Concern over the situation at the Kladno City Theatre
The Committee of the Association of Professional Theatres expresses serious concern about the situation at the Kladno City Theatre.
APD has long been striving to cultivate the environment in Czech culture, which is precisely why it has devoted such efforts in recent months and years to supporting the implementation of the Act on Public Cultural Institutions. The Kladno Theatre is not a member of our association, but it belongs to the backbone network of regional theatres and, as such, is also a recipient of public funds from the Professional Theatre Support Programme. For all these reasons, we are not and cannot be indifferent to the situation of the Kladno Theatre, especially since strange upheavals occur repeatedly in Kladno. We therefore consider it necessary to repeat several theses, although we would like to take them for granted in a civilized world:
Every founder or setter has the inalienable right, indeed the duty, to determine the direction of his institution, to entrust its management to those whom he trusts and who, in his opinion, are capable of fulfilling this direction, to control their work, to evaluate it, and to draw conclusions from the evaluation. He does everything on behalf of the public. His will is therefore corrected by the public interest in the spiritual development of society or community in a given place.
A responsible founder performs this duty through standard tools such as transparent tenders with clear tender conditions held well in advance, or medium-term and long-term strategies and their regular evaluation.
A responsible theatre manager is only willing to take responsibility for the entrusted institution under such conditions.
Of course, sometimes a situation may arise that requires a non-standard solution. But then it is necessary to openly name such a situation as extremely non-standard, including its causes. And this is with the knowledge that, apart from the interventions of a higher power, it is always primarily the responsibility of the founder himself, who apparently did not pay sufficient attention to his institution, did not properly fulfill his control role, etc.
The current events in the Kladno theatre, when members of the theatre who publicly expressed their disagreement with the city's actions are being forced to leave, when the theatre finds itself completely without dramaturgs at the start of the new season, when recently rehearsed productions are being hastily withdrawn, when cooperation with already approached creative teams is apparently being cancelled, and so on, are simply absolutely unacceptable. This is a waste of public funds, absolute disrespect for the work and time of a whole range of people, and complete ignorance of the basic rules of solid functioning and administration of public institutions. And it is equally worrying that a city can approach its theatre in this way and that it finds willing executors of its will who lend themselves to such action. All this, moreover, at a time when, using the example of neighboring Slovakia, we can watch live why it is so important to protect our institutions and consistently demand compliance with the rules in their administration.
Aktuální události v kladenském divadle, kdy dochází k nuceným odchodům členů divadla, kteří veřejně vyjádřili svůj nesouhlas s postupem města, kdy se divadlo na začátku nové sezony ocitlo zcela bez dramaturgů, kdy se překotně stahují nedávno nazkoušené inscenace, kdy se zřejmě ruší spolupráce s již oslovenými tvůrčími týmy a tak dále, je zkrátka absolutně nepřijatelná. Jedná se o plýtvání veřejnými prostředky, absolutní neúctu k práci a času celé řady lidí a naprostou ignoranci základních pravidel solidního fungování a správy veřejných institucí. A je stejně znepokojivé, že takto může nějaké město přistupovat ke svému divadlu i že najde ochotné vykonavatele své vůle, kteří se k takovému jednání propůjčí. To vše navíc v době, kdy na příkladu sousedního Slovenska můžeme v přímém přenosu sledovat, proč je tak důležité si své instituce chránit a důsledně požadovat dodržování pravidel při jejich správě.