Lang Michal

Michal Lang was born in 1964 in Prague, but spent his childhood in Northern Moravia. After passing his A-levels in Havířov, he worked in several jobs. In 1989, he began studying Directing at the Film Faculty of AMU, and became a student of Professor Jaroslav Vostrý. During his studies he worked with the A Studio Rubín, where he staged, among other titles, the Czech premiere of Lenka Lagronová’s play The Antelope. At the end of his studies, Michal Lang received the Hlávka Foundation Prize, which was awarded to gifted students. In 1993, along with his classmates, he joined the Drama club (Činoherní studio) in Ústí nad Labem, where he directed, among others, Nikolai Gogol’s comedy The Gamblers. 

In the following years, Lang worked with a number of other theatres. To name but a few collaborations: in Labyrint Theatre (today’s Švandovo divadlo theatre in Prague’s Smíchov) he staged S. I. Witkiewicz’s The Mother (1996; Nina Divíšková was nominated for the Thalia Award for the role of Mother); in Divadlo pod Palmovkou theatre he directed T. Middleton’s and W. Rowley’s The Changeling. Lang’s renditions of T. Lett’s Killer Joe and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in Prague Drama Club (Činoherní Klub), as well as Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2000; Ivan Řezáč was nominated for the Thalia Award) and Molière’s Tartuffe were widely acclaimed by critics. 

Between 2002-2010, Michal Lang worked in Švandovo divadlo theatre, where he directed several plays, such as Molière’s comedy The School for Wives(in cooperation with D. Hrbek, 2005; Ivan Řezáč won the Thalia Award for the role of Arnulf) or Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, lauded by both audiences and critics. Lang also staged here premieres of his own plays Hadí klubko and Dávníkové, and an adaptation of Radka Denemarková’s novel Money from Hitler.

Lang’s productions have been featured in The National Moravian-Silesian Theatre (Národní divadlo moravskoslezské) and in Arena Chamber Theatre (Komorní scéna Aréna) in Ostrava; he has guest-directed in South Bohemian Theatre (Jihočeské divadlo) in České Budějovice, the Moravian Theatre (Moravské divadlo) in Olomouc, and Horácké divadlo in Jihlava. Lang has also collaborated with theatres abroad: at the Polish theatre Teatr H. Modrzejewskiej w Legnicy, he staged John Ford’s comedy Tis Pity She's a Whoreand he directed Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9 at Loyola Marymount University Theatre.

Since September 2013, Michal Lang has been director of the Divadlo pod Palmovkou theatre in Prague. He came here from F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec where he worked as art director between 2011-2013. In Divadlo pod Palmovkou, he staged Lorca’s poetic drama Blood Wedding and his personal adaptation of Goldoni’s Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, then Shakespeare’s Othello, and Dorota Maslowska’s A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians. John Hodge’s Collaborators, dramatization of G. Flaubert's novel Mrs. Bovary and an adaptation of Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones were performed for the first time in the Czech Republic. He staged also Shakespeare in Love by M. Norman, T. Stoppard and L. Hall, Molière’s Don Juan, Alois and Vilém Mrštíkové’s A Year in a Village and the adaptation of the novel by Kateřina Tučková Žítková Goddesses. In 2019, his own play HAPPY CHICKEN CZ - poultry farm had the world premiere at Divadlo pod Palmovkou theatre. 

In 2016, Michal Lang initiated and organized the international theatre festival PALM OFF FEST - festival that brings to the heart of Europe the most spectacular productions of the contemporary Central European stage. The festival focuses not only regionally but also thematically and over the four years of its existence, the Palm Off Fest has earned a great reputation among audiences andthe theatre community.

Lang has also been a member of several rock bands and is the author of stage music for many of his productions. Under his leadership, the theatre ranked high in several categories of prestigious theatre awards, the most important of them are the main prizes of the Theatre’s Critics Awards: THEATRE OF THE YEAR 2018 and THEATRE PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR 2018 for the production Measure for Measure directed by Jan Klata.