Vilém Faltýnek: A Pilgrim Escaping From Anxieties Of The World

This program takes a text first published 480 years ago and creates a collage set within an acoustic context from contemporary life. Four former and current students from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) hit the street with a stereo microphone and excerpts from a book by John Amos Comenius in an attempt to read and understand old allegories within a contemporary audio context.

The primary source for this radio journey was Comenius's Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart. At the end of the show, listeners are invited to continue on their own. The audio material was first presented at the 2003 Prague Quadrennial.

The recordings were made using an experimental method which encourages performers to give their all and to find inspiration in what they see and hear around them, a method which the authors tested in their recordings. It turns out that such an improvisational approach requires long-term preparation in order to replace the absence of preparation at the moment of creation. One surprising finding is the readiness of the environment to respond to stimuli coming from the performer. If the recording instrument, the technician and the technology are all ready, then it is possible to record the conversation between the past and present (or future?) within a person and in his surroundings. All the texts were read in a real-life environment, with the microphone recording the readings together the actor's voice.

The authors would like to thank Prague during six June days (14-20 June 2003) for its cooperation.