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Minor Theatre Liberec

Karel Hubáček

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Important events

(detail)1869 | theatre hall

Latest at 1869, two storey inn Prátr used to stand in the location of the present theatre  where a hall with dimension of 18 × 12 m came into existence during a reconstruction in 1887. Theatre was played in this hall since 1903.


(detail)1927 | Reconstruction designs

Prátr was purchased in 1927 by people’s typography of Antonín Němec and co. from Prague, which decided to rebuild and modernise it to the grounds. The first design of the reconstruction, which was being carried out in the following two years, was worked out by architect Václav Bečvárovský from  Mladá Boleslav in October 1927.


(detail)80. 's 20. century | reconstruction design

A reconstruction design of the decayed building into an experimental theatre with needed background was worked out in 1986 by Liberec architect Karel Hubáček. He designed a hall with a capacity of 200 spectators, with a variable, removable construction of rows of seats in the auditorium for the new minor stage. The operational design by Agrostav Liberec (1987) that carried out the entire reconstruction,  resumed on the Hubáček’s design; Jiří Žižka led the projection and construction works.


(detail)14.09.1989 | opening

New chamber stage of the Liberec F. X. Šalda Theatre was opened on 14th September 1989 (definitive building approval was issued not until February 1990). In the beginnings of operation, the name Arena was used, but that did not take hold and today the stage is known as the Minor Theatre.


(detail)90. 's 20. century | operational building
In 1990, Hubáček was working on the design of a new building of four storey operational building of F. X. Šalda Theatre, adjacent to the Minor Theatre from the south, in the location of the existing small workshops and storage rooms. The final design, under which V. Bůžek from  Sial  is undersigned as a co-worker, is dated by January 1991. The operational building with storage rooms and workshops was finished in 1993.

People

(detail)Karel Hubáček |main architect

His most famous work is the Ještěd tower, which is considered by some as the one of the most original buildings in the Czech Republic. This structure is on the list of UNESCO. He was the member of the atelier "SIAL".

Source: Wikipedia

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Jiří Žižka |architect
(detail)Josef Wenig |painter

Painter, illustrator , stage designer and actor.

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History

Latest at 1869, two storey inn Prátr used to stand in the location of the present theatre  where a hall with dimension of 18 × 12 m came into existence during reconstruction in 1887. Theatre was played in this hall since 1903. Amateur actors succeeded in modernising and enlarging the stage and background probably before the First World War; stage designer of Prague Vinohrady Theatre Josef Wenig painted a new curtain for them.

The inn served as an army logging house during the First World War. The theatre activity was resumed after the war and the hall was converted in 1922 for  movie projections. A small gym was behind the stage, a restaurant in the front of the hall and associational rooms on the side of the hall.  Prátr was purchased in 1927 by people’s typography of Antonín Němec and co. from Prague, which decided to rebuild and modernise it to the grounds. The first design of the reconstruction, which was being carried out in the following two years, was worked out by architect Václav Bečvárovský from  Mladá Boleslav in October 1927. It is not easy to find  the designed articulation of the facade in the house appearance from the second half of the 20th century (how it is known from the photographs); either the first designs were considerably modified or  larger modification of street frontage occurred meanwhile than it is possible to find out. The house is marked on the designs as the House of the Labours’ Gymnastic Union in Liberec. Apart the hall, there was functioning a hotel, restaurant and printing office in the rear wing after the enlargement and reconstruction; the gym behind the stage was enlarged as well; a component of it was probably in the present detached house N. 1184 ( in a view from the street to the right).  

The building was labelled People’s or Labourers’ House since the reconstruction. The police had a seat here under German occupation, the house became the seat of Social Democracy after liberation. Since 1948, it was the property of the city, which located here auxiliary rooms of the North Bohemia National Theatre (further NBNT).

A larger adaptation occurred probably in  relation with it, at first NBNT demanded demolition of the confiscated house N. 345  that was neighbouring with People’s House and was in deteriorated state, the released plot – there is an operational building in it today- was added to the theatre and there should have emerged a two storey scenery storeroom and dressing room of the 30×15 m plan (however, there is only an empty area in this location next to the blank side wall of the People’s House  on the latter photographs).

