The amateur theatrical societies in the West Bohemian borderlands - The theatre in Hostoun, in Pobezovice in years 1947 - 1990

This diploma thesis is on the history of amateur theatre societies in the West Bohemian border area, focusing on two companies, the Hostouň company and the Poběžovice company. With respect to the fact that these theatre companies were most popular with the audience during the period before the revolution in 1989, I will focus on their theatre activities between 1947 and 1990 in my thesis. Amateur theatre has always been a Czech cultural phenomenon and was always considered an effective means of creating positive relations within a community. At the same time many theatre performances reflect the historic situation and provide its unique generational interpretation. To explain the overall situation concerning amateur theatre in socialist Czechoslovakia, I endeavour to describe the theatre environment during the post-war period in the third chapter. The methodology of work is based on specialist literature, archive records and chiefly on conversations based on the oral history methods. On the basis of oral historic research I also endeavour to elaborate on topics, which undoubtedly belong to amateur theatre. These topics include characterisation of an amateur actor or director, motivation for performing theatre, amateur theatre shows, expert juries, dramaturgy, stage design and others. The purpose of..