Prague based actress Róza Andělová: Getting into English-speaking theatre is pretty easy here
Róza Andělová is a budding young Czech actress who studied French and English literature at Charles University. Magdalena Kadula invited her to Radio Prague’s studio to talk about her work, the opportunities for English-speaking actors and actresses in Prague and how she happened to get into acting in the first place.
“That’s a very short story I’m afraid. I think it was, kind of, by accident. I’ve always loved all things, film and theatre. I started from theory, basically. I took a few courses at Charles University while I was doing my BA. From then it kind of spiralled into this wonderful thing.
“I actually saw an ad on Facebook. Now people joke about it because that’s how I get most of the casting calls – it’s through Facebook out of all things. It was this open call for a FAMU-New York University collaboration, and I ended up getting the part. It was, as I say, kind of by accident, but it was a wonderful experience.
“It was a three-day shoot, pretty easy, and I thought, “I’m actually enjoying myself a lot, probably too much at times.” And I thought, “Why not do more of that…”
"From that moment I was actively looking for opportunities to get involved.”
You’re more part of the English speaking acting platform here in Prague. How did that happen and what are some tips for people who are just starting out?
“I think in general getting into English speaking theatre is pretty easy here. Just because there is a lot of expat people running their own companies or starting their own acting troops. Some of them are more towards the amateur side of things – I don’t mean it as a bad thing, it’s actually wonderful because then you’re free to do whatever you want, but it does take up a lot of your time. Some of them are geared towards professional people, it depends on what your level of experience is. I think that even with companies like Prague Shakespeare Company, they do open course as well, so as long as you have determination and enthusiasm, it’s pretty easy to get involved in here.”
Does your level of English have to be fluent?
“I would say it really helps. In terms of fluency, I think the most important thing is understanding what you’re saying in general. That’s what the most important thing for me at least when I’m involved in an acting job – it’s knowing your words, knowing what you’re talking about. Fluency is a big part of it because it allows you to delve into more meaning and be more precise with your interpretation of the text as well. So I think yes, fluency is key.
“But that being said, when it comes to movies in general, some of them have little dialogues, especially with short films that you can get involved in in Prague specifically, so sometimes there’s no fluency needed in that way but you communicate with the crew in English anyway.”
How would you describe the acting scene currently here in Prague after the strike happened? Is it coming up and is it becoming more available to the general public?
“I think in terms of professional development, obviously that’s the same situation around the world, I don’t think it’s specific to Prague, however, the audition environment turned into the virtual environment. There’s a lot of opportunities you can get through self-tapes, and that’s where the trend is now and will likely continue in the future. I think in that way it changed significantly.
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"But, that said, there are still a lot of castings happening in person. You register with a casting agency, which I can think of 5 or 6 specifically based in Prague that take complete newcomers and people with some professional credits to their CV but not necessary for them to register. So once you register with them, what they get you is both casting calls in person and self-tapes. So I think in that way, human touch and human contact still matters.
“I think the industry is slowly getting back up on its feet. I would say the big international productions that usually come to Prague to film in collaboration with other countries actually never stopped. I think the pandemic did hold them for a bit but now it’s back in full swing. And from what I’ve heard in the past few weeks, I think there are some really exciting projects coming towards the end of this year. So in that way I think we’re doing pretty good at the moment.”
That’s exciting! You did choose to focus on the international acting community…What are the main differences you observe between the Czech acting community here in Prague and the international community?
“I think in terms of getting people involved, I used to think, I no longer think that, that it’s easier to get into an English speaking company or an environment in that way when it comes to acting. I spent some time in Edinburgh and it was surprisingly very easy to get involved with people just because the outreach is more active, but I think if you’re proactive enough, you can do that here as well. It’s a question of meeting the right people. Part of it is luck, but still, it’s about your enthusiasm and how you approach things. I think you can make a lot of things happen on your own.
“I think, specifically in Prague, it’s very easy to put on a play on your own -- it’s quite easy to find a space to perform in. It’s a bit less easy to find a place to rehears in because a lot of people understandably charge for letting you stay somewhere for multiple hours on end – especially if you don’t know for how long you will be exactly rehearsing, which is usually the case.
“I think the main difference is how we view acting agents. In Prague, it’s not really a thing from what I understand. You can reach out to specific people who act as your agent but it’s more like an attorney kind of person, who reviews your contracts and negotiates the best conditions for you but they don’t necessarily get you the roles. Those people are independent everywhere but I think the relationship we have with acting agents is a little more free.
