<div>Jiří Myron Theatre in Ostrava is awaiting extensive renovations</div>

Ostrava - The first stage of a large-scale renovation will begin this fall at the Jiří Myron Theatre in Ostrava. After approximately a year of modernization, audiences can look forward to a new café, improved ticket sale facilities, and a new chamber theatre, among other upgrades. New rehearsal rooms and accommodation will also be created. The current renovation will cost about 220 million crowns, said theatre director Jiří Nekvasil and deputy mayor Zbyněk Pražák (KDU-ČSL) to reporters today.

"Until the end of March, we will be performing, with the understanding that in February and March we should perform without the balcony, meaning with limited capacity. The theatre will then close for three months, during which the main modifications, particularly concerning the foyer, will take place," Nekvasil stated. During the closure of the theatre, the number of performances at the other theatre building - the Antonín Dvořák Theatre - will be increased and the space of the Ostrava Puppet Theatre will also be used for performances.

According to Nekvasil, the renovation in the first phase will not affect stage technology or the auditorium space, but will rather focus on the theatre's facilities in the adjacent buildings where the theatre operates. "What audiences and visitors will notice is the creation of a new daytime café, a new social hall, which will actually be on the first floor of the foyer in the place where the social hall used to be in the former National House, a theatre passage with a new box office, and what we are looking forward to the most is the chamber stage," he stated. This will be established at Čs. legií 12 and will have a capacity of approximately 60 spectators, and there will also be a bar.

"In place of the former forced section that was rented out, there will be a work center for the Atelier for Children and Youth, which has been operating for the sixth year at the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre," Nekvasil added.

According to Pražák, there are also plans for a further stage of renovation in the years 2019 and 2020. This will mainly focus on technological infrastructure and will cost about 110 million crowns.

In addition, in Ostrava, preparations are underway to modernize the former exhibition pavilion G at the Černá louka fairgrounds for the needs of the theatre, where a new performance space is to be created, and the building would also serve as a rehearsal space. The theatre lacks a large rehearsal room that would spatially correspond to the size of both stages. The costs for the reconstruction of the pavilion, including technological equipment, could reach approximately 60 million. Modifications could begin as early as next year.