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Juraj Bielik
Profile

Juraj Bielik (1985) graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts, where he majored in theatre direction under the leadership of Professor Vladimír Strnisko. His graduation project was the production of Alexander Ostrovsky’s play It’s Not All Shrovetide for the Cat (2008). In 2012, he completed his doctoral study at the Academy of Performing Arts. At the Academy, he and his classmate Anton Korenči started their collaboration and later became a directorial and dramaturgical duo. They worked for such Bratislava-based theatres as the a.ha. theatre or the Small Stage Theatre of the Slovak Technical University and created, in cooperation with actors and actresses they studied with, numerous productions, including Ferdinand Bruckner’s Pains of Youth (2009), their own work entitled PIAF (2010), Lukáš Brutovský’s For Lunch,  Werner Schwab’s Holy Mothers (2010) and People Annihilation (2011), Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (2012), Alfred Jarry’s King Ubu (2013), as well as Dežo Ursíny and Alta Vášová’s musical Peter and Lucia (2013).

In 2011, he became a guest artist at the Ján Palárik Theatre in Trnava. In 2017 and 2018, he worked there as an in-house director and became the theatre’s artistic director in 2019 – a position he held until. In 2020–2021 he was appointed the theatre’s manager. His work in Trnava included mostly comedies – Marc Camoletti: Boeing-Boeing (2012), Niccolò Machiavelli: Mandragora (2014), Georges Feydeau: Oh These Women, Oh These Men (2015), Carlo Goldoni: The Servant of Two Masters (2016), Francis Veber: Cher Trésor (2019), but he also staged Molière’s The Misanthrope (2021) or Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web. Bielik concluded his work at the Ján Palárik Theatre with a production of William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (2022).

He worked as a guest artist in several Slovak theatres (Aréna Theatre Bratislava, Andrej Bagar Theatre Nitra, State Theatre Košice, Spiš Theatre, among others), where he staged mainly comedies or worked on productions as the dramaturg or composer of music. In some productions he was also a musical performer.

Bielik makes art for children as well. With Anton Korenči, he staged a number of fairy tales, including his own and Anton Korenči’s version of The Little Mermaid (a.ha theatre, 2009), his and Korenči’s stage version of Pavol Dobšinský’s Mechúrik-Koščúrik (Slovak National Theatre, 2011), their production of Arnold Lobel’s Quack and Plop (BBD, 2014), and also three separate plays by Ulrich Hub – Meet at the Ark at Eight! (Ján Palárik Theatre, 2012), Foxes Don’t Lie (Aréna Theatre, 2019), and Penguins Can’t Bake Cakes (Aréna Theatre, 2023).

Between 2010 and 2013, he taught acting at the Bratislava Conservatory (the present Conservatory on Tolstého 11, Bratislava). He worked as assistant professor at the Department of Direction and Dramaturgy, Faculty of Theatre, Academy of Performing Arts in 2012–2015, and started teaching again there in 2024.

Bielik has translated several theatre plays from English, including George Van Houts’  Bankers, Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web, and Nassim Soleimanpour’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit, among others. He has collaborated with the Slovak radio, where he worked as a director and actor. He also works as a workshop lecturer and jury member at amateur theatre competitions.