Helena Štáchová (18 November 1944,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 22 March 2017, Prague) was a Czech

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...

voice actress Voice acting is the art of Acting, performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animation, animated, ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. Štáchová served as the head and director of the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre (S+H), which opened in 1930 as former

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

's first professional

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

theatre, from 1996 until she died in 2017. She also provided the voice of popular puppets, and her granddaughter , who are the female characters in the

Spejbl and Hurvínek Spejbl and Hurvínek (/s-payble & hoor-vee-neck/) is a Puppetry#Czech Republic and Slovakia, Czech puppet comedy duo conceived by puppeteer Josef Skupa. Spejbl was carved by Karel Nosek in 1920 and Hurvínek by his nephew in 1926. Over time, t ...

puppet shows. In addition, Štáchová worked as a voice actress as well. Notably, Štáchová provided the

Czech language Czech ( ; ), historically known as Bohemian ( ; ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers, it serves as the official language of the ...

-voice of

Lisa Simpson Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television sitcom series ''The Simpsons''. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa was born as a character in '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' short ...

on the Czech version of the American

animated sitcom An animated sitcom is a subgenre of a television sitcom that is animation, animated instead of being filmed live-action, and is generally made or created for adult animation, adult audiences in most cases. ''The Simpsons'', ''SpongeBob SquarePan ...

, ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

''.

Biography

Štáchová, who was born in Prague in 1944, began performing at the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre after completing

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

. She graduated from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) and became a full member of the S+H theatre company in 1966. She began performing the lead role of the puppet girl, Mánička, in 1967. Mánička, who quickly became a popular character, was a friend of the established father-son puppets,

. Štáchová married , S+H puppeteer and theatre director. In 1971, Kirschner created a new grandmother puppet, Mrs. Kateřina, specifically for Štáchová, which added another female character to the ensemble. Since their creation, Štáchová's Mánička and Mrs. Kateřina have become very popular in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Štáchová also toured with the puppet theatre internationally and performed her puppets in several foreign languages. Štáchová became the head of the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre in 1996, following the death of her husband that same year. She led the theatre until her death in March 2017. In addition to her puppetry and voice acting on television shows, such as ''The Simpsons'', Štáchová also authored several books and directed and wrote her own plays. In 2008, a Czech court awarded Štáchová the rights to utilize the Spejbl and Hurvínek characters after an eight-year

legal dispute Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that " e term ''legal proceedings'' ...

, which allowed her Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre to continue its programs. In 2016, actress Marie Šimsová began performing in the role of the puppet, Mánička, due to Štáchová's declining health. Following a long illness, Štáchová died at her home in Prague on 22 March 2017, at the age of 72.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stachova, Helena 1944 births 2017 deaths Czech puppeteers Czech voice actresses Czech theatre directors Czech women theatre directors 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni 21st-century Czech dramatists and playwrights Czech women dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Czech women writers 20th-century Czech women writers Actresses from Prague Female puppeteers