Saturday morning and no plan yet? We pull together the kids' events happening around the city this weekend, from hands-on workshops to stage shows and family days out, with whatever starts soonest at the top. The list updates as new events come in, so it's worth a look before every weekend.
Okamžik (Moment) is the 15th-anniversary show of Cirk La Putyka, directed by Finland's Maksim Komaro. It plays with the idea of a blink: a forest is there and then it's gone, two performers suddenly become twenty.
Expect 35 performers and circus techniques used in new ways, mixed with humor, magic and poetry.
Circus Nights is a festival of new circus held in towns across Czechia and Slovakia, part of the international La Nuit du Cirque. Here the program spreads over several stages and mixes professional shows with open workshops and training for the public.
It suits kids who want to try circus skills, not only watch: juggling, balancing and acrobatics are on offer. Cirk La Putyka also brings its show Okamžik.
A solo show by performer Daniel Kvašňovský that blends new circus, clowning and physical theater. His character steps on stage set on giving the performance of his life, and it keeps going sideways, funny one moment and touching the next. The setting is a winter solstice somewhere between a circus tent and a sheepfold, with a thread of Slovak folk. Expect no red noses or giant shoes.
Tramtárie is a playful Czech show stitched together from scraps of nonsense poems and set to live music. Actors pop up, run past, whisper, splash and make things vanish in a world of words, colors, magic and laughter.
There is no lesson to learn here: the point is permission to be silly. The verses repeat until they stick, and parents say kids go home singing them.
A puppet fairy tale from Divadlo b, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Evelína can't wait for her fifteenth birthday, when she can look at the human world for the first time, but the wish brings trouble with it.
It is a spoken story performed in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language and enjoy a classic tale told with puppets.
Hansel and Gretel as a puppet show by the Říše loutek company. The children wander off while picking strawberries and find a house made of gingerbread, where a witch plans to fatten Hansel up. The grumpy old man who lives with her dislikes children but befriends Hansel and stops her. Two dwarf puppets guide the story. The sets and puppets were made by the family of a late Czech artist.
A family concert where the Prague Symphony Orchestra plays alongside actors, dancers and young performers from Prague music and ballet schools. Two guides lead kids through a fairy-tale adventure of dragons, princesses and magic, with plenty of laughs on the way. It suits curious kids meeting an orchestra for the first time.
A dance revue play about Josephine Baker, the Broadway dancer who made Paris her home, spied against the Nazis in World War II and fought racism all her life. Radka Pavlovčinová plays her through charleston, songs and quick costume changes, with a talkative one-man orchestra and a cheetah named Chiquita.
It suits teens ready to talk about discrimination and about using their own voice.
A puppet play that ties kids' lives today to the dark old legends of Prague. Time stops on the Old Town astronomical clock, an ancient curse wakes, and a creature trapped between the seconds walks into the present. Hurvínek's wish sets it off. There are laughs, but the mood gets eerie, and the story is about love, memory and what can't be undone. Not a light comedy for younger kids.
A live lecture show where a presenter runs experiments with liquid nitrogen at minus 196°C. Kids see how far a chilled balloon shrinks, what happens to an LED at that temperature, whether a splash of liquid nitrogen is dangerous, and why supercooled materials can levitate in a magnetic field. Popular with school groups and the public, it suits kids curious about science who can follow a talk.
A classic Czech puppet tale. Princess Majdalenka ends up in hell by mistake, and Kašpárek, the cheeky jester of Czech puppetry, sets off with his friend Honza to free her by outwitting the devils.
It plays at Divadlo Říše loutek, a puppet theater in the Municipal Library building in the Old Town. A good first theater outing for preschoolers.
A sing-along concert led by composer Jaroslav Uhlíř, with a live band and singer Jana Bittnerová. The set runs through the Uhlíř and Svěrák songbook, from "Holubí dům" and "Severní vítr" to tunes from the fairy-tale films Ať žijí duchové! and Lotrando a Zubejda. Kids can join in, and parents and grandparents will know most of the words.
A one-performer theater show about Františka, who can't wait to meet her little brother, still hiding in Mom's belly. Her search for answers about the nine months before birth is playful, gentle and educational. It suits a child expecting a sibling, or any kid asking where babies come from.
