ABSTRACT
Czech theatre design, commonly called "scenografie" (scenography) in the Czech language, experienced an unparalleled boom with the establishment of the modern state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The turbulent geopolitical developments of the twentieth century framed the emergence of several generations of designers who influenced both Czech theatre and the wider international scene. These designers responded to the challenges posed by the extreme political, economic and social transformations of the Czech territory that has both benefited from its strategic intercultural positioning in the center of Europe and repeatedly suffered at the hands of Western and Eastern colonial powers. Taking selected artists and their projects as examples and emphasizing the underappreciated contribution of the founding generation and the inter-war avant-gardes, this chapter focuses on the multiple ways Czech theatre designers have assumed a crucial role in creating the whole of the performance, taking on the role traditionally ascribed solely to the director and/or playwright.
