From June 8-18, 2023 the USITT will present curated work reflecting inclusion, excellence, and responsibility in US theatre design created from June 2018 to the present by both Emerging Designers and National Designers .
The PQ
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space was established in 1967 to bring the best of design for performance, scenography, and theatre architecture to the front line of cultural activities to be experienced by professional and emerging artists as well as the general public.
The Prague Quadrennial is globally known as a two-week event taking place every four years since 1967 in Prague, Czech Republic. This model has been evolving. More and more designers now understand PQ as a platform: a continual stream of activities and collaborations happening across the globe with many different partners, creative professionals, artists, researchers, and theorists. Each on-site festival of PQ is now a culmination of the efforts of the preceding 4 years: a celebration and an opportunity for performing arts professionals from around the world to come to one place and share their work, ideas, and thoughts during the quadrennial festival. We work towards making the 2023 edition once again an opportunity for many new and unique shared experiences.
RARE
The PQ 2023 theme is the RARE : art springing out of ideas, materials, artistic approaches, and design practices that connect to the human level from within an environment, with its genius loci and showing its unique character.
The United States exhibit will celebrate RARE design submissions that support the inclusion of under-represented communities, acknowledge stories born from systemic power structures and historical events, and document the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The range of curated designs that will represent PQ23 RARE artistic forms include forward-thinking, unexpected, socially conscious, atypical, innovative, out-of-the-box, and traditional designs.
Prague Quadrennial calls on Performance Designers, Scenographers, and Performance Practitioners to use their RARE imagination and creativity to help envision what theatre and the world could look like in a post-pandemic future.
CLICK the Button Below to read the PQ23 Artistic Concept Statement
The Location
The main venue is the Holešovice Market (the former slaughterhouse and meat market).
The area of the former central slaughterhouse of the royal city of Prague was put into operation in 1895. At the time, the organization of the slaughterhouse was very modern, comparable only to a few similar operations in Europe at the time. To this day, thanks to its well-preserved architecture, the complex is lined up alongside important monuments of the European Industrial Heritage Trail.
Secondary location: DAMU
Other possible locations:
- Prague Exhibition Grounds
- Prague 7 public spaces
- city center public spaces
Global
The 14th edition of the largest international festival of theatre and stage design took place from 6th to 16th June 2019 on the Prague Exhibition Grounds premises and elsewhere in Prague. During those 11 days, the PQ locations drew some 70,000 viewers. 8,005 professionals, students and other active participants from 106 countries accredited for the main part of the program consisting of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and performances.
Innovative
In 2015, PQ received an EU EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) prize as one of the most innovative festivals in Europe. In the last edition of PQ, in 2019, the festival and live performances made up a majority of all PQ activities.
Non-stop
In addition to the festival, which takes place once every four years and is the largest event of its kind globally, the Prague Quadrennial (co)organise and realise several projects.
PQ Knowledge Exchange Platform
In partnership with several international online open-source publications, PQ is creating a knowledge exchange platform that will be a space for sharing essential findings and ideas and an open dialogue connecting practice, research, and theory.