Hrrr na ně! ("Charge at them!") is a new play for kids about the Hussites, the 15th-century Czech rebels led by Jan Žižka. Two actors from 3D company tell the story with jokes, songs and duels, and kids find out why Žižka's name is still known today. It is played for laughs, not as a history lesson, and it suits kids who can follow Czech.
Libozvuky is an interactive music show from Divadlo Minor, directed by Jiří Adámek. Actors and musicians build a landscape of sound, then use light and voices to conjure a creature on stage. There are no seats: kids sit on the floor beside a long wooden walkway, and children often call out what they see and edge closer to the actors. Marek Doubrava's score won the 2015 Theatre Critics' Award.
More than 100 models built from nearly 15 million LEGO bricks fill 1,500 square meters of a shopping center. Kids walk past a full-size Ferrari F40, a 60-meter Great Wall of China and a Star Wars-inspired zone, then build their own creations in a big free-play area.
It suits kids who already build with bricks. None of the models have been shown here before.
Story of Lights fills the riverside grounds at Žluté lázně with a medieval Prague built from light. Kids walk through a gate and follow Charles IV as king, builder and emperor, past a glowing Charles Bridge, the royal crown, Gothic towers and the crown jewels, with interactive elements along the route. It suits kids who like castles and kings, and the history stays easy enough for a simple evening walk.
Pat and Mat are the Czech puppet handymen whose home repairs always go wrong, and this exhibition marks 50 years since they first appeared. The main rooms suit older kids: original film dioramas, props, and an animation workshop where you try the basics yourself. Younger kids head to the play room in the castle cellar, where a cinema also shows one of the feature films.
Cirkus Humberto is a traditional Czech family circus that tours the country with its own big top, the largest in the Czech Republic. This season's program mixes animal acts (horses, camels, zebras, a pride of Somali lions, Indian elephants and Matěj the bear) with aerial ropes and straps, juggling, a hula-hoop dancer and the Duo Warriors on the wheel of death. Mr. Chap's clown routines run between acts.
A ghost comedy based on Tim Burton's cult film. Lydia, still grieving her mother, moves into a house already haunted by a gentle couple, and the chaotic demon Beetlejuice makes everything worse. Expect big effects, dance, energetic songs and black humor. It is a full Broadway-style production on the theater's main stage, and it suits kids who like spooky and silly more than sweet.
Princ a Večernice is the stage version of the classic Czech fairy tale film. Young Prince Velen marries off his three sisters to the rulers of sun, moon and wind, falls for their sister Večernice, then has to leave the castle and find his own courage on the road. Standing in his way are robbers, false merchants and the cruel Mrakomor, ruler of bad weather. Expect suspense and gentle humor.
A stage version of the famous Czech bedtime cartoon about a small dog, a present for a girl named Ája, who grows into a giant. Kids watch Fík sit at a school desk, star in a circus ring, drive a car and travel the world, only to find home is best.
A funny show about friendship and courage, spoken in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language.
An open-air rink on Letná plain, with Prague Castle in view. The 43 by 20 meter sheet of ice is a manageable size for a first lap holding the barrier.
A heated tent gives kids somewhere to lace up and warm their hands, and there are skate and helmet rentals, sharpening, toilets and snacks on site. Public skating is walk-in, with no booking.
A hangar of historical aircraft, some still able to fly, opens to visitors who can walk around the planes and see them up close. The owners and pilots who keep their aircraft here run the day and are happy to chat, and in good weather some of the old planes take off for flight demonstrations. It suits kids who love planes and machines.
Aplaus prosím is Europark's Sunday theater series. Professional Czech troupes take turns on a stage inside the shopping center, and the troupe and story change every week. The shows are short, so it fits around lunch or a quick shop. The fairy tales are told in Czech, so kids who don't follow the language may lose the thread.
A new Czech play about Manka, a girl who loves to paint, in the smoky factory streets of old Smíchov. When an old man tells her about a mysterious painting hidden in the Church of St. Nicholas, she crosses into Malá Strana, the neighborhood next door that Smíchov kids avoid. A story of courage and friendship, inspired by writer Jakub Arbes and artist Toyen, played by two actors.
