Renowned Slovak theatre director Jozef Bednárik has died at the age of 65 in Bratislava. The father of Slovak musicals passed away on Thursday evening of a serious metabolic and heart collapse, said the hospital's spokesperson Petra Stano Maťašovská.
Born in Zeleneč (Trnava region) in 1947, he graduated from Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts (VSMU) in dramatic arts in 1970. After ten years of working as an actor, he devoted himself to directing theatrical performances; first in his hometown of Zeleneč and later in Nitra-based Andrej Bagar Theatre (DAB), Bratislava's Nova Scena theatre and the Slovak National Theatre (SND). Besides Slovakia, Bednárik also took his performances to foreign stages in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Monaco, and the United Kingdom. The director is considered to be a pioneer in promoting the genre of musicals in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and enjoyed great success with pieces such as Zorba the Greek, Oliver!, the Rocky Horror Show, and the first Slovak musical entitled Adam Sangala. “He brought so much to every theatre production he directed, it was always something special,” said Willett, adding that “being the great theatre director that he was, he had a great visualisation of production, but remained in the background and really brought out the very best in all the actors that were performing,” said John Willett, a microphone specialist and a professional sound recordist.
