24^th January 2004

Our Association published the collection of documents with the title ”The Documents Concerning the History of the Castle Theatre in Litomyšl” on December 2003. You can find here a summary of all the articles. The collection has 100 pages with page layout A4, 5 pictures included in text and 1 in enclosure. Selling price is CZK 160,-. If you are interested in this collection you can order it at the address of the Association (see contacts ).

Restoration of the stage set ”Cabinet” was ended at the autumn 2003. At the present time suffitas of the sceneries of halls have been restoring. CORA - Packard Humanities Institute (USA) has granted these restorations. In spite of all Platzer’s sceneries were mowed into a future depository on the ground floor of the Litomyšl Castle, works of the equipment of the depository still haven’t started.

In Vicenza (Italy) an association of European historical theatres ”PERSPECTIV” was founded in October 2003, nevertheless without participation of representatives of Castle theatre in Litomyšl.

The fifth general meeting of our Association will take place in Litomyšl castle on Friday of 27th February 2004 at 14:00.

August 2003

We prepare for a printing of materials concerning the Litomysl Chateau Theatre history. For its realisation we obtained a grant from Baroque Theatre Foundation in Cesky Krumlov; part of the project will be supported by other sponsors.

Professor Frank Mohler from Appalachian State University (USA) with Jiri Blaha from Milislav Association prepare an article about the Litomysl Theatre for Theatre Design and Technology magazine. Professor Mohler works on computer models of the Theatre.

Results of researches on the Theatre, worked out last year, will be published in Zpravy pamatkove pece; the article will include drawings of machinery (cross section, axonometry), based on a new measuring.

Platzer’s scenery has been moved into a future depository on the ground-floor of the Litomysl Chateau. Restoration of a set “Cabinet”, granted by Packard Humanities Institute (USA), will start at the end of the August.

In Vicenza (Italy) an association of European historical theatres “PERSPECTIV” will be founded in October.

3^th March 2003

The Study "Possibilities of renovation, conservation and utilization of the Castle theatre in Litomyšl" was finished at the beginning of January 2003. This study includes, except main text concerning problems of the theatre and problems of its possible renovation, enclosures dealing with the climatic study of the theatre (© Ing. M. Dvořák, laboratory NPÚ), the research of the wooden construction (© Ondřej Protiva) and the research of the castle decoration (© Jiří Bláha). Summary of the conservation work which was done in the theatre so far and summary of the restored decoration so far are parts of this study as well.

At the end of January '03 members of the Association visited the castle theatre in the Castle Friedenstein (Gotha, SRN), which was restored including the stage machinery at the nineties of the 20th century. We visited the castle theatre and castle Kochberg near Weimar as well.

Next prepared project of the Association will be collection of works. We would like to access lots of archive files such as historical inventories of the theatre, The Memory book of the countess Kajetána etc., as well as other texts concerning the theatre (reconstruction of the resemblance to original stage sets etc.)

The Foundation of the Baroque Theatre in Český Krumlov introduce grant themes for the year 2003; once of them has been the theme: "renovation of the court theatres". We would like to participate in this grant in cooperation with the Institute of Historical Monument Care in Pardubice.

24^th November 2002

Next general meeting of the Association will take place in the restaurant "Under the Monastery" on Friday of 29th November 2002 at 16:30.

8^thOctober' 2002

The international conference in Bad Lauchstädt (near Leipzig), which was held at the beginning of October 2002, brought us several valuable information concerning the operation and the state of preservation other European castle theatres, and new connections of course.

12^th August 2002

Members of the Association took part in the International conference “The World of the Baroque Theatre”, which was held by the Foundation of the Baroque Theatre in Český Krumlov on half of June. The conference, which was linked with the study performance in the theatre and visit of the backstage and depository, bring us lots of suggestions of our next work. On October members of the Association are going to take part in similar conference in German Bad Lauchstädt near Leipzig.

The Foundation of the Baroque Theatre in Český Krumlov endorsed the project of our Association for elaboration of conception study “Possibilities and Perspectives of revival, conservation and utilization of the Castle Theatre in Litomyšl”. This study will completed to the end of this year and it should be marked argument for the next discussion concerning the castle theatre and its repairs.

