Tribute: Martin Huba

Martin Huba is a distinguished Slovak actor, director and highly regarded university professor. In the course of his acting career, he played the parts of over 150 film and tele- vision characters, acted in theatres in Košice, Bratislava, Brno and Prague, and directed both drama and opera works for the Slovak National Theatre as well as Prague’s Summer Shakespeare Festival. His work has been awarded a whole range of significant prizes. In 1964 he graduated in acting from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. His acting career started in the Košice State Theatre, where he worked between 1964 and 1967. Later he moved to the theatre Divadlo na Korze in Bratislava. Since 1976 he has been a member of the Slovak National Theatre (SND). His first appearance in Slovak cinema came with the part of a messenger boy in Dialogue 20 40 60 (1968), a short story film directed by Solan, Brynych and Skolimowski, followed by a series of smaller parts in several other films. In 1990 Huba was casted by Miloslav Luther to the role of Kepler in the TV series Doctor of the Dying Time and its film form The Witness Of a Dying Era. Due to the situation in Slovak cinematography, the late 90’s were marked by prominent acting oppor- tunities in Czech films mainly. He starred in such films as Fany (dir. Karel Kachyňa, 1996), Divided We Fall (dir. Jan Hřebejk, 2001; the film was nominated for Academy Awards), Lunacy (dir. Jan Švankmajer, 2005), Something Like Happiness (dir. Bohdan Sláma, 2005),
I Served the King of England (dir. Jiří Menzel, 2006; awarded by The Czech Lion Award and The Sun in a Net prize for the role of a waiter), Kawasaki‘s Rose (dir. Jan Hřebejk, 2009 – nominated for the Czech Lion Award), 3 Seasons in Hell (dir. Tomáš Mašín, 2009 – nominated for the Czech Lion Award), Burning Bush (dir. Agnieszka Holland, 2013), or The Devil‘s Mistress (dir. Filip Renč, 2016). He also played Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in the Czech historical TV series Czech Century. Despite the rich experience with film, theatre remains his main domain. He played the part of Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac, Bruscon in Bernhard’s The Theatre Maker (received The Alfréd Radok Awards) or Rosmer in Ibsen’s Rosmersholm (nominated for The Alfréd Radok Awards). On the stage of the Slovak National Theatre, he directed Chekhov’s drama The Cherry Orchard or Mozart‘s opera The Marriage of Figaro. In 2001 he received the Slovak Theatre Critic‘s Prize DOSKY for directing Le Bal. Moreover, Martin Huba was awarded Tatra banka Foundation Art Awards for his performance in Kawasaki‘s Rose and 3 Seasons in Hell as well as the Actor‘s Mission Award at Art Film Fest 2013 in Trenčianske Teplice.

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