Ján Zavarský

Biography

Ján Zavarský (b. 1948) studied at the College of Industrial Design in Bratislava, and pursued his schooling in the same city, first taking a course in architecture, and subsequently stage design with Professor Ladislav Vychodil at the Academy of Music and Drama (from where he graduated in 1974). Still as a student he worked as set designer for the Andrej Bagár Theatre in Nitra (1972/73). From 1975–1979, he was stage designer of the State Puppet Theatre in Bratislava, and then took up the same post at the Trnava Theatre, where he has worked to this day (currently as its artistic director). Since 1981 he has worked regularly with the Husa na provázku Theatre in Brno. Between 1978 and 1990 he taught stage design at the Academy of Music and Drama in Bratislava, and since 1994 he has been active as a teacher at the Janáček Academy of Music and Drama in Brno, where he is currently head of the Stage Design Studio. In 1992 and 1993 he spent a period of time as visiting stage designer and teacher at the Miami University in Ohio, U.S.A. Since 1996 he has been a member of the Slovak National Centre of OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and  Technicians). He has to his credit an impressive list of set designs for drama, puppet theatre and opera productions, not just in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but also in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S.A. He combines his endeavours in the field of stage design with work as a graphic designer, visual artist and architect. His work has been shown in over 30 exhibitions, and has earned him a number of major awards.      Ján Zavarský has to his credit around 300 designs for productions encompassing a wide variety of stage genres, in many cases including costume designs. His most recent projects in the domain of opera have included Tristan und Isolde (National Theatre, Prague, 2000); Káťa Kabanová (Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, 2003); and Salome (National Opera, Warsaw, 2004). His previous commissions for the Prague State Opera have included set designs for the operas, La Gioconda; Lohengrin;  and Faust (all 1997), and for the operetta, Die Fledermaus (1991).