna Magika as a creative laboratory under state socialism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Josef Svoboda’s career was strongly linked to the exploration of new media and technological innovation. Svoboda realized his creative visions not only in domestic and foreign dramas and operas and artistic exhibitions, but also in the framework of a project on which he collaborated since the end of the 1950s – the multimedia theatre Laterna Magika. In this text, we analyze the stage design of Josef Svoboda for Laterna Magika from several perspectives. At the most general level, we are interested in his strategy of building Laterna Magika as an open creative environment and laboratory inside a restrictive socialist culture. Scenographically, we are interested in the role of film and television in his stage design and his experimentation and innovation in lighting design and stage kinetics, leading to virtuality and immersion as well as the reformulation of the concept of the screen on the stage. For Svoboda, Laterna Magika was an experimental space in which he planned to create a theatre with a fully variable stage that broke the line between actors and spectators and created a psycho-plastic space for the viewer.