The concept of the field is based on the assumption that the profession of TV and radio dramaturge and scriptwriter has a much wider range of applications in the current media space, including both public and private institutions and independent platforms focused on audiovisual media, including interdisciplinary spaces. It requires both specialised training and a broader erudition in cultural history, mass communication and a wide range of artistic and journalistic forms.
The aim of this education is to create dramaturges and scriptwriters who are thoughtful as well as technically skilled and artistically creative. Therefore, in addition to lectures on the creation of radio and TV formats, the study programme includes courses focused on the social context of culture and mass media, film typology and its history, the possibilities of audiovisual narration, the theory of drama, art criticism and selected chapters from poetics and literary history. In creative writing seminars and in learning about media genres, students are systematically led towards independent attempts at creating journalistic, prose and dramatic works. Special attention is paid to radio, TV and film adaptations of literary works, document films, as well as the search for new possibilities of communication outside the established genre frameworks.
Due to the development of digital technologies, leading to a fundamental change in the conditions and requirements placed on creative and programme workers in the field of media, students are encouraged to consistently and comprehensively develop their authorial skills not only at the scriptwriting level but also at the level of implementation. Based on their talent, they can then work as independent creators capable of creating original projects in the full range of steps necessary to create the final form of the work (radio and audiovisual documentary and journalistic programmes, short audiovisual drama forms) or as knowledgeable, well-versed creators in the field, working as part of production teams, on the basis of public media or private productions.
Studying within the Theatre Faculty will enable students to come into contact with a number of other disciplines of dramatic arts, their events and projects, as well as with professionals from the field of audiovisual, radio production and the performative sphere.
In radio-oriented courses (e.g. Radio Genres I and II, Radio Documentary, Radio Play Making, Radio Practicum, Radio Directing), students are guided to a thorough understanding of a specific medium and its potential on both the theoretical and creative levels. Successful creative outputs appear in the Czech Radio broadcasts, in a wide range of formats, from smaller journalistic forms to shows and documentaries.
The Internet radio project Black Box is a space open for the search for new forms of cyclical and rarely stand-alone programmes, which may or may not conform to current radio trends in their style and approach. The student creates his or her own cycle and also acts as the dramaturge of a cyclical programme of one of his or her colleagues.
In audiovisual-oriented courses (e.g. Scriptwriting, Script Dramaturgy, TV Genres, Development of TV Drama) students gain theoretical and practical experience in film and TV production as well as in new media. It is an effective combination of scriptwriting skills and dramaturgical insight with a deep knowledge of the context of the development of narrative through an image. Students and graduates find employment in Czech Television and other media.
The Audiovisual Project I – III is a series of exercises in the form of short films of documentary and feature characters, through which the scriptwriter and dramaturge face the specific experience of creating an audiovisual work. The space is open to collaboration with the studios of acting, production, Audiovisual media and theatre, as well as cooperation with other art and media-oriented universities. The student is the scriptwriter or director of the film, as well as a dramaturge for the work of one of his or her colleagues. Based on the students’ courage and specific talents, the spectrum of possibilities develops from scriptwriting and dramaturgical practice to the potential of film d’auteur.
Courses aimed at developing literary skills and deeper cultivation in the field of literature at the prose, poetic, essayistic, critical level (e.g. Literary Critical Seminar, Literary Creation, Art of Epic Poetry) form an indispensable part of the curriculum. The students also engage in continuous reflection on radio, TV and film production.
Visit the Department’s website to see student works, their projects and all the latest news! You can also listen to an original radio play, which was created in collaboration with students of Audiovisual media and theatre.