Ronald Prokeš

Robert Fulgum said “All I ever needed to know, I learned in kindergarten.” Looking back, I can only agree with him. It was in Bumble Bee kindergarten that I learned how to command English as a native speaker. Without this early education I wouldn’t even be able to conceive or dream about the current career path I am on. After a Czech elementary school, I attended a six year English high school called English College in Prague where I graduated with an International Baccalaureate diploma. Thanks to my strong results, I was able to take up my place at Cambridge University – St. John’s College. I completed my Bachelor’s degree here last year in the field of Education, with English and Drama. I had been involved in theatre and acting while I was at English College in Prague – both within the school’s drama department as well as outside of school with English speaking theatre companies in Prague. In Cambridge then, I was fully engaged in the historically strong theatre societies. I performed in the famed ADC theatre and Cambridge Arts Theatre. While I was studying at Cambridge I kept returning home and performed with the Prague Shakespeare Company at the Estates Theatre. At the same time I was chosen for a summer intensive training programme in the USA called Shakespeare Academy in Stratford. I then co-founded the theatre company DuoMuži with artists from the US. With this company we have toured productions to Brooklyn, London, Athens, Cambridge and even the majority of the East coast of the US. In September of this year I started my three year M.F.A. degree in the graduate acting department of Tisch School of the Arts of New York University. I was honoured to be selected into the 16 of first year students out of the thousands of applicants. Thanks to the financial support the school offered towards my tuition and the immense help of the Bakala Foundation I can be the first Czech to graduate with this degree.