Ladislav Smoček (born 24 August 1932) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

writer, playwright and theatre director.

Biography

Ladislav Smoček was born on 24 August 1932,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. He comes from a family with a military tradition. His father was an officer in the

Czechoslovak Army The Czechoslovak Army (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá armáda'') was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary. History In t ...

. After studying at a secondary school in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

, he graduated as a theatre director from the

Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Department of Dramatic Theatre (, abbreviated DAMU) is one of three departments at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (alongside the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, ...

(DAMU) in 1956. His schoolmate there was

Václav Hudeček Václav Hudeček (born June 7, 1952 in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech violinist. A former student of David Oistrakh, Hudeček's records have sold many copies in the Czech Republic, especially a 1992 recording of Vivaldi's ...

and one of his professors was for also

František Salzer František Salzer (30 August 1902, Sušice – 23 December 1974, Prague) was a Czechoslovak Theatre Director, Theatre Actor, Film Actor, University Professor and Translator. Biography He studied at Prague Conservatory (1920–1924). In the ...

. He started his career in The City Theatre in

