Stage and costume designer Peter Čanecký was born in Liptovský Mikuláš. He studied at the Department of Scenography and Costume Design of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava from 1978 to 1983 under Prof. Ludmila Purkyňová and Prof. Otto Šujan. After graduation, he started working at the J.G. Tajovský Theatre in Zvolen, but later he returned to Bratislava and also cooperated with other theatres outside Bratislava. For a short period in 1988-1990, he worked as an in-house scenographer at the Theatre New Stage in Bratislava.

 

Since 1991 he has been a lecturer at the Department of Scenography of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, where he received the academic title of associate professor in 1998 and the title of professor in 2006. Currently, he is also the head of this Department. In the early period of his teaching career, he had several foreign study residencies at prestigious universities, Academia Minerva Groningen in the Netherlands (1991), Nottingham Trent University in England (1993) and later at Mikkeli Polytechnik Savonlinna in Finland (2003).

 

He develops his creative concepts mainly with director Roman Polák but also with other established directors, both at home and abroad. He is a multi-award winner of the theatre prize "Dosky" (in 2006 for the best costume of the theatre season for the production of the play A. P. Chekhov's Ivanov at the SKD Martin, in 2008 for the best costume of the theatre season for R. Polák's Piargy at the DAB Nitra, in 2009 for the best costume of the theatre season for L. N. Tolstoy's Anna Kareninová at the Slovak National Theatre, in 2010 for the best costume of the theatre season for J. B. Moliere's The Misanthrope at the SKD Martin, and in 2013 for the best costume of the theatre season for F. M. Dostojeský's The Brothers Karamazov at the Slovak National Theatre, all productions directed by Roman Polák).

 

He is also the author of the sets for several Slovak and Czech films, the most famous of which are Better to be Rich and Healthy than Poor and Sick and An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World, directed by J. Jakubisko, or Cruel Joys and Music, directed by J. Nvota, for which he received the Slovak Film Academy's Sun in a Net Award in 2008. He won the 2016 Czech Lion Award and the 2016 Sun in a Net Award for Alice Nellis: The Seven Ravens.