Saturday morning and no plan yet? We pull together the kids' events happening around the city this weekend, from hands-on workshops to stage shows and family days out, with whatever starts soonest at the top. The list updates as new events come in, so it's worth a look before every weekend.
Okamžik (Moment) is the 15th-anniversary show of Cirk La Putyka, directed by Finland's Maksim Komaro. It plays with the idea of a blink: a forest is there and then it's gone, two performers suddenly become twenty.
Expect 35 performers and circus techniques used in new ways, mixed with humor, magic and poetry.
Circus Nights is a festival of new circus held in towns across Czechia and Slovakia, part of the international La Nuit du Cirque. Here the program spreads over several stages and mixes professional shows with open workshops and training for the public.
It suits kids who want to try circus skills, not only watch: juggling, balancing and acrobatics are on offer. Cirk La Putyka also brings its show Okamžik.
A solo show by performer Daniel Kvašňovský that blends new circus, clowning and physical theater. His character steps on stage set on giving the performance of his life, and it keeps going sideways, funny one moment and touching the next. The setting is a winter solstice somewhere between a circus tent and a sheepfold, with a thread of Slovak folk. Expect no red noses or giant shoes.
Tramtárie is a playful Czech show stitched together from scraps of nonsense poems and set to live music. Actors pop up, run past, whisper, splash and make things vanish in a world of words, colors, magic and laughter.
There is no lesson to learn here: the point is permission to be silly. The verses repeat until they stick, and parents say kids go home singing them.
A puppet fairy tale from Divadlo b, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Evelína can't wait for her fifteenth birthday, when she can look at the human world for the first time, but the wish brings trouble with it.
It is a spoken story performed in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language and enjoy a classic tale told with puppets.
Hansel and Gretel as a puppet show by the Říše loutek company. The children wander off while picking strawberries and find a house made of gingerbread, where a witch plans to fatten Hansel up. The grumpy old man who lives with her dislikes children but befriends Hansel and stops her. Two dwarf puppets guide the story. The sets and puppets were made by the family of a late Czech artist.
A family concert where the Prague Symphony Orchestra plays alongside actors, dancers and young performers from Prague music and ballet schools. Two guides lead kids through a fairy-tale adventure of dragons, princesses and magic, with plenty of laughs on the way. It suits curious kids meeting an orchestra for the first time.
A dance revue play about Josephine Baker, the Broadway dancer who made Paris her home, spied against the Nazis in World War II and fought racism all her life. Radka Pavlovčinová plays her through charleston, songs and quick costume changes, with a talkative one-man orchestra and a cheetah named Chiquita.
It suits teens ready to talk about discrimination and about using their own voice.
A puppet play that ties kids' lives today to the dark old legends of Prague. Time stops on the Old Town astronomical clock, an ancient curse wakes, and a creature trapped between the seconds walks into the present. Hurvínek's wish sets it off. There are laughs, but the mood gets eerie, and the story is about love, memory and what can't be undone. Not a light comedy for younger kids.
A live lecture show where a presenter runs experiments with liquid nitrogen at minus 196°C. Kids see how far a chilled balloon shrinks, what happens to an LED at that temperature, whether a splash of liquid nitrogen is dangerous, and why supercooled materials can levitate in a magnetic field. Popular with school groups and the public, it suits kids curious about science who can follow a talk.
A classic Czech puppet tale. Princess Majdalenka ends up in hell by mistake, and Kašpárek, the cheeky jester of Czech puppetry, sets off with his friend Honza to free her by outwitting the devils.
It plays at Divadlo Říše loutek, a puppet theater in the Municipal Library building in the Old Town. A good first theater outing for preschoolers.
A sing-along concert led by composer Jaroslav Uhlíř, with a live band and singer Jana Bittnerová. The set runs through the Uhlíř and Svěrák songbook, from "Holubí dům" and "Severní vítr" to tunes from the fairy-tale films Ať žijí duchové! and Lotrando a Zubejda. Kids can join in, and parents and grandparents will know most of the words.
A one-performer theater show about Františka, who can't wait to meet her little brother, still hiding in Mom's belly. Her search for answers about the nine months before birth is playful, gentle and educational. It suits a child expecting a sibling, or any kid asking where babies come from.
