Simona Rybáková

Textile and costume designer Simona Rybáková (b. 1963) studied at the College of Applied Art and Design, and then pursued her schooling at Studio of Textile Design of the Academy of Art and Design in Prague. In 1990, she spent six months as a visiting graduate student of textile design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland. In 1995, she won the Swarowski Award (earning four months of graduate study at the Rhode Island School of Design at Providence, RI, USA). Since 1996 she has been the Czech Republic’s representative on the executive board and commission on stage design of the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Artists and Technicians (OISTAT). Apart from costume design and individual textile design, she has been involved in the media of designer textile prints and carpets, jewellery, sculpture, and drawing.

She has to her credit a number of film costume designs (The Jester and the Queen, with Tereza Kučerová; directed by Věra Chytilová, 1988; Pražská 5 (The Prague 5), directed by Tomáš Vorel, 1988; Pražákům, těm je hej (Prague’s Tops), directed by Karel Smyczek and Michael Kocáb, 1989; Passage, directed by Juraj Herz, 1996; KusPoKusu (Piece-By-Piece), directed by the brothers Caban, 1998; Experiment, directed by Juraj Herz, 2001; Don Gio, directed by the brothers Caban, 1992; Postel (The Bed), Oskar Reif, 1995; Kočky (The Cats), Jaroslav Brabec, 2005 ad.). Her costumes have contributed to the success of the Baletní jednotka Křeč dance ensemble (of which she is an active member).

She has designed costumes for the Prague Opera Mozart’s productions of Così fan tutte; Don Juan Bastien; Die Zauberflöte; La clemenza di Tito; Le nozze di Figaro; and Don Giovanni, all directed by Jiří Nekvasil; and Serail Live, directed by Šimon Caban; and for the National Theatre in Prague, costumes for its productions of the operas, The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams; and Janáček’s The Excursions of Mister Brouček (both directed by Jiří Nekvasil); and The Adventures of the Cunning Little Vixen (directed by Michal and Šimon Caban). Her other commitments have encompassed costume designs for television clips, commercials, promotional projects of various business companies, mostly in co-operation with Caban Productions and Baletní jednotka Křeč (for American Express, Aral, Max Factor, Jaguar, Margaret Astor, Elle, Saab, Audi, IPB, British Airways). Between 1999 and 2002, she was the resident costume designer of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Since 1983, she has exhibited her work in numerous individual and collective shows in this country and internationally (Japan, USA, France, Denmark, Korea, Finland, etc.). She has lectured at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Kansas at Kansas City, the USITT in Pittsburgh, and in Tokyo and Seoul.

Apart from the above-mentioned Swarowski Award, her other major distinctions include the Golden Triga (first prize from the Prague Quadrienale international theatre show), Gold Medal for Textile Design from the Brno International Trade Fair, and Special Award from the Frankfurt Dance Festival, for the artistic contribution to the dance video, KusPoKusu (Piece-By-Piece).

Simona Rybáková’s creative association with the Prague State Opera has involved the costume designs for the company’s productions of E. F. Burian’s Bubu of Montparnasse (1999); Alexander Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal (2000); Emil Viklický’s Phaedra (2000); Trygve Madsen’s Circus Terra (2002), all directed by Jiří Nekvasil; Isaac Steiner’s Dorian Gray (2002), directed by Nathan Datner, und P. I. Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades (2005), directed by Roman Hovenbitzer.