Stanislav Moša, the principal of Brno City Theatre, drama and musical director, lyricist and librettist, was born in Nový Jičín in 1956.
After obtaining his grammar school studies, he went on to study first music and drama at the Ostrava State Conservatory, and subsequently to pursue his education at the Janáček Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (JAMU) in Brno (drama stage direction). Upon graduation, in 1983, he took up the position of resident stage director at the former Mrštík Brothers Theatre. From 1984–1994 he was a teacher at the Janáček Academy, a post which he combined for three years with work as the artistic director of the Janáček Academy’s Drama Studio Marta. In 1990 he became artistic director at the Mrštík Brothers Theatre, and in 1992 he was appointed director of what was now Brno City Theatre.
Moša directed such a world-known dramas, e.g. A. Casona: The Seven Balcony House, Lady of the Dawn; J. Schmid: Thirteen Scents; J. Bouček: The Night of the Shepherds; B. Hrabal: The Gentle Barbarian; A. Jirásek: The Lantern; N. V. Gogol: The Government Inspector; S. Shepard: A Lie of the Mind; V. Nezval: Manon Lescaut; E. Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac; J. Hašek: Schweik; W. Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, King Henry VIII., The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet or the Soul and Body Fighting; R. Bean: Honeymoon Suite; F. Mitterer: In The Lion’s Den; Sofokles: Oedipus Rex; A. Bowell: Speaking in tongues, A. P. Čechov: The Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya; M. Kundera: Jacques and his Master; S. Mawer: The Glass Room; Molière: The Miser).
Stanislav Moša has also been directing musicals at Brno City Theatre. He has staged, for example, West Side Story, My Fair Lady (from Zelňák), Oliver!, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, The Witches of Eastwick, Fame, Les Misérables, Spring Awakening, Japery according to Aristophanes, Sugar! (Some like it hot), Chicago, Pope Joan, The Blood Brothers, Cats, Flashdance, GHOST, Johnny Blue, TITANIC, Chaplin, Saturday Night Fever, RENT, The Last Ship, Nine, Pretty Woman, First Date, Medicus, Big Fish, Heidi and Dear Evan Hansen.
Stanislav Moša is also an excellent and active author. He earned particularly wide acclaim for his stage adaptations of the novels by Ivan Kříž, The True Story of the Destruction of Sodom, and by Simon Mawer, The Glass Room. In the sphere of musicals he has created great many interesting projects. As a librettist and text writer he mainly cooperates with composers Zdenek Merta and Petr Ulrych. His collaborations with Zdenek Merta produced musical fairy A Midsummer Night Dream (1991), a visualised oratorio Bastard (1993), musical opera Babylon (1998), musical World of Angels (2000), fairytale musical The Garden of Miracles (2004) and all parts of the The Divine Comedy, musical trilogy – Inferno (2008), Purgatory (2013) and Paradise (2020). Their last work together so far is a fairytale musical The Water of Life (2025). Moša and Zdenek Merta also prepared the Bernstein’s Mass, megaproject with more than 300 performers at Prague Castle and Brno’s Hala Rondo stadium (now the DRFG Arena). The Prague State Opera put on Zdenek Merta’s opera La Roulette in March 2005 under the direction of Moša, who also wrote the libretto. With Petr Ulrych, he wrote the musical ballad Radúz and Mahulena (1997), musical Koločava (2001), inspired by stories about the bandit Nikola Šuhaj, musical poetic fresco May (2004), based on the motifs of poetry written by Karel Hynek Mácha, and most recently this duo presented musical ballad Markéta Lazarová (2007). He collaborated also with Miloš Štědroň in writing The Play about Love, Death and Eternity (1998). In 2010, Moša presented the monumental oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake by Arthur Honegger at Brno’s Hala Rondo.
As a stage director, he has over 180 productions to his credit, these being performed in Czech theatres as well as abroad (Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Luxembourg, Holland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland). Moša’s remade musical production of Hair set off on a month-long tour of Europe in 2011 with an English cast. There were also musicals West Side Story, Evita and Beauty and the Beast performed with a great success in many European countries. In recent years, for example, he has been associated with open-air performances against the backdrop of the breathtaking scenery on the shores of the Swiss lake Walensee in the town of Walenstadt, where he directed the titles My Fair Lady, TITANIC, Saturday Night Fever, Beauty and the Beast, Flashdance and Heidi.
Moša’s first collection of poems Víra má… was published in Vetrne Mlyny publishing house in Brno in 2010.
Stanislav Moša was also the originator of the idea to construct the Music Theatre, as well as its realisation in the form of a second theatre building for Brno City Theatre. It ceremonially commenced operation on 2. 10. 2004 and since then has become an inseparable part of Brno theatre culture.
Stanislav Moša also holds several important awards and prizes. In 1992, he received the Czech Music Fund Prize for the musical fairy A Midsummer Night Dream. In 1996, he accepted the City of Brno Award for Brno City Theatre. In Maribor, Slovenia, he gained the Borštnik Award for Aesthetic Breakthrough for his direction of the musical Cabaret. His direction of the musical Spring Awaking was recognised in 2010 by the Divadelní noviny Prize. He was successful in 2009 and 2010 in the survey Personality of the year TOP 100. In 2012, was Moša awarded by the prestigious Czech Chamber of Commerce prize the Order of the Golden Laurel. In May 2013, Stanislav Moša was presented with a prize by the theatre, literary and audiovisual agency DILIA, awarded for life-long successful artistic activity. In February 2020, he received the City of Brno Award for contribution to the field of dramatic art.
