Petr Forman

Biography

Back when studying puppetry at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, Petr became involved in street theatre and alongside his brother Matěj performed as a member of the Váňa family at theatre fairs on Prague’s Střelecký Island. Subsequently, they performed together at the Tůjů theatre and went on to establish the Forman Brothers Theatre. With this troupe of theatre nomads they made successful tours of Europe, as well as the USA and Mexico. In the Forman Brothers Theatre Petr has worked as an actor, puppeteer and stage director. Perhaps the Theatre’s most successful staging is the puppet Baroque Opera (1992), performed on several hundred occasions. Ensuing were Le Joungleur de Notre-Dame (1993), Sedlák, čert a bába (The Peasant, Devil and Crone, 1994) and The Bartered Bride (1996). These relatively small projects were followed by three significantly more demanding ones: Nachové plachty (Crimson Sails, 2000), performed on a barge converted into a floating theatre; Philip Glass’s opera La Belle et la Bete (2003), staged in the historical building of Prague’s National Theatre, Klapzubova jedenáctka (Klapzuba’s Eleven, 2005), produced in the Minor theatre and Obludárium (2007). An independent chapter is the multiyear collaboration with the French troupe Cabaret Théâtre Dromesko on the travelling performance La Baraque - Bouda (1997). Together with his father Miloš Forman and brother Matěj Forman he won the Sazka and Společnost pro Divadelní noviny Awards for the production of J. Suchý’s a J. Šlitr’s buffopera A Walk Worthwhile at the National Theatre (2007). In addition to acting in theatre, Petr has also been frequently cast in film and television roles. After appearing as a child in J. Papoušek’s trilogy Ecce Homo Homolka (1969), Hogo-fogo Homolka (1970) and Homolka a tobolka (1972), his first leading role was in Z. Tyc’s film Vojtěch, řečený sirotek (Vojtěch, Called the Orphan, 1990). He has also appeared in Svěrák’s Akumulátor (Accumulator, 1994), Baroque Opera (1997), Vaterland - lovecký deník (Vaterland - A Hunting Diary, 2004, directed by D. Jařab), Horem pádem (Up and Down, 2004, directed by J. Hřebejk), Kousek nebe (A Little Piece of Heaven, 2005, directed by P. Nikolaev), and also rendered minor roles in Mazaný Filip (Smart Philip, 2003, directed by V. Marhoul) and the television serials Zdivočelá země (A Land Gone Wild, 1997, directed by H. Bočan) and Poslední sezóna (The Last Season, 2006, directed by H. Bočan). Update: October 2007