“It only takes one person to say, ‘Let’s do it,’” says Prof. Pamela Howard, Doctor Honoris Causa

The interview is conducted in English.

“It only takes one person to say: Let’s do it, ” says Professor Pamela Howard OBE. And evenif no one did, she would still find a way — pushing ideas forward until they reach the world’s leading theatre stages.

A recent recipient of an honorary doctorate from JAMU in Brno (26 November 2025), the internationally acclaimed scenographer and interdisciplinary artist doesn’t just cross boundaries — she dissolves them. Best known for her work in opera and music theatre, and as the author of What Is Scenography? and The Art of Scenography books, Howard creates wherever authenticity demands it.

“ I think colour is sound and sound is colour,” she says, “and everything stands from that.” Brno has repeatedly confirmed this vision — from Martinů’s The Marriage at the MoravianAutumn Festival (2009) to the world premiere of Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon , staged and designed by Howard herself (2010).

How do you find your own artistic voice? How can colour listen — and sound be seen? And what traces have Czech landscapes, history, and opera left on one of today’s most distinctive scenographic minds?

In a live conversation, Eliška Kubečková, a second-year RTDS student, opens Pamela Howard’s creative universe — where sound has colour, colour has tone, and courage always comes first.

Host : Eliška Kubečková
Recording : Klára Prchalová, Izabela Švantnerová
Editing : Klára Prchalová
Sound : Jerguš Čermák