Czech Puppet Theatre in Global Contexts, a special issue ofTheatralia 18.2

The autumn issue of the journal Theatralia (volume 18, 2015, issue 2) is a themed English volume entitled Czech Puppet Theatre in Global Contexts. The individual contributions address traditional Czech theatre (Marie and Pavel Jirasek on late 19th and early 20th century puppet theatre, and Jaroslav Blecha on the marionettes of the Flachs family), leading puppetry artists (Pavel Jirasek on Josef Skupa), the relation between puppetry and early cinema (Martin Bernatek on the Puppetry Renaissance and the film), the dramaturgy and present-day forms of Czech puppet theatre (Kateřina Leskova Dolenska, Nina Malikova, and Katarzyna Lech), as well as the influence of puppet theatre on Czech animated film (Dan North on Jiři Barta, Jan Svankmajer, and Jan Svěrak, and Georgia Chryssouli on Jan Svankmajer). The volume also contains essays on the international impact of Czech puppetry (Joseph Brandesky on the exhibition and theatre production in Ohio, USA, and Agnes Novak a Dusan Petraň on their theatre company Yorick's Marionettes, active in the USA and France), and a list of significant exhibitions of puppetry since 1989 (Martina Peckova Cerna). The volume also contains a section of themed book reviews (predominantly on puppets and related disciplines) and a translation of Otakar Zich's seminal essay on puppet theatre from 1923; this is the first publication in English.