Summary
Pavel joined Hull as Professor of Drama and Theatre Practice in 2013. In the Spring of 2025, he is on leave, as a visiting professor at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno (Czech Republic), at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), and at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (Germany).
His research centres around collaborative/relational performance practices across cultural borders.
He is a curator for Prague Quadrennial (https://www.pq.cz.) and the Authors' Reading Month (https://www.autorskecteni.cz). He is also an opera libretto consultant for the Festival Janáček Brno (https://janacek-brno.cz/).
His research and teaching range from Shakespeare and early modern drama and theatre in Europe; through scriptwriting for the stage (spoken drama, opera, musical theatre) and radio; drama translation, adaptation, dramaturgy and scenography; to theatre theory.
His prominent publications include:
Books:
* Otakar Zich, Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art: Theoretical Dramaturgy, ed. David Drozd and Pavel Drábek, trans. Pavel Drábek and Tomáš Kačer (Prague: Karolinum Charles UP, 2024)
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo238317617.html;
* Transnational Connections in Early Modern Theatre (Manchester UP, 2020), co-edited with M. A. Katritzky;
* The Art of Making Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2022), with Pamela Howard;
* České pokusy o Shakespeara (Czech Attempts at Shakespeare, Větrné mlýny, 2012);
Articles and book chapters:
* “Playing, Viewing, Touching, Modelling, Mentalizing: Theoretical Reflections on PQ 2023”, Theatre and Performance Design 10 (1–2), 2024: 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322551.2024.2334614;
* “‘You have served me well’: The Shakespeare Empire in Central Europe”, Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 28 (43), 2024: 83–114. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.28.06;
* “Dramaturgy of the Shakespearean Libretto”, in Christopher R. Wilson and Mervyn Cooke (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music (Oxford: OUP, 2022): 761–804.
His theatre work includes:
* P.D. and Ondřej Kyas, Zapeklitě! [A Hell of a Fix], a rock theatre. Slovácké divadlo Theatre, dir. Lukáš Kopecký. Premiere on 22 June 2024;
P.D. and Josh Overton, La Pícara: The Incredible Story of the Lieutenant Nun | La Pícara ou L’incroyable histoire de la nonne-lieutenant. An English-French edition with Pascale Drouet’s translation (Toulouse: PUM, 2022).
Between 2003 and 2015 he set up and led the Ensemble Opera Diversa (www.operadiversa.cz), a Czech professional music and opera company. He has written and translated for the opera, theatre and the radio, mostly collaborating with composer Ondřej Kyas. His rock-theatre Shakespeare adaptation called Zapeklitě! (Hell of a Fix) written for Slovácké divadlo (Czech Republic) opened on 22 June 2024.