When, for instance, you go abroad and you want to start acting, let’s say in London or in the US – it would be the same thing I think – you would need to reach out to someone who will actually put you up for potential jobs. In here, it’s far easier to just do that on your own thanks to Facebook and similar sites. In that way, I think, getting to the right opportunities might be easier in here because the pond is smaller. ”
Prague is the biggest village of Europe, right? As the saying goes…
“Yes, that is quite correct.”
Could you take us through your average day? What does it look like for a young actress to go through her day in Prague?
“Well, you can’t really make a living out of acting, unless you are really into it. I think in terms of the number of opportunities here, there are only so many, and you end up meeting the same people all over again, when it comes to going for specific jobs or castings. But during my average day -- because I do a lot of other things aside from acting to pay the bills and to not go insane -- I usually get up quite early. I do some exercise in the morning, then I do some monologue work because that’s my favourite thing to do. I try to vary it, depends on what I feel like. Usually I properly go through a monologue in about a week – I usually start on a Monday and finish by Friday or Saturday. That includes memorising it and interpreting what might be the best way to go depending on what kind of feelings you want to convey. Also getting familiar with the play – I try to choose plays I haven’t read before, and then go through one specific section or monologue that catches my eye, and just have it in the repertory whenever needed.
“Then I go about my day – I usually do some work, so I do a lot of translating. I studied languages, so that’s how I earn my daily bread now. I finish work at around 3pm. Then, some people choose to do acting classes. For me currently, financially I wouldn’t be able to keep that up long-term, so I do some dialoguing with friends. I ended up meeting a lot of people in the acting game here as well. Some of them are very eager to practice with you, which costs very little to nothing basically, and you both have a good time and enjoy it, so that’s what usually happens in the afternoons or evenings.
“On top of that, actually, a few weeks ago I started writing for this theatre and dance performance review Dance context, in Czech Taneční aktuality. At some time during the month, I usually go see a show, and then write a review about it. It takes a lot of time and effort but I really enjoy it. That’s what takes up my time as well.”
I wanted to also ask if there are any projects you could invite us to in the next month? What have been your most fulfilling projects here in Prague?
“I think, funnily enough, the most personally fulfilling was a project I did about two months ago. It was for a FAMU international directing student; I think he’s in the first year. It was an exercise called Anticorro, which is a cinematography exercise – a lot of second year students do it. It’s basically shot in a studio, you can choose whatever story you want, but there’s a limited number of shots that you can do. It has to be in black and white, and you can’t really edit the final product until you have your final exam at the end of the year. Then you can do whatever you want with it, but until then, it’s really up to you to prepare everything in advance of the shoot because then you’re stuck with whatever you have.
“The reason I chose this one and why I think it was essential to me was the emotional depth that I got to experience with this specific character. It was quite draining, and it took days to get rid of the character as well, which is something I’ve never experienced before. It can be a very tricky thing for people to leave work at work and transition back to their normal lives. That happened to me for the first time.
“The experience on set was great. I had a very warm welcome from all the members of the crew and I had a wonderful director who was very willing and very able to guide me through some of the exercises that we decided on in advance, and get me where I needed to be without being overly dramatic, without straining me too much. I would not be able to do it without a number of people around me.
“I haven’t seen the result yet, it’s in post-production now. But I think, to this day, this was probably the most important shoot for me in terms of extremes, both in a good way and a bad way.”
And just one last question, Róza. Where are your aspirations for the future? What do you hope to see here in the Prague acting scene?
“I think what we need at the moment, although I did say that we are quite open in terms of inviting people in… I think that still applies in the English speaking world here in Prague to an extent, but in the Czech portion of things… I’m not saying there are gatekeepers but there’s a portion of networking that you have to do that is just unnecessarily formal and unnecessarily complicated for people who haven’t studied acting at say one of the performing arts universities in this country or people who do not necessarily have background or acting education at all.
It can be very tricky when you speak Czech, so I would love to see some more collaboration between the English speaking world and the Czech speaking world. I think it would be worth it. I think the young people, the young generation, they mostly speak English fluently. It’s pretty easy, especially here in Prague. I don’t know why we just keep not getting more of it. I think geographically we are very well placed, and when you look at Hungary, when you look at other countries where international filmmakers go to do their movies in, I think that we have the advantage of having some of the best filmmakers in the world. In that way, I think it would be logical to get everybody involved.”
