The Prague Fringe Festival is just around the corner! Less than three weeks to go! Rehearsals are going really well, and it’s amazing to see the script come to life! Looking forward to the premiere of Deja Vu! — in Prague.

We’ve been sourcing props! Here are some musical pieces we will be using in the show:

*Due to a high level of interest in the play we have decided to hold an extra audition on Sunday the 20th of November from 16:00 to 19:00.*

“Déjà Vu” will be performed at the Prague Fringe Festival next June, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2012. Edinburgh is the largest arts festival in the world and each year attracts thousands of agents, producers, and promoters. It’s now or never! Currently we are looking for one actor and one actress both in their 20s/30s.

Here is the summary:
George loves Anne. Anne loves George. But Anne is having an affair with Fred. Why? It has something to do with Spain, but when they talk about it the lights turn off, and they forget everything, only to begin again on a new tangent of fate. Time for them is a ball of string and they are caught in a very tangled knot!

The performance is presented by Wild Mint Productions, and supported by CANZA, the Czech Australian New Zealand Association. We are also currently negotiating sponsorship with several companies around the city.

When: Sunday 20th November 16:00 to 19:00

Where: Prague Playhouse Acting Studio Františka Krížka 1 Praha 7, Holešovice

The audition is open to everyone regardless of experience. Please send an email, with your headshot attached, to wildmintproductions@gmail.com to arrange a time! We will send you an audition script.

We are also seeking other creative professionals who are interested in collaboration. This includes stage management, lighting, sound, music, directing, promotion, and design. If interested send us an email!

If you represent or know of a company interested in sponsoring the project we would love to hear from you too!

We look forward to seeing you at the auditions!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had the privilege of travelling through the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. I visited Kutna Hora, Krakow, Auschwitz, Warsaw, and Budapest. It was an amazing and very inspiring journey to say the least, and it was filled with a mixture of heaviness and lightness. Starting in Kutna Hora I was confronted with the bone church, a church filled with sculptures, candle holders, and chandeliers all made entirely out of human bones. It made me think about the temporary nature of life, and how one lifetime is just a flash in time. Eventually kings, knaves, lovers, and warriors all become bones. It made me think about life and death, and how important it is to live the life you truly want to live, because time passes so quickly, and if you don’t make the decision to truly live your life now, then before too long it will be too late.

My next stop was Warsaw, a city which really impressed me. Although, I do realise that this is an unusual thing. Most people don’t think much of Warsaw at all. The reason is that 80 percent of the city was obliterated after World War 2. However, when you walk around the old town square I was taken by the humility of its beauty. It is amazing to think that the old town square was just rubble after the war, and yet thanks to an incredible effort of the Polish citizens they managed to rebuild the old town square to look like new (well, I should say old). For this reason, Warsaw is known as the “phoenix city”. It serves as a reminder that even the most beautiful empire can be turned to dust. Seeing the monstrous Palace of Culture and Science in the city centre was also a reminder that the end of World War 2 was not the end of Polish oppression. Only twenty years ago did the last Russian troops leave the city. In many ways I realise now that the war never really ended, nor will it ever end. It’s repercussions live on.

From Warsaw I doubled back to Krakow, a city which also impressed me greatly. In fact I didn’t want to leave. I stayed on the Vistula river in a very fancy hotel. It was luxury actually. So much so that it meant at times I didn’t want to leave such comfort indoors. From Krakow I went for a day trip to Auschwitz, which is an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I don’t understand what happened there because it’s simply unfathomable unless you lived through it. I can only say that I understand it better. I don’t think anyone could even claim to understand it completely. When you think of the evolution of humans, only since the rise growth of civilisations have we had the need to calculate such large numbers as 1.1 million (the number of Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz and Birkenau), and 6 million (the number of Jews who were murdered under the Nazi rule all over Europe). These numbers just blow the mind. Seeing two tonnes of human hair for example is something that makes the stomach turn, and so it should. Especially when you hear that seven tonnes of human hair was ready to be shipped to Germany when the red army liberated the camp. More than that was already sent back to Germany intended to be made into socks and rugs. The things that were more fathomable, and also therefore the saddest to me were the small things. For instance, seeing the collection of items like shoe polish that the prisoners of the death camp brought with them to the camp, obviously expecting that they will need to polish their shoes. Or seeing a suitcase with 12 years old written in large white letters, knowing that this child would have been sent to the gas chamber on arrival at the camp. Only those over 15 years of age were accepted. These people were treated as sub-human, robbed of their identities, tattooed with numbers, and murdered with their infant children in their arms. Some souls were born into this world only to return to ash not long after. How does that make sense?

