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Václav Havel's Life      Theater | 1959–1969  
17 records
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1959
On the recommendation of actor Jan Werich, VH starts working as a stagehand at the ABC Theatre. It is due to this job that he determines to “get into the theatre“.
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1960
He starts working as a stagehand at the Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo Na zábradlí). He is later permitted to work as a dramaturge and assistant director. He co-authors a number of plays and meets, among others, director Jan Grossman who offers him creative guidance. At the same time, he works at the Prague Municipal Theatres as assistant to Alfréd Radok, one of the most distinguished Czech theatre directors.
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3. prosince 1963
His play The Garden Party (directed by Otomar Krejča) premieres at the Balustrade. Diligent Hugo Pludek grasps the rules of success and, thanks to a gift for adapting and dazzling people with empty phrases, comes to control the world of inaugurators and liquidators. However, his careerism causes him to lose his own personality, which he perhaps never had. Due to the positive reception of the play, regarded as an original Czech take on the Theatre of the Absurd, he suddenly becomes one of the most celebrated figures in Czech culture.
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9. července 1964
After an eight-year relationship, VH marries Olga, née Šplíchalová (born 11 July 1933). The marriage will last for more than 30 years.
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říjen 1964
VH achieves his first international success when the German premiere of The Garden Party takes place at West Berlin's Schiller Theatre. His rise to the world stage is made possible by Klaus Juncker of the Rowohlt publishing house. Juncker becomes Havel’s friend, lifelong literary and theatre agent, and, in tough times, connection with the free world.
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1965
Premiere of The Memorandum (Vyrozumění), a play based on the motif of an artificial, totalitarian language called Ptydepe.
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březen 1965
VH joins the editorial board of the literary monthly Tvář (The Face). Its open and critical tone soon gets it into trouble with official structures. He speaks out in its defence and organises a petition against its dissolution, becoming publicly engaged as an activist for the first time. The authorities prove stronger, however, and Tvář is dissolved early in 1966.
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1966
VH publishes his first book, The Protocols, containing the plays The Garden Party and The Memorandum, a collection of calligrams entitled Anticodes and other texts.
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1966
VH completes a distance learning course in dramaturgy at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU). His thesis consists of original play Eduard (later performed as The Increased Difficulty of Concentration) and a theoretical analysis of it.
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1967
A speech about the need for creative independence at the fourth congress of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers marks the beginning of Havel's public engagement in the Prague Spring, a process of renewal of Czech society.
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