The first copies of some missing forge components (metal clips for fixing of the side scenes), which were made according to preserved originals, were placed in the theatre.

3^th May 2002

Web sites of our Association in a new version ( new graphic set-up and updated information concerning the theatre) have been in operation since this date.

We studied very important source of information related to the history of the theatre in the last weeks: The Memory Book of the countess Kajetána; this book is deposited in National Museum in Prague. You can find an important part of information gained from this book in related sections of our web. You can read the article concerning this Memory Book in Bulletin if Litomyšl town - Lilile, no. 5. You will find the articles related to the activities of the Association Milislav in the Yearbook of SPÚ Pardubice 2001 (which is in print at the present time) and in the Memorial Volume of reports from the Conference of Restoring and protection of monuments, which took place under the auspices of Silesian University from 29^th April '02 till 30^th April '02

20^th February 2002

At the beginning of the January 2002 we elaborated „The report concerning the last year activities of the Association“. Pursuant to created documentation of the castle theatre we are going to carry on with the study of the original resemblance of the theatre and its equipment. We are interested in method of original stage sets using; the attempt at detail hypothetical reconstruction of the technique of the decoration changes, etc.

Other activities planned right in the theatre (cleaning and basic conservation of some construction, copies of some parts of the original equipment of the castle theatre) have depended on the next discussion with representatives of SPÚ Pardubice and of course on successful obtaining of sponsor dues.

18^th December 2001

The first part of the documentation was completed on December 2001. The text part of this documentation includes summary of the castle theatre history, functions and parts of the castle theatre analysis and the list of preserved equipments and the elements of the castle theatre as well. The supplement of the documentation contains more than 200 photos, schemes of the castle theatre and historical iconography. The part of this documentation will be presented on these web pages.

The second general meeting of the Association took place in Litomyšl castle on 14^th December 2001.

7^th November 2001

The Association has completed the documentation of the castle theatre in Litomyšl for CORA-PHI grant during November; the collection of decorations will be photographed and inventoried again in next days. Outcomes of the documentation will be used for ground of the gradual restoration of the castle theatre.

The second general meeting of the Association will be held in the half of December '01 (it will be specify). It should discuss program of next activities of the Association for next period and estimates. The results of discussion between the Association and SPÚ Pardubice will be known.

8^th August 2001

Web pages of the Association have been in operation since this date. You can find them on the free server web.quick.cz. The association has considered placing of these web pages on the paid server.

The association ended successfully contribution discussing for documentation of the theatre. This contribution has been granted by CORA from the grant of Packard Humanities Institute. We will start with completing of the documentation as soon as we receive the statement of SPÚ Pardubice to the relation between the Association and SPÚ.

The Association received the contribution of the Foundation of the Baroque Theatre in Ceský Krumlov in an amount 30.000,- Kc. This contribution has not been limited for the purpose. The counsel of the Association will resolve on its using.

1^st July 2001

The first general meeting of the association took place in Litomyšl castle on 11^th June 2001. The council of the Association, which was elected here, was accredited to continuation of the begun activities - especially documentation of the theatre, monitoring climatic condition in the castle theatre in cooperation with a SÚPP laboratory, interlocking cooperation with the representatives of SÚPP.

The most important news are putting into operation these web pages. The firs version of these web pages will be upgraded of the foreign-language version (we are going to create an English version of the most important information at least) and we will endeavor after continuous adding of information and photos according to researches.

1. primary cleaning and the documentation of the space under the stage with machinery for changing scenes were made in the summer 2000; the important part of the original equipment of the theatre was found during this cleaning (the lighting brackets)
2. The first stadium of planned detailed documentation of the theatre and of the research intent on detailed realization of original functions of the stage machinery and theatre operating at all (a part of this documentation and of researches results are scope of these web pages)
3. In 2001 we prepared settings for the foundation of the Association and for its activity above all. These web pages and the next part of the planned documentation of the castle theatre have been created. We will solve the relation between the Association and SPÚ Pardubice.