Symposium was conducted on occasion of one-hundredth anniversary of birth of National artist, professor of architecture, Mr. Frantisek Troster, who was born on December 12th 1904. Objective of this symposium was primarily the remembrance of artist's personality, his works and pedagogic activities. Simultaneously, the aim was to create stimulation for complex processing of his diverse lifelong activities (beside the theatre stage design and pedagogic activities also exhibition, illustration, painting and architectural works) and to search for the best methods to convey his legacy to future generations.

Content of Symposium:

At Symposium we've examined the following areas:

• Significance of F. Troster as a theatre stage designer from national and world-wide context
• F. Troster as an educator at the Institute of Theatre Stage Design at Prague DAMU
• Painting and illustration works of Frantisek Troster
• Troster's approach to co-operation between producer, stage designer and performer (including co-operation of Frantisek Troster with producer George Frejka)
• Activities of F. Troster in areas of architecture and exhibition design

During Symposium we've examined diverse areas of Troster's activities (not only the prominent stage design portion), which are not so well known among the professionals and the general public. Nevertheless these create an indivisible component of Troster's lifelong work.

Symposium was conducted on Monday November 29th 2004 in the Lecture hall of National Museum in Prague. This all-day programme officially commenced at 9:30 AM and concluded in 6:00 PM. (There were 2 intermissions - 1 during forenoon, 1 afternoon plus a break for lunch). Then followed informal discussion between participants and lecturers. Later wine and refreshments for everyone were prepared. Symposium participants were able to come at anytime, in accordance with their own topic selection or interest of a particular area. Nevertheless most participants attended full-day programme. Altogether there were between 70 - 90 participants, who witnessed presentations by a total of 19 lecturers, including a foreign participation from Slovakia.

Symposium was structured not only for specialists from theatre areas, but also for public with interest in the work and personality of Frantisek Troster. Amongst participants were represented "older generation", people - commemoratives, who have personally known professor Troster, but also "younger generation" - mostly students from Artistic High schools and Universities with their professors.

Symposium was commenced by representatives from institutions participating in an organisation -(PhDr. Ondřej Černý - the Theatre Institute; PhDr. Vera Prenosilova - National Museum and Ing. Arch. Martin Troster - Society of Frantisek Troster). Followed by contributions presented in the programme - for detailed programme with lecturers and their contributions - please click on "Detailed symposium programme".

Programme was thematically divided into 2 main parts:

"Works and personality of Frantisek Troster"- morning block
"Remembrances on Frantisek Troster" - afternoon block

First part of the morning block with title "Works and personality of Frantisek Troster" was rather theoretically set and charted important periods of Frantisek Troster's life in pre-war era and during II. World's war. In the second part of morning programme we've examined documentation of artist's works and other areas of his activities. During the course of presentation lecturers made use of slide and picture screen projections from CD-ROM. That made contributions very interesting and more understandable for Symposium participants. At the same time, visual documentation in some contributions enriched participants about new, still not so well known areas of Troster's activities (for ex. architectural, exhibition design, etc...).

After the lunch-break, a new documentary film from Czech television titled "Change gravitation - portrait of Frantisek Troster" was shown in production of Ales Kisil. This document thematically supplemented the Symposium programme with new data and views by different personalities of Czech culture on the artist's personality and works. Very valuable was also the fact, that this document contained authentic reminiscences of professor Frantisek Troster. From cultural and theatre areas, but also from area of political events era, in which Troster had lived and created.

The afternoon block "Remembrance on Frantisek Troster" was dedicated primarily to personal reminiscences of students and associates of Frantisek Troster. Reminiscences were mostly about educational activities of professor Troster at the Institute of Stage Design at Prague's DAMU, which he established and conducted from 1946 until his death in December 1968. There he educated a whole series of today's leading theatre stage designers. This block concluded in discussion - reactions on presented contributions and supplementary reactions of participants.

After the official conclusion of the Symposium, participants had an opportunity for informal discussions in the foyer, where refreshments were served.

Course of the Symposium was also enriched by the supporting programme. During breaks, participants would be able to examine photographs of some works of Frantisek Troster (exhibits were lend by the Theatre Institute; originals of these works are at present on mobile exhibition in USA), which was installed for the Symposium right in lecture hall. At the same time participant had an opportunity to examine "working exhibition" of some original works and artist's sketch-books in the scholastic room of Theatre department in the National Museum (these theatre stage proposals are stored in the Theatre department of National Museum). Participants were similarly able to examine proper documents concerning personality and works of Frantisek Troster (photocopies of published article about Frantisek Troster from Prague 4 newspaper - "Tučňák" from January 2004, artist's biographical data and the like). They were also able to obtain detailed information about The Society of Frantisek Troster.

Positive responses on Symposium organisation were noted, not only from general public, but also from scholarly community.

During the course of the Symposium, the need for comprehensive processing of Troster's lifelong work was again confirmed. Beside publication of complex monograph dedicated to works and personality of Frantisek Troster, the demonstrated necessity for complex classification of artist's works including digital image documentation (CD-ROM). The Society of Frantisek Troster considers these areas to be a key and therefore wants to focus on their implementation in the near future.