By Jackson Beer
A striking and immersive show which was like nothing I had seen before; the opening performance of the festival was Extinction Room by Sergiu Matis. The show had the audience on their feet walking around a black box theatre as performers embodied the movements and sounds of extinct birds and recited monologues about the history of birds that have fallen into extinction. While it was something new to me, I still found myself captivated and entranced by all of the elements of the performance asking myself the classic question, “How did they come up with this?”
This show was part of the Bazaar Festival, an annual Prague-based arts festival that puts on shows by artists in Central Europe that focus on the most pressing issues of this day and age. When I made the exciting decision to attend NYU Prague, one of my priorities was to connect with the arts and culture of the city – I felt like I would be wasting my study abroad if I didn’t. When I learned about the opportunity to do a non-credit internship where I could work with a local organization in the city, I wrote to the head of the program, Leah Gaffen, to see if there were any theatre companies for me to work with.
After a few email exchanges, I was connected with Ewan McLaren at the Bazaar Festival and before I knew it I was signed on to be their intern. My role was mostly to be a helping hand and to make sure everything was set for the festival. My work consisted of drafting emails to artists and collaborators, running errands in and out of the office, assisting with brainstorming and creative planning, and taking minutes at group meetings. This gave me a great opportunity to learn the daily tasks required to organize an arts festival and what skills are required to corral artists, venue owners, graphic designers, administrators, sponsors, and the like to make it all happen. I was also given the special task of hosting a presentation at NYU Prague, along with Ewan, so that NYU students could learn about the Bazaar Festival, to explain what I had been doing as an intern, and to encourage people to attend festival events
Several weeks before the festival, the horrifying events in Ukraine started taking place. This left us in a strange predicament, as one of the most important pillars of the festival is its connection to current issues, especially ones that are affecting Central Europe. The original theme of this year’s festival focused on the global environmental crisis and was entitled “Migration: Birds, Plankton, Poppies”. When the war broke out, the Bazaar team agreed that this theme needed to be altered to encompass the issues of forced migration caused by refugees fleeing violence in Ukraine. I worked with Ewan to find a new title: “Migration: Defying the Odds”, which we all thought was a crucial and strong choice for a change.
When the festival finally arrived, I oversaw the workshop portion of the festival, during which festival artists developed their pieces with with a trained professional, Zden Svitekova. Their works were presented at the Saturday Bazaar, a part of the festival dedicated to the work of up and coming residency artists whose shows are still in development.
My role at the workshop was mostly administrative (setting up refreshments, grabbing needed items, and making sure things were in order) but what I ended up enjoying most was the conversations I got to have with members of the workshop about how they were experiencing the process and to then see how that manifested in their performances at the Saturday Bazaar. As previously mentioned, I also got the privilege of watching the opening performance of Extinction Room which was something special and different entirely.
My overall experience with the Bazaar Festival has been so fulfilling and fruitful. I have learned so much about the structure and function of an international arts festival and what it takes to make it happen. Though I had done my fair share of work within the arts before coming to Prague, I have never been able to work in this capacity or at this professional level. Of course, it was additionally incredible to experience new art forms, styles, and languages coming from the US to Prague, and if anything this has taught me how much I want to explore the performing arts from all over the world as I go forward. I am lucky enough to still be working with Bazaar on their other projects till I return home but I can’t wait to see where the world of theatre takes me next.
Jackson Beer is a sophomore in Gallatin who is studying theatre activism and public health.