Our aim was to bring together high school students from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to explore the contemporary mutual relations between the two nations using different methods, to teach them how to work with documentary material and also how to create original theatre. We also wanted to teach a group of students the basics of acting, movement work on stage, construction of a dramatic situation, filming a video projection. At the same time they were learning responsibility, working in a team and developing their other softskills. The final goal of the ten-month work was a professional theatre production staged on the stage of the New Stage of the National Theatre. By staging the play, we wanted to stimulate a public dialogue about the current relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to remind how much we have in common and at the same time to show that Czechs and Slovaks are already two different nations.
In 2023 it was 30 years since the division of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are still close to each other, we have a common 70-year history, a very similar language, culture and customs stemming from the same context. And yet, in those 30 years, these nations have managed to grow so far apart that young people no longer understand and perceive their neighbouring country differently from their parents or grandparents. Exploring the topic of Czech-Slovak relations was the basic motivation for us to apply for the project. The tool we work with is theatre, an ideal space for expressing ideas in public. And especially both institutions involved in the project work with young people. Our aim is to create opportunities for learning and artistic realisation.