Please join the Theater & Performance Studies Workshop on Monday, June 9th from 3-4:30pm for Cheryl Stephenson’s (Dep. of Slavic Languages and Literatures) talk “Josef Skupa’s Seditious Heroes: Kašpárek, Spejbl, and the struggle for Czech sovereignty”.

Stephenson’s talk will address the work of Czech puppeteer Josef Skupa during the two world wars, examining his use of  puppet theater in support and defense of Czechoslovak sovereignty. Productions during the wars differed not only in their political contexts, but also in the nature and use of the puppet protagonist. Through analysis of the dramatic texts as well as critical and popular response to these productions, Stephenson highlights transitions in the puppet theater’s particular mode of subversion and political engagement, which she considers to be a product of broader changes in the relationship between the puppet and the dramatic role.

Cheryl Stephenson is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Her dissertation, “Subject/Object Agreement: Czech Puppet Theater in Theory and Practice, 1912-1948,” examines the performance of Czech puppet theater together with the broad discourse surrounding it as a collaborative engagement in the performative and communicative potential of the medium.