The theatre intended to build up the storage and rehearsal rooms including a ballet hall (one in the extent of a stage of a large theatre) and administrative rooms ( 10 offices) in actual People’s House. Theatrical workshops should have been adapted from the existing hall; it is not certain, if it really happened. Keepers’ flat was adapted in 1957; it was referred about the building in the documents as a Minor Hall of NBNT.

An adaptation of the rehearsal room and ballet hall were being carried out because of acoustics in 1970. A reconstruction of the facades and roofs occurred including replacement of window infillings in1973.

The building decayed  because of long term neglect of  maintenance so it ceased to meet the safety directives and it was necessary to confine its operation. A reconstruction was considered for several times; Liberec Stavokombinát worked out even   project documentation of the planned renewal in 1981 that  has not, however, been  realized. The state of the building was really serious: according to structural engineer, there was a danger that the supporting side wall of the hall would collapse.

Architectural study of the reconstruction of the decayed building into an experimental theatre with needed background was worked out not until 1986 by Liberec architect Karel Hubáček (born 1924), the author of the television tower and hotel on Ještěd and designs of theatres as well (he designed unrealized reconstruction of the Naive Theatre in Liberec at the end of the 1960s, designed the Brno theatre the Goose on the String, theatre Disk in Prague or the concert hall in Teplice). He designed a hall with a capacity of 200 spectators, with a variable, removable construction of rows of seats in the auditorium for the new minor stage.

The operational design by Agrostav Liberec (1987) that carried out the entire reconstruction,  resumed on the Hubáček’s design; Jiří Žižka led the projection and construction works.

The beginnings of the construction, initiated on the beginnings of 1987, were marked by official complications, when the theatre did not attached project documentation to the request for a building permit and the reconstruction works began without the necessary permits. The building office therefore summoned misdemeanour proceeding on 20th May 1987 for  the first June and because no answer from the theatre came, it prohibited further continuation of the construction works. Despite of it, the works were continuing.

The redaction of the Red Right received a “very critical letter” with information about an unprofessional and uneconomical course of the reconstruction; the redaction immediately asked the explanation from the building department of the County National Committee in Liberec. The complaint was written down by the owner of neighbouring house in Zeyer Street; he sent another, similar one to Minister of Interior at the same time.

The situation calmed down not until  negotiations in October 1987. The building department of the Municipal National Committee stated  that the theatre started the construction without the building permit, but with regard to the  critical condition of the building.

Project documentation was submitted at this moment; the dissatisfied owners of the neighbouring real estate insisted at least on arrangement of television signal with relation to building increase, on bright plaster on the finished building and on observance of anti-noise limits. The construction should have been finished to the end of October 1988 after the subsequent building permit would have been issued.

In this first phase of the reconstruction, there were constructed rehearsal rooms and a new hall of the Minor Theatre, so the part of the building from the Zhořelecká Street up to the wall of the ballet hall; in the second phase, which is described by the technical report from April 1988,  it was resumed with logging rooms, stage and basement in the part from ballet hall up to Zeyer Street.

New chamber stage of the Liberec F. X. Šalda Theatre was opened on 14th September 1989 (definitive building approval was issued not until February 1990). In the beginnings of operation, the name Arena was used, but that did not take hold and today the stage is known as the Minor Theatre.

In 1990, Hubáček was working on the design of a new building of four storey operational building of F. X. Šalda Theatre, adjacent to the Minor Theatre from the south, in the location of the existing small workshops and storage rooms. It was worked on the demolitions and  foundations excavating already in the same year. The final design, under which V. Bůžek from  Sial  is undersigned as a co-worker, is dated by January 1991. Whilst the adaptation of the Minor Theatre almost  did not change the preserved appearance of the simple facades and Hubáček’s work was reflected especially in the concept of the interior, the new building of the operational construction impacts by its self-confident and crystallized form in style on the first glance. The operational building with storage rooms and workshops was finished in 1993.

Present state

The building of the Minor Theatre fills the prolong plot between Zhořelecká, to which is turned  by its main entrance, and Zeyer streets; an operational building is adjacent to it from the south.

