Read the statement by Miriam Kičiňová, Director of the Drama Department at the Slovak National Theatre. Delivered on 20 September 2024.
Watch a recording of the press conference here.
"Hello, welcome.
We would like to comment on the Minister's statement, which directly commented on our work.
I quote: "As far as the SND employees are concerned, those who are somehow closest to the strike alert and who are doing the so-called agitation, they are mainly actors from the drama department. So the ones who are shouting the loudest are the ones who have - and I also learned yesterday that the ones who are shouting the loudest are the actors who have engagements outside the Slovak National Theatre, and unfortunately, the director had to state that many theatre performances were postponed, there were sold-out tickets and they could not be performed because these actors had activities outside the Slovak National Theatre."
Such statements tend to cause the public to distrust our institution or our work. They may even appear to some as a slander of the public against us. We just want to confirm that we take our work seriously and responsibly.
We play in 3 halls, often in parallel at the same time. Here is the data on shows played or cancelled in the last two seasons.
Data for the 22/23 season
- Performances played in all venues: 433
- Our tours in Slovakia: 6 tours were in Slovakia (7 performances)
- Our guest appearances abroad: 4 tours abroad (5 performances)
- Guest appearances in Drama (established, independent, foreign theatres, festivals): 17
- Miscellaneous events (discussions, book launches, memorial evenings, etc.): 8
Cancelled performances and changes in season 22/23 due to illnesses (acute conditions, surgeries, covid)
- Cancelled performances due to PN without compensation: 11
- Performances where we were able to make a change due to PN and play something else: 23
Season data 23/24
- Performances played at all venues: 452
- Performances played with classroom play: 508
- Our guest performances in the Slovak Republic: 14
- Our guest performances abroad: 12
- Guest performances in the Drama Theatre (established, independent theatres, festivals): 15
- Various events (discussions, memorial evenings, Hviezdoslav's Kubín, film about Emilia, etc.): 10
Cancelled performances and changes in the 23/24 season only due to illnesses (acute conditions, operations, covid)
- Cancelled performances due to sickness without compensation: 15
- Performances where we were able to make a change due to PN and play something else: 14
Refunds in some situations could not be made as we would have had to do a double change of performance, which would have been even worse for the audience.
Many audience members ask why don't we skip the performance?
If it's a bigger character, we can't rush it. If it's possible to do an understudy, we do it. For example, we saved the Stones on 12/30 and 12/30 that way, we saved Kubo, et al.
We are often here for whole weekends, because that's how our profession works and we see it as a public service, which is what working in the Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre is.
If there are any doubts, we would like to ask for clarification, which specific performances were involved and because of which deals were the sold-out performances cancelled or postponed...?
Thank you."