Hrrr na ně! ("Charge at them!") is a new play for kids about the Hussites, the 15th-century Czech rebels led by Jan Žižka. Two actors from 3D company tell the story with jokes, songs and duels, and kids find out why Žižka's name is still known today. It is played for laughs, not as a history lesson, and it suits kids who can follow Czech.
Libozvuky is an interactive music show from Divadlo Minor, directed by Jiří Adámek. Actors and musicians build a landscape of sound, then use light and voices to conjure a creature on stage. There are no seats: kids sit on the floor beside a long wooden walkway, and children often call out what they see and edge closer to the actors. Marek Doubrava's score won the 2015 Theatre Critics' Award.
More than 100 models built from nearly 15 million LEGO bricks fill 1,500 square meters of a shopping center. Kids walk past a full-size Ferrari F40, a 60-meter Great Wall of China and a Star Wars-inspired zone, then build their own creations in a big free-play area.
It suits kids who already build with bricks. None of the models have been shown here before.
Story of Lights fills the riverside grounds at Žluté lázně with a medieval Prague built from light. Kids walk through a gate and follow Charles IV as king, builder and emperor, past a glowing Charles Bridge, the royal crown, Gothic towers and the crown jewels, with interactive elements along the route. It suits kids who like castles and kings, and the history stays easy enough for a simple evening walk.
Pat and Mat are the Czech puppet handymen whose home repairs always go wrong, and this exhibition marks 50 years since they first appeared. The main rooms suit older kids: original film dioramas, props, and an animation workshop where you try the basics yourself. Younger kids head to the play room in the castle cellar, where a cinema also shows one of the feature films.
Cirkus Humberto is a traditional Czech family circus that tours the country with its own big top, the largest in the Czech Republic. This season's program mixes animal acts (horses, camels, zebras, a pride of Somali lions, Indian elephants and Matěj the bear) with aerial ropes and straps, juggling, a hula-hoop dancer and the Duo Warriors on the wheel of death. Mr. Chap's clown routines run between acts.
A ghost comedy based on Tim Burton's cult film. Lydia, still grieving her mother, moves into a house already haunted by a gentle couple, and the chaotic demon Beetlejuice makes everything worse. Expect big effects, dance, energetic songs and black humor. It is a full Broadway-style production on the theater's main stage, and it suits kids who like spooky and silly more than sweet.
Princ a Večernice is the stage version of the classic Czech fairy tale film. Young Prince Velen marries off his three sisters to the rulers of sun, moon and wind, falls for their sister Večernice, then has to leave the castle and find his own courage on the road. Standing in his way are robbers, false merchants and the cruel Mrakomor, ruler of bad weather. Expect suspense and gentle humor.
A stage version of the famous Czech bedtime cartoon about a small dog, a present for a girl named Ája, who grows into a giant. Kids watch Fík sit at a school desk, star in a circus ring, drive a car and travel the world, only to find home is best.
A funny show about friendship and courage, spoken in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language.
An open-air rink on Letná plain, with Prague Castle in view. The 43 by 20 meter sheet of ice is a manageable size for a first lap holding the barrier.
A heated tent gives kids somewhere to lace up and warm their hands, and there are skate and helmet rentals, sharpening, toilets and snacks on site. Public skating is walk-in, with no booking.
A hangar of historical aircraft, some still able to fly, opens to visitors who can walk around the planes and see them up close. The owners and pilots who keep their aircraft here run the day and are happy to chat, and in good weather some of the old planes take off for flight demonstrations. It suits kids who love planes and machines.
Aplaus prosím is Europark's Sunday theater series. Professional Czech troupes take turns on a stage inside the shopping center, and the troupe and story change every week. The shows are short, so it fits around lunch or a quick shop. The fairy tales are told in Czech, so kids who don't follow the language may lose the thread.
A new Czech play about Manka, a girl who loves to paint, in the smoky factory streets of old Smíchov. When an old man tells her about a mysterious painting hidden in the Church of St. Nicholas, she crosses into Malá Strana, the neighborhood next door that Smíchov kids avoid. A story of courage and friendship, inspired by writer Jakub Arbes and artist Toyen, played by two actors.
