Czech Republic
Artistic Director of the National Theater of the Czech Republic (Narodni Divadlo).
Michal Dočekal became interested in theater in high school, acting and directing in the Studio at the Rubin Theater. Between 1985 to 1991 he studied stage directing at the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and during this time took up a half-year study residency in London. In 1991-1994 he was the stage director of the Kašpar Theater Society (directing, among other plays Katynka based on Heinrich von Kleist's play Ketchen of Heilbronn, Doña Juana by Tirso de Molina (adapted by G. Bylina), Clavija by Goethe (adapted by J. Vostrÿ).
From 1994-2002 he was the artistic director of the Prague’s Divaldo Komedie Theater. In 1996, the Prague’s Divaldo Komedie Theater under Dočekal's direction received the Czech Alfréd Radok Theater Award as the Best Theater of the Year 1996. Dočekal's productions at the Komedie Theater include productions based on plays by W. Shakespeare: King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice - as well as Chekhov's Three Sisters, Enquist's The Image Makers, "Ten little Indians" by A. Christie etc. The production of C. Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (2001) was a significant moment in his career as a director. The play was staged in the underground of Vyšehrad Castle in Prague and was awarded the Divadelní noviny Award. At the time, he also worked in other theaters as a guest director. Prior joining the National Theater, he had staged two productions at the Kolowrat Theater: Joyce's Exiles(1994) and S. Beckett's Happy Days(1998).
In 2002 Michal Dočekal became the artistic director of the National Drama Theater of the Czech Republic. His first production in this theater was "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Rostand. Subsequently, he staged: "4.48 Psychosis " by Kane, "Like Totally Weird" by Mastrosimone, "Krapp's Last Tape" by Beckett, "The Miser" by Moliere, "Hypermarket" by V. Klimàček, "Sellers of Souls" by Basetti, "Pygmalion" by B. Shaw, "At Home" by Františák, "A Little Night Serenade" by Kohout and others.
At the present time, his productions in the National’s repertoire include: at the National Theatre: Cyrano de Bergerac; at the Estates Theatre: Richard III (Shakespeare; for its stage direction he was nominated for the Divadelní noviny and Sazka Award), The Government Inspector (Gogol), Mikvah (Galron), August: Osage County (Letts);The Seagull (Chekhov), Enron (Lucy Prebble); at the New Stage: Waiting for Godot (Beckett), Saved (Bond); What Happend After Nora Left her Husband (Jelinek) and at the Kolowrat Theatre: The Retreat from Moscow (Nicholson).
As a guest director Michal Dočekal has worked in several European theaters. He has successfully staged productions based on the play Mikvah by the contemporary Israeli playwright Hadar Galron, first at the Arena Theater (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2009) and then at the Budapest Comedy Theater (Hungary, 2010). In 2011 at the Slovak National Theater, Michal Dočekal staged T. Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
Michal Dočekal has been awarded a number of prestigious theater awards. These include the Czech Literary Foundation Award (2004) and the International Prize of Flaiano Prize (Pescara, Italy, 2003). In 2011, Dočekal was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Theaters of Europe.
The Seventh International Alexandrinsky Theatre Festival presented Michal Dočekal's play What Happened After Nora Left Her Husband by E. Jelinek (May 18 and 19, 2013, Main Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre).