DRAMA & THEATERDrama & theater works
Fashion Ballet is a specific project of the Slovak National Theater, because it is a challenge for four fashion designers to present their art on a big stage, while those who present their works are professional dancers from a ballet department. That is why their creation includes the assumption of varied movement. Later, the theater also approached four choreographers to combine their art with the work of four designers, and in 2024 the creative team grew to include four music composers. The Slovak National Theater decided to give this format the largest possible artistic staff composition with the expectation of a real artistic expression. One of the approached choreographers was Andrej Petrovič. He did not hesitate and called Vladislav to suggest a short 15-minute miniature for 6 performers with the working title “L’parade”. The project was implemented with a great response and 15 minutes of beautiful movement, dressing and music remained.
This spectacular play in Slovak National Theater from W.Shakespeare, started its creation simultaneously with working on Marat-Sade (in National Theater Košice-name which was given back after 70 years). The original root conception was about concert for actors and drum set and finally, this conception was fully realized. Thanks to young and talented drummer – Marek Žilinec, who made up his part in a very sensitive way. Vladislav’s mission was to create an ending of the whole play. So-called “Sinfonia Ultima”. Director Martin Čičvák was realized as a “master of big canvas” in great hall of National Theater, with another deep dive into mystical subject of relations between causes and consequences.
After the express defeat of the COVID pandemic by the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, life returned to normality, and joy with the possibility to discuss and create again face to face led to an agreement about cooperation on the performance entitled: Peter WEISS, Marat – Sade. Directed by the legendary Slovak director Vladimír Strnisko, it was his second interpretation of this title. The first one from 2001 was among the best Slovak theater traditions so far generated, and therefore the choice of this topic at the age of 83 was all the more important. The performance was an acting concert by members of the (then still active) State Theater Košice, which with clear commitment interpret more than the current text of the author of the play.
Vladislav met Andrey Petrovič in what is now the National Theater in Košice, during creating music for “The Possessed” performance. One of Andreys tasks as a ballet director in the theater was to change and expand the concept of perception of dance performance and implement new ideas as well in artistic form. The result is an ECSTASY performance that offered the audience comprehensible, airy and light-hearted dance performance, very much within the original treatment the general theme of women and their many transformations during life. Transformations from a girl to a woman, to the law of preservation of the human race on this earth. Andrey Petrovič (performer, dancer, teacher, former assistant of Akram Khan) together with members of Balley department in National Theater Košice won a prestigious Slovakian theater award “DOSKY”, for the greatest artistic achievement of the season. Vladislav won the same prize for the best music of the season. “This award is all the more valuable to me because it was created during the strictest times of Covid lockdown measures. During curfews, travel and public premises. It was created in basements, cellars, hiding places. It all had a magical touch underground, which an unvaccinated person could not avoid.”
Dostoevsky’s “The possessed”- Brand new play in State Theater Košice is another cooperation with director Anton Korentsy. With sheduled premiere on 24th of September, the play means new dramaturgic wave in theater.
“NOVECENTO” – The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean, written by Alessandro Baricco, is the longest drama work in Vladislav’s career. The work was premiered in 2011 and ended in 2020 due to pandemic restrictions.
In tandem with Kamil Mikulčík, they start this play about the importance of loyalty usually at 19:00 and gradually draw the audience into the action. The sad moment of this story is the fact that there were 14 replays left until the magic hundred. Vladislav performed in the role of the biggest pianist on board – Danny Boodman The Lemon Novecento. In 2012, he won the “Tatra Bank Fund Award” for the original music for this game.
Directed by Patrik Lančarič for “Divadlo v podpalubí” Management: Dušan Lančarič
Edward Bonds‘ drama The Sea was premiered in 2018 in tandem with ABC Theatre in Prague. This unusual story was to mark a fresh start for otherwise comedy-oriented ABC Theatre.
There used to be a very pleasant bar in Bratislava called La Putika frequented by Bohemians from Račianske mýto.
Vladislav, a typical pub lover became a regular there as he lived just around the corner.
This pub was a popular meeting place for one generation of students from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts.
During one of those fun-filled evenings Vladislav hit it off with Viktor Kollár, a drama director in Ján Palárik Theater in Trnava.
They started a dialogue resulting in three various titles:
Dimitrij Samozvanec, a drama written by Ján Palárik, a 19th century co-codifier of the Slovak language.
William Shakespeares Timon of Athens and modern drama written by Peter Kováčik – Bird of God.
The play was premiered in May 2014 and the same year it was awarded Dosky – a Slovak theater drama prize.
Anna Petrželková was Vladislav’s schoolmate from the drama department whom he worked on some school projects with. They renewed cooperation soon after graduating from the academy in 2009.
In the State Theatre Košice (Vladislav‘s home town) they presented Ibsen’s Nora with a subtitle Burda is dead.
Desatoro was a project orchestrated by Slovak National Theater giving voice to 10 different directors of one generation to reflect on the pillars of the western society, the Ten Commandments.
Through a secret ballot Vladislav was chosen as the music composer for the whole project which took place simultaneously on 10 different stages.
The play was premiered in May 2014 and the same year it was awarded Dosky – a Slovak theater drama prize.
Czech director Jiří Havelka with an artist collective of the Slovak National Theater generated a text depicting the practices of State Security Service in communist Czechoslovakia and the role of Moscow State Institute of International Relations. The play centres on pointing out similarities between communist potentates and present-day politicians.
In addition to the music and sound design, Vladislav played the role of Victor Fiodorovich Grushko, the head of KGB.
The next spectacle with a grand piano and a stage format was Prophet Štúr And His Shadows. A long duration play, premiered in 2015, was yet another cooperation with Roman Polák in the Slovak National Theater
The first and only opera as yet in Vladislav‘s repertoire is a children’s opera Ružové Kráľovstvo (Rose Kingdom). The Slovak adjective ružové means both pink and rosy.
This opera has two acts and was based on a fairy tale Rosehip Rosette and was commissioned by the State Opera in Banská Bystrica and premiered in October 2018. A year before, Jozef Slovák (prominent Slovak librettist, director, musician, writer) had found Vladislav by force majeure and explained him the nature of the project. A couple of months after Vladislav started scoring for a big orchestra, solos and mixed choir.
The pioneer of Slovak electronic music, composer Jozef Vlk is a household name in the contemporary and conceptual art scene and has been around for 30 years now.
As the director and founder of the Debris Company he built the aesthetical foundations of the movement on a performative – contemporary synthesis of motional, music and visual art performance. The title Europe‘s Abduction was the second part of Debris Company: Trilogy (WOW – Europe‘s Abduction – Job), released in 2017.
Vladislav started with scoring the music for String Quartet, or String Quartet no.4 and put together the Specrtum Quartet which become a part of spectacle.
The presentation was designed as a stand-up comedy show for the main artist, three female performers and a string quartet.
Director Peter Mikulík was 77, when he approached Vladislav with an offer to participate on William Shakespeare‘s The Merry Wives of Windsor. As the youngest person in the team he decided to use his the very first composition which he wrote as a 7-year-old boy.
Translation: Ľubomír Feldek
Director: Peter Mikulík
Dramaturgy: Peter Kováč
Scene: Jozef Ciller
Costume designer: Peter Čanecký
Music: Vladislav Šarišský
Choreography: Stanislava Vlčeková
Astorka Korzo, another theatre in Bratislava, was founded on 1st April, 1991. With fresh wind in their sails, they started to perform chamber dramatic forms, which had not been very popular before.
In a nurturing and stimulating environment, they worked together as one stable collective. A film and drama director Patrik Lančarič represents a generation of people who vividly remember the fall of communism from the pespective of 17-year-olds. He met Vladislav in 2010 and they immediately started to work on a number of projects. The play Einstein’s Wife from a Slovak playwright Peter Pavlač was written for and inspired by one of the founding members of Astorka, actress Zita Furková.
This unusual story is about Albert Einsten’s wife who sacrificed her ambitions, talent and her life energy in order to be with a man who then turned his back on her and left her. Premiered in 2015.
Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power, a serious psychological study of common people and their idea of power was another project with Anton Korentsy.
Anton, Vladislav’s former schoolmate from the Academy founded his own platform AntiTeatro after he had left his job as the director of Malá Scéna – a semiprofessional theater in Bratislava, where both Vladislav and Anton cooperated on a chamber musical Peter and Lucy.
Alta Vášová (Slovak librettist), Ján Štrasser (Slovak poet) and Dežo Ursiny (founder of Slovak bigbeat and artrock music) were a famous artist collective which had produced several well-received musicals during the communist regime. Peter and Lucy, based on the Romain Rolland‘s novel, was their third musical which was put on hold by the censorship committee just before they started rehearsing it at Nová Scéna Theater in the 80s. Twenty years later, Kubo Ursiny, Dežo’s son, came across a cassette with the musical on it and started searching a venue for it. The search was successful and during the talks with Anton Korentsy in Malá Scéna Theater, he proposed Talent Transport trio as a suitable band with Vladislav as the arranger. The premiere took place in 2013 and was a great success, continuing for about 10 more months. The play was eventually remade into a CD album in 2018, giving the play a new lease of life in Zlínske Divadlo in the same year.
Bertold Brecht’s Respectable wedding was a second cooperation of the Slovak National Theater with Slovenian director Diego de Brea. It was clear the play would be successful at the dress rehearsal, when the audience was divided and started to passionately exchange their opinions, clench their fists and shout at the actors.
Even though there was no nudity or obscenities, the play was hitting the right buttons. It made the headlines in tabloids and every one in the team was very pleased, as this kind of reaction is rare if not absent in modern times.
Roman Polák invited Vladislav to work together on a few more projects. Karpatský thriller was an original text from Eugen Gindl about absurd corruption during the first years of the existence of the Slovak Republic.
Inspired by articles published by Der Spiegel in the 1990s about exporting corruption worlwide by the Samsung company, this play depicts criminal investigation of the scandal. It was premiered in 2013 and in 2020 it was moved to Aréna Chamber Theater in Ostrava (Czechia).
Vladislav played one more piece in Aréna Theater in 2010 called Let’s hunt my husband with a shotgun!
This masterpiece from Stefan Kršňák directed by Roman Polák was a strange three-year experience for Vladislav, as he wished to make himself invisible, frantically playing the piano wearing a clown costume and heavy make up.
The climax of the three theatrical seasons came when Ľubo Bukový (the squint-eyed officer) met his demise onstage, accidentally hanging himself. The audience witnessed this moment without realizing what was really happening. Ľubo was given first aid by his collueague who had no idea he had stopped breathing minutes before.
Vladislav started with performances, events and happenings during his studies at the Košice Conservatory. Along with his schoolmates from the department of drama and dance, he uncovered great possibilities by combining musical and scenic relationships. They came to realise that when improvising and fusing, it was possible to draw in accidental audience while being highly convincing. Vladislav created musical set ups for several drama projects and later, during his studies at the Academy he continued working with his new schoolmates on complete dramas.
In 2007 he was invited by the drama department of the Slovak National Theater to work as the band leader, conductor and pianist performing Peter Kofroň’s interpretations of arrangements of Gerschwin‘s Rapshody in Blue as part of Léonce and Lena by G.Buchner.
The director of this piece, Martin Čičvák was in charge of several other plays.
In 2009 he hired Vladislav again as a live pianist for the play Faust and,in 2011 for the famous Moisés Kaufman‘s 33 Variations.
This contemporary play from Broadway would pose a challenge to any pianist, with L. V. Beethoven‘s 33 variations on Diabelli‘s waltz as the main theme.
After two seasons Vladislav asked Mr Kukura (the director) for a bigger honorarium. This request was turned down, which led to the termination of the performance.
