Pavel Svoboda

Biography

Studied graphic design at the Private Master School of Art Design and set design at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2006 he successfully completed special studies of photography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (in the studio of Ivan Pinkava). He is the founder and a member of the free designer group Aluminium and its photographic edition Spirala and collaborates with the artistic guild Kontextual. He works on a regular basis as a set designer with the director Jiří Heřman. In 2000 he created the sets for Heřman’s production Northern Nights, a year later for the project New Opera Twice at the theatre Divadlo Inspirace (Michal Nejtek: Dementia praecox, Marko Ivanović: The Maiden and Death). At Pilsen’s J. K. Tyl Theatre he collaborated with Jiří Heřman on the productions of Saint-Saens’s Samson et Dalila (2002) and Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (2004). The set design for Samson et Dalila received a nomination for the Alfred Radok Award, while his design for Der fliegende Holländer won the award outright. He has also created the sets for Heřman’s productions of Lamenti (2004, NoD-Roxy, Schlachthaus Theater Bern), Britten’s Curlew River (2005, Czech Museum of Music), Monteverdi’s Orfeo (2007, the National Theatre) and Martinů’s The Miracles of Mary (2009, the National Theatre). He has also collaborated with the stage director and playwright Katharina Schmitt (Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet in the Theatre of Zlín, 2008; Tim Crouch: England in the Meet Factory in Prague, 2009) and many other stage directors at different theatres (René Levínský: Nawratilova Szymzcykowa (Glowing Hearts) at the West Bohemian Theatre in Cheb, 2009; Work Demo/Miniatures – A Tilting Woman (Farm in the Cave) at the Švanda Theatre in Prague, 2007; Jiří Mahen: Jánošík at the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem, 2007; Petr Kolečko: Britney Goes To Heaven at Petr Bezruč Theatre in Ostrava, 2006; Neil LaBute: Fat Pig and Jaroslav Havlíček: The Man of Five Sisters at the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice, 2005 and 2006. As a designer, architect and co-author of the script, he has participated in Vít Karas‘s films Runners (2010) and The Little World (2005), which received many awards (Fresh Film Fest Prize 2005, Famufest Prize 2004, Spectator’s Prize and Jaroslav Kučera Prize of Czech Cameramen Association 2004). Update: March 2011