Marie Pištěková

* 1955

  • "We were summoned by the director's secretary to his office, where the pastor, then a young ordained deacon, was already. We were maybe three or four. Later, mainly my sisters went there. The first hour was as follows: The young deacon was sitting there; the headmaster was sitting a little behind him at his desk. There was also a secretary somewhere. And when we arrived, he had a drawing ready and started painting jugs. And then he told us the first miracle of Christ in Galilee. It started with those pitchers. At times I blinked at the director, who listened very carefully. He always told the basics of the gospel and explained it. And then he painted the pitchers for us and showed us how Christ had turned the water of Galilee into wine in Cana. This is how the first lesson of religion stuck in my memory. It started with a miracle in Galilee."

  • "We were monitored here. They looked at us like under a microscope. The structures were as perfect as cobwebs. They had co-workers everywhere. They were able to win them over with fear. Fear bound their heart, head and hands. To this day, I don't know who really watched us, but I know it was happening."

  • "The first performance in Paris, it was still in Czech for emigrants, I took place in about 1993. My friendship with emigrants, who were enthusiastic about Joan, later deepened and they translated the play into French for me, with the proviso that when I learn it playing in French, they will organize my tour of France. I was in favour. It was crazy to learn play game by heart without knowing the language and spend an hour and a half on stage alltogether. I'm proud of myself for making it. And it lasted until 2012. In France, we played it wherever we could."

  • "When I was studying at JAMU, the play for one actor about Joan was already ready, I memorized it by heat. But I was dealing with the question of where to play it. My dream was to start my own theatre. I only succeeded in France. It was my biggest dream back then during totalitarianism. To have my own theatre for one actor, not to be tied to anything and anyone, just to myself, or to have a technician who will play music and make lights for me."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    v Ostravě, 18.04.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 03:30:17
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Ostrava, 21.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 02:53:20
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

During totalitarianism, I felt like a fish in an aquarium with poisoned water that I can’t get out of

Marie Pištěková, performance the Last Night of Joan of Arc (probably at the beginning of 1980s)
Marie Pištěková, performance the Last Night of Joan of Arc (probably at the beginning of 1980s)
photo: archiv Marie Pištěkové

Marie Pištěková was born on February 4, 1955 in Ostrava into a Catholic family. My father worked at the Moravian Chemical Plant. She had five siblings. Since childhood, she has been interested in theatre, painting and music. She sang and played guitar in Catholic choirs and in a Christian big beat group. She studied singing and acting at the folk conservatory. After high school, she unsuccessfully applied to the Theatre Academy in Prague. She worked in the operetta choir of the theatre in Teplice. Under the influence of the book St. John by G. B. Shaw, she wrote a play for one actor, The Last Night of Joan of Arc. In 1978 she was admitted to the Janáček Academy in Brno. Since 1979, she has performed her play about Joan at secret and legal performances throughout Czechoslovakia. She participated in theological lectures and meetings of the underground church led by the Salesians. She played in drama ensembles in Český Těšín and Jihlava. She then taught at the Folk Art School in Olomouc and at the Folk Conservatory in Ostrava. In the early 1990s, she learned the play of Joan of Arc in French and began performing it in France. She received a scholarship in Brittany, where she moved. She founded her own theatre there and started teaching acting.