My last stop was Budapest, and to be honest I didn’t know much about the city or the culture before I arrived. However, I quickly learnt about the long string of invasions and oppression that has troubled Budapest for hundreds of years. Budapest like many cities in Poland was turned to rubble after the second world war. I knew so little about Hungarian culture that it was only a couple of days into my visit that I read an article about chinking glasses. I had been happily chinking glasses with my friend and saying cheers in many restaurants already, happily celebrating our travels. Therefore, I was looking for the Hungarian term for “cheers” and happened upon an article saying that to chink your glasses in Hungary is an extreme insult. In fact the chinking of glasses was banned completely for 150 years. The reason being that when the Austrians executed many Hungarians more than 150 years ago they celebrated with a cacophony of chinking glasses. Since then the sounds of glasses colliding was a reminder of death of the people, and the defeat and humiliation of a nation. Meanwhile Austrians still chink their glasses to celebrate success. Once again, I realized that war never really ends, it lingers forever.

It’s going to take some time for all of these lessons to sink in. It is depressing of course to think about death, oppression, and murder. One would be forgiven for not wanting to think about it at all. After all, if one thinks about these things too long then one forgets to think about the great things in life. I remember the night that I returned from Auschwitz I saw a Frederic Chopin recital in the old town square. Chopin is my favourite composer, and seeing a performance of his works is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. When I was listening to his music, I realised how beautifully unusual it was to start the day seeing the lowest of human possibilities at Auschwitz and to end the day seeing some of the highest examples of human beauty and inspiration. It makes me realise that life is not black and white. There are good people in these world, and there are bad people too. There are things of great beauty, and there are things of great evil. The world, and our lives is made up of all of it – the weight as well as the lightness. And I realise how incredibly lucky I am to be living in such a comparatively safe era in such a beautiful city as Prague.

Whatever you do, and whoever you are, find the thing in life that makes you happy, that fills you with passion and then give it your all. Because life is but a moment in time. It doesn’t matter whether you are a king, or a fool. If you live in a time when you are privileged to have the possibility of peace, freedom, and happiness then take it with open arms and don’t let anyone or anything stop you from living a life of passion.

Auditions for Déjà Vu will be held on Tuesday 25th October 16:00-18:00, and Thursday 27th October 21:00-23:00 at the Prague Playhouse Acting Studio, Františka Krížka 1, Praha 7. Déjà Vu is an original play, written by Stuart Mentha, to be performed at the Prague and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals 2012. I’m looking for one actor & one actress, in their 20s/30s. Everyone is welcome to audition!

Here is the summary:

George loves Anne. Anne loves George. But Anne is having an affair with Fred. Why? It has something to do with Spain, but when they talk about it the lights turn off, and they forget everything, only to begin again on a new tangent of fate. Time for them is a ball of string and they are caught in a very tangled knot!

The performance is presented by Wild Mint Productions, and supported by CANZA. We are also currently negotiating sponsorship with several companies around the city.

Once again, the audition times are:
Tuesday 25th October 16:00 to 18:00
Thursday 27th October 21:00 to 23:00

The address:
Prague Playhouse Acting Studio

Františka Krížka 1

Praha 7, Holešovice

Please let me know if you are interested in auditioning, and we can arrange a time! From the 18th to the 22nd I will be in London at the Actor’s Temple, so please contact us via the contact form on this website.