Jindřich Honzl (14 May 1894 – 20 April 1953) was a Czech theatre theorist, film and theatre director and pedagogue who was a leading representative of Czech modern theater.
Biography
Honzl was born on May 14, 1894, in Humpolec in the family of a tailor and factory worker. In 1914 he graduated from pedagogical courses in Prague. From 1914 to 1927 he taught chemistry and physics at schools in Prague. After the end of World War I, he became active in politics and cultural issues and wrote the social democratic press. In his hometown, and his interest in theater was stimulated by the amateur performances of the workers' association in the Na Kuchařově inn, where his mother performed.
From 1921 he was a member of the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed be ...
.
He devoted himself to theater in the Dědrasbor (Workers' Drama Choir), which was a proletarian amateur theatre movement influenced by the
Proletkult
Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolut ...
, and especially in
Devětsil, in whose anthology he was able to publish his theoretical articles, which are generally taken as the beginning of the Czech theatrical avant-garde.
Already in 1926, together with Jiří Frejka and
Emil František Burian
Emil František Burian (11 June 1904 – 9 August 1959) was a Czech poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, composer, dramatic adviser, playwright and director. He was also active in Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politics.
Early life ...
, he opened the experimental theatre
Osvobozené divadlo
Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) (''Liberated Theatre'' or ''Prague Free Theatre'') was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (''Butterbur'') in 1926. The th ...
. At first, they presented productions drawn from French and Czech authors, and a year later, in 1927, they accepted
Jiří Voskovec
Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...
and
Jan Werich
Jan Werich (; 6 February 1905 – 31 October 1980) was a Czech actor, playwright and writer.
Early life
Between 1916 and 1924, Werich attended "reálné gymnasium" (equivalent to high school) in Křemencova Street in Prague (where his future bu ...
with their successful play ''Vest pocket revue'' which gave birth to the Czech avant-garde theatre.
From 1929 to 1931 he worked as a playwright and director of the Provincial Theater in Brno. From 1931 to 1938 he worked at the National Theater and the City Theater in Plzeň. Honzl also took part in discussions about the Prague School, which was established in 1926 as the
Prague Linguistic Circle
The Prague school or Prague linguistic circle is a language and literature society. It started in 1926 as a group of linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis an ...
.
During the German occupation of the Czech Republic in March 1939, directors such as Emil František Burian,
Karel Dostal
Karel Dostal (1884–1966) was a Czechoslovak stage and film actor.Burian p.233
Selected filmography
* ''Grand Hotel Nevada'' (1935)
* '' The World Is Ours'' (1937)
* '' The Magic House'' (1939)
* '' Second Tour'' (1939)
* ''The Blue Star Hotel' ...
and Jiří Frejka tried to show public signs of resistance in their direction with hidden allusions, accent and stretching in language and simultaneous facial expressions and gestures that however, did not go unnoticed by informants. In 1939. Honzl was attacked for his work from the collaborationist press, and in 1941 he came to protest against the arrest of Burian.
After the Second World War he became a member of the
National Theater. In the period from July 1945 to July 1948, in parallel with his work in the National Theater, he also managed the newly established Studio National Theater, which he founded.
He staged plays by 19th century Czech authors in modern theatrical forms. In the 20th century as well as international writers such as
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French French poetry, poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish-Belarusian, Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered ...
,
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
and
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play '' Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
, took to the stage. The state demanded that more attention be paid to theatrical productions by contemporary Soviet authors and Honzl obliged in moderation.
From 1945 to 1946 he lectured on acting at the Department of Aesthetics (Department of History and Theater Theory) and the Faculty of Philosophy of the
Charles University
)
, image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg
, image_size = 200px
, established =
, type = Public, Ancient
, budget = 8.9 billion CZK
, rector = Milena Králíčková
, faculty = 4,057
, administrative_staff = 4,026
, students = 51,438
, underg ...
. After the establishment of the Department of Theater Studies at the university he is headed the academic seminar. From 1946 to 1953 he was a professor of theater studies at the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and from 1951 to 1952 he held the position of head of the Department of Theater Science and Dramaturgy. He also ran the magazine ''Soviet Theater'' and worked in the theater section of the Czechoslovak-Soviet Institute.

He retired from director in the spring of 1950 and later resigned from his remaining posts. Honzl died on April 20, 1953, in Prague.
Works
Honzl wrote texts on the theatrical theory of the avant-garde theatre and was initially influenced by
surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
,
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
and
dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
ism. He was a leading figure in the left-wing Czech interwar avant-garde. As an artist and theorist, he actively influenced the development of socialist-oriented theater. In his directing work, he was based on a specific acting expression and helped to develop the breadth of his means of expression. His theoretical works laid the foundation for a
Marxist interpretation of theatrical science. After 1945, he contributed to the promotion of the ideological principles of Soviet theater culture in Czech theater.
Theoretical works
* ''Roztočené jeviště'', 1925
* ''Vznik moderního ruského divadla'', 1928
* ''K novému významu umění'', 1956
* ''Základy praxe moderního divadla'', 1963
Theatrical productions

* ''Hadrián z Římsů zk'', (by
Vaclav Kliment Klicpera, 1930)
* ''Alchymista'', (by
Vladislav Vančura, 1932)
* ''Jan Hus'', (by
J. K. Tyl, 1936)
* ''Julietta'', (by
Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He b ...
, 1938)
* ''Pražský žid'', (J. J. Kolár – V. Vančura, 1946)
* ''Národní hrdina Julius Fučík'', (1946)
* ''Ze života hmyzu'' (by
Karel Čapek
Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...
and
Josef Čapek
Josef Čapek (; 23 March 1887 – April 1945) was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet. He invented the word "robot", which was introduced into literature by his brother, Karel Čapek.
...
, 1946),
* ''Faidra'', (by
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradit ...
, 1947)
* ''Maryša'', (Alois Mrštík a Vilém Mrštík, 1948)
* ''Maloměšťáci'', (by
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
, 1949)
* ''Josefina'', (by V. Vančura, 1949)
Filmography
* ''
Pudr a benzin'', 1931
* ''Peníze nebo život'', 1932
* ''Dobrý vedoucí'', 1939
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honzl, Jindrich
1894 births
1953 deaths
Czech theatre directors
Czech film directors
Czech theatre people
Theatre theorists
Czech Marxists
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia members
Academic staff of Charles University