2012 – Karel Šefrna
Founder, director, music composer, puppeteer of famous Czech amateur puppet group Céčko Svitavy.
The Céčko Svitavy ensemble has great merit in amateur puppetry; it is a permanent first class fixed star the light of which influenced directly or iindirectly the majority of top ensembles. And it brings pleasure into our lives.
Awarded by ERIK Prize in 1997 for Bystruška, liška (The Clever Little Vixen)
– a performance by the C.Svitavy company headed by MUDr. Karel Šefrna.
A story by Rudolf Těsnohlídek adapted by Karel Šefrna and Jana Mandlová. It has everything we know from the Céčko atmosphere and the closeness of the people on stage (in this case also with good Moravian wine), precise work with puppets (stick puppets), poetry as well as humour, work with lighting, a marked musical element, in the interpretation of which we have the feeling that everybody is capable of playing everything….I must admit that as far as the music goes, we speculated with friends at last year’s East Bohemian regional show as to how many songs are of Moravian origin, folk songs, and how many Karel had composed himself – that’s how Karel managed to deceive us with his composer’s skills. On a simple stage with simple puppets everything seems to unfold easily as if improvised….. the easier it seems the more precisely it is constructed. It is a performance about freedom, without forcing this great topic upon us, like a little stream, springing forth from a mountain. This is also thanks to the performance of Jana Mandlové in the role of the vixen. The profound emotion, full of wisdom as well as the perfect coping with the purposeful craft in music, songs and puppet acting turns this production into a profound experience.
The Céčko Svitavy ensemble has great merit in amateur puppetry; it is a permanent first class fixed star the light of which influenced directly or iindirectly the majority of top ensembles. And it brings pleasure into our lives.
Ludek Richter, The Puppeteer 2000 (4/177)