Both the street frontages of the Minor Theatre are very simple, deprived of all bossed elements, which remains are visible still on the photographs from the 1970s. The entrance facade is two storeyed with square and narrow oblong windows, symmetrically distributed in the flat, not decorated facade. A balcony protrudes in the level of the first floor from the central part in the width of three window bays covering the main entrance to the building; its parapet serves as a notice board. A three bay sector is adjacent to the entrance part on the right being heighten by roof semi-storey, articulated by shallow rectangular frames, and the block continues by four storey house N. 1184 ( originally a part of the People’s House). The Minor Theatre is adjacent on the left to the side facade of the operational building with a distinct element of a high column portico and with narrow balcony in one window bay of the top storey. The rear facade to Zeyer Street is two storeyed in the left part, in the right part three storeyed with a low gable. A pattern of simple windows is interrupted by a skylight of the staircase penetrating all the height of the facade, the rear entrance to the building and several iron sheet doors. The second side facade of the operational building continues on the right.

The theatre is entered through doors under a balcony in the main facade; there is a glass display window on the left from the doors. A theatre club is located on the left from the doors, a bar on the right. A foyer is located on the left behind them, on the right a corridor to the spectators’ resting room. The front foyer, laid along the rear wall of the auditorium, is adjacent on the right to the side foyer – already in the volume of the operational building – along the side wall of the hall with cloakrooms inserted between the columns, which articulate its high space.

Two entrances to the rear part of the auditorium lead from the front foyer. The oblong hall has preserved the dimension of the People’s House old hall and classical division into the auditorium and stage with a proscenium arch even after the reconstruction. The auditorium with a flat floor has an extent of 11,4 × 22,6 m. The  floor is articulated by a regular pattern from squares with a side of 1.4 m. Seats for 200 spectators are located on the variable system of praktiasda ( their module ground plan stems out of the same dimension as the pattern on the floor of the hall), adjustable in height by the help of scissors mechanism. The system enables to arrange various spatial layouts in the area; not only the classical auditorium with elevation for watching the plays on the stage, but  optional composition of smaller tribunes by performing directly in the auditorium area.

An undecorated proscenium arch with the dimension of 3,7 × 7 m separates the stage of the 12,7 × 7,9 m plan from  acting area of circa 7 × 6 m.

The side walls of the hall are trimmed under the ceiling by footbridges from steel beams, on which two transverse movable bridges and 20 mobile electric fly lines (from which 15 in the auditorium and five on the stage) are mounted; the footbridges and bridges are not the component of the lighting. The wall of undecorated hall are composed of diaper masonry work, which motif is repeated on the curtain as well, so when it remains  lowered, it forms visually a fourth wall of the hall.

Dressing rooms and background are distributed along the side wall of the hall, in the rear wing and in upper floors of the building, where rehearsal rooms of the theatre and ballet hall are located.

Hubáček conceived the operational building, built up to the side (blank) facade of the Minor Theatre as symmetrical structure with central bay. One’s attention is attracted apart the regular pattern of the windows by the motif of arcades or archway penetrating the height of two storeys. An entrance to the side foyer is located in one of this archway above the several stairs in the side facade to the Zhořelecká Street. The arcade is only lined out by a different colour and material in the main south facade – brown ceramic cladding contrasting with a white plaster of the remaining part of the facade. Similarly ceramic cladding distinguishes the centre of the segmentally gibbous wall of the central bay facade, accentuated by a balcony in the top floor. A ramp for  trucking leads from Zeyer Street to the lateral side of the bay.

The building contains store rooms, workshops and other operational room. A high side foyer with cloakrooms grows from here in the ground floor, in the part attached to the Minor Theatre.

Sources and literature:

– Magistrát Liberec, archiv stavebního úřadu, spis domu Zhořelecká čp. 344 (Malé divadlo)

– Svatopluk Technik, Liberecké domy hovoří II, Liberec 1993, s. 34

– Roman Karpaš (ed.), Velká kniha o Liberci, Liberec 1996, zejm. s. 325, 447, 526–527, 533, 538, obr. 617, 618

 

 

Tags: Normalization in Czechoslovakia

 

Author: Iva Karásková

Translator: Jan Purkert

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