Josef Skupa (16 January 1892 â 8 January 1957) was a Czech puppeteer. He also worked in the field of puppet theatre as a playwriter, director and stage designer. He developed the most famous Czech puppets, Spejbl and HurvÃÂnek, and founded the first Czech professional puppet theatre, the Spejbl and HurvÃÂnek Theatre. From 1933 to 1957, he was the president of the International Puppetry AssociationâÂÂUNIMA.
Josef Alois Skupa was born on 16 January 1892 in Strakonice, into a family of a gendarme. His family also lived in Blovice and Chanovice, before moving to Plzeà Â, when Josef was five years old. He attended the primary school (Volksschule) in MladÃÂjovice. In 1903âÂÂ1906, he attended a high school in Plzeà Â. In 1911âÂÂ1915, he studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. After he graduated, he returned to Plzeà  and worked as a high school teacher of mathematics and drawing. He also collaborated with the Plzeà  City Theatre as a stage designer.
Skupa performed his first puppet shows in MladÃÂjovice as a child, when he was visiting his uncle. During his student years, he attended cabarets in Prague and performed in satirical cabaret improvisations himself. He wrote texts for Ferenc Futurista (then a sculpture student) and they modeled puppets for their joint performances. From 1917, he collaborated with the amateur puppet theatre of Feriálnàosady (charitable association). He gradually worked there as a stage designer, dramaturg, director and puppeteer. He most often performed with the traditional puppet of kaà ¡párek (Kasperle). He quickly became a leading figure in the theatre.
In 1919, he designed the puppet of Spejbl, a big-eared bald figure who was supposed to become a caricature of outsmarted townspeople. The puppet first appeared in a performance in 1920, performing with kaà ¡párek as the victim of his pranks. From 1923 to 1926, Skupa performed with the puppet of à  vejk. In 1926, he returned to Spejbl and designed the puppet of his rascal son HurvÃÂnek. Spejbl and HurvÃÂnek became the most popular and longest-serving puppets in the history of Czech puppetry.
In 1920, Josef Skupa married Jià Âina Schwarzová. They did not have children. Jià Âina Skupová supported her husband in his activities and became a stage designer, playwriter and puppeteer, in charge of HurvÃÂnek.
In 1930, Skupa left the teaching profession. The theatre, now known as the Plzeà  Puppet Theatre of Professor Skupa (), went from amateur to professional that year, becoming the first professional puppet theatre in the country. The theatre troupe hired additional staff, including Frank Wenig, who co-wrote plays with Skupa. Most of the plays did not have a well-developed story, but even in unsuccessful plays, Skupa's acting skills and ability to improvise saved the performance. In 1933, Skupa became the president of the UNIMA (International Puppetry Association), and held the position until his death.
After 1933, the theatre had to fear censorship. In 1938, Skupa and Wenig wrote one of the theatre's most memorable plays, Kolotoào tà Âech poschodÃÂch (The Three-Story Carousel), which was a bold allegory of the Munich Agreement. In 1944âÂÂ1945, Skupa was imprisoned by the Gestapo in Dresden. After World War II, he began working for a radio in Plzeà Â, but then, thanks to his friends, he resumed his theatre and reopened it in Prague under the name Spejbl and HurvÃÂnek Theatre. Skupa also became the head of the puppetry theatre department at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
From 1948, the theatre performed not only in Czechoslovakia, but also abroad (in the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Hungary, Romania, Sweden and the Soviet Union), thanks to the new actor Miloà ¡ Kirschner, who knew foreign languages. However, during this period until his death, Skupa struggled with a creative crisis and only performed plays from the pre-war period. In 1956, Skupa handed over the theatre to Kirschner. He died on 8 January 1957 in Prague. He is buried at the Central Cemetery in Plzeà Â.
Skupa was an active freemason of masonic lodge Josef Dobrovský in Plzeà Â.
In 1948, he was awarded by the Czechoslovak State with the title of National Artist.
Every two years, an international festival of professional puppet and alternative theatre takes place in Plzeà  and is called Skupa's Plzeà Â. It was first held in 1967 and was held annually until 1978.
In 1967, Skupa was posthumously awarded Honorary Citizenship of Plzeà Â. A street in Plzeà  is named Skupova after Josef Skupa.