(*1965)
director
Dočekal’s theatre is an updated modern version of great titles in world drama, such as William Shakespeare and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, which relies on the masterful interpretation of the character.
He played and directed in A Studio Rubín in Prague during his high school studies. As he studied at DAMU, he stayed in London. In 1991-1994, he was the director of the Kašpar Theatre Group, where he directed Katynka or Donna Juana. In 1994-2002, he was the director and artistic director in the Comedy Theatre in Prague. The theatre received the Alfréd Radok Award in 1996 as the Best Theatre. He staged Three Sisters, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew. He was a guest director in other theatres as well. In 2002-2015, he was the artistic director at the National Theatre in Prague. He directed many great plays, such as The Miser, Cyrano de Bergerac, Waiting for Godot, The Seagull or Richard III. In 2011, he was elected the board member of The Union des Théâtres de l’Europe (UTE), which currently associates 21 outstanding theatres across Europe; from 2015 to 2018, she was the president of the organization. He is a regular director in international theatres (Vígszínház in Budapest, Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj, Teatrul Bulandra in Bucharest, Aréna in Bratislava, Slovak National Theatre).
He graduated in directing from DAMU, Prague and he has been the artistic director and director of Prague City Theatres: Angels in America (2019); Romeo and Juliet (2019); Death of a Salesman (2019); War and Peace (2020); Digital Underground (2021); Good Luck Hotel (2021); Hamlet (2021).
In 2001, he received the Theatre Newspaper Award for the production of The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (Comedy Theatre), which was staged in the underground of Gorlice in Vyšehrad. In 2003, he received the International Ernest Flaiano Award, the Czech Literary Fund Award 2004 for the Bouda Project, Josef Balvín Award 2010 for the production of What Happened After Nora Left Her Husband at the National Theatre Prague. He was nominated for the Theatre Newspaper Award for directing Angels in America in 2019.
“Michal Dočekal’s work represented more audience-friendly, yet not an obtrusive “trace”. Hats off to his bold Shakespeare series! Actors in the company grew with the work in demanding projects.”
Jan Kerbr, Idnes
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