After the Flood: Resurrecting Prague's Archa Theatre

In August of 2002, the Czech Republic was hit by a wave of devastating flooding, affecting what many reports estimate at over one-third of the country's population. Few areas were hit harder than the city center of the nations capital, Prague, which sustained massive damage when the Vltava River overflowed its banks. Much of Stare Mesto (Old Town), Josefov (the Jewish Quarter), and the Karlin district were completely flooded, turning the streets into canals and the basements and ground floors of many buildings into swimming pools. Among the worst hit of the city's important cultural sites was a small but significant basement theatre complex located on the edge of the Karlin district, once the theatre of Czech theatre visionary E.F. Burian, and known for the previous eight years as the Divadlo Archa (or Archa Theatre). The theatre's cherished movable floor and hydraulic systems were ruined and its equipment mostly destroyed. Despite the extent of this devastation, the Archa Theatre opened its doors again in just over a year. Physically, the theatre emerged from the flood waters in very much the same state it had entered them. However, the attitudes of the company underwent a significant shift during this period, as it looked to the extremes of the Czech theatre experience as well as to global experimental theatre in order to create a new sense of self. The theatre also continued its commitment to present not only its own productions, but also those of significant companies and productions from around the world, regularly exposing its audiences to an impressive range of theatre styles and traditions. Five years after the floods, the Archa Theatre played a major role in the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, the world's largest international scenographic festival. The company presented five of its own productions-(Chat, Nickname, Understand, SenAnderSen, and 8-Birds Black) the most of any single theatre company. The theatre also held a workshop and hosted a production of Bob by Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, a production that had been originally presented for Czech audiences at the Archa exactly ten years earlier. At the Quadrennial, the company celebrated not only its triumph over the forces of nature, but also its reemergence as one of Europe's most significant experimental theatre companies and venues. When asked about the reconstruction of the Archa's theatrical spaces, Ondrej Hrab, the artistic director of the Archa since its inception in 1994, noted that even though he was given the option to rebuild from scratch, his original vision for the theatre's structure still seemed the most efficient and effective-that the space must serve its community. Hrab insisted, You do not build a monument for yourselves-you build a space that (Interview). During the reconstruction phase, however, Hrab also began to cement a belief that the Archa not only serves its local community, but is in itself a community of artists, patrons, administrators, and others. The entire process of reconstruction became a communal event, both in terms of financial support and physical labor. It is significant that the reopening of the Archa was accompanied by a ritualized celebration of rebirth. The theatre's inaugural production in 1994 had brought together Japanese butoh performer Min Tanaka and Velvet Underground guitarist John Cale. This rather improbable collaboration established the Archa's commitment to promoting international and intercultural collaboration. Nine years later, Min Tanaka returned to mark the theatre's second birth with a chilling performance in the October waters of the Vltava River. Tanaka performed a crossing of the river with the assistance of a red rope anchored at both banks. At midpoint, he released a symbolic cardboard ark down the river, effectively relaunching the Archa and proclaiming its (and his) dominance over the elements in one powerful moment. This rejuvenated theatre consists of two major performance spaces-a 420-seat large hall and a 100-seat small hall. …

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