1966 Josef Koudelka Photographs – Divadlo za branou Opening Season Program

Topol, Josef / Michel de Ghelderode. Kočka na kolejích [Cat on the Tracks] / Maškary z Ostende [Masques of Ostend]. Prague: Divadlo za branou, 1966.

Scarce promotional eight-panel foldout program for the celebrated productions of Josef Topol's Kočka na kolejích and Michel de Ghelderode's Maškary z Ostende at Prague's legendary Divadlo za branou, directed by Otomar Krejča. Richly illustrated with dramatic original stage photographs by Josef Koudelka. Koudelka began photographing Divadlo za branou in 1965, and his images from productions such as Kočka na kolejích and Maškary z Ostende have since become iconic examples of twentieth-century theatre photography.

The program features Marie Tomášová and Jan Tříska in Kočka na kolejích, with Vladimír Menšík and František Řehák alternating in the lead role of Maškary z Ostende. Includes contemporary reviews from Czech, Slovak, and international critics, production photographs throughout, and information on the newly established Divadlo za branou in the Laterna Magika building.

29.5 × 10.5 cm. Eight-panel folding program. Very good condition with light wear from folding as issued. An attractive and increasingly scarce piece of Czech theatre ephemera, notable for its early Josef Koudelka photographs and its association with one of the most important Czech theatres of the 1960s.