Štěpánek Jan

Jan Štěpánek’s work in the Czech Republic is associated with directors Jan Pokorný and J. A. Pitínský, with whom he started to work back in the 1990s. As a stage designer, he worked with director Pokorný on productions, such as Fireface (HaDivadlo, 1999), Gazdina roba (Theatre on the Balustrade, 2004), or Bloody Baptism or Drahomíra and Her Sons (National Theatre, 2005). He is associated with director Jan Antonín Pitínský when working on stage designs for the productions of Elective Affinities (Dejvice Theatre, 2006) and many productions in the National Theatre: The Descent of the Idol (1998), Marysha (1999), Markéta Lazarová (2002), The Grandmother (2010). Jan Štěpánek makes his choreographies in association with director Jan Nebeský (Wild Duck, V Dlouhé Theatre 2005), Martin Františák (It May Be That We Go, Švanda Theatre, 2014) and many others. His work can be currently seen in Goose on the String Theatre in Brno (Pictures from the Insects’ Life – Oh! What a Spectacle!, 2013), National Theatre Brno, Reduta (Fear Eats the Soul, 2017), or at the Na Jezerce Theatre in Prague (Shylock, 2016 and Glorious!, 2018). Štěpánek’s work currently aims at film and television architecture, he also constantly deals with painting. He regularly presents his stage designs and artworks at international exhibitions.

Jan Štěpánek graduated from scenography in Professor Jaroslav Dušek’s and Jana Zbořilová’s studios at the Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Then he studied in the USA for two years. He is currently the head of the year at the stage design studio at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. He has been a visiting scholar at universities in Finland and the USA, he has been teaching stage design in South Korea since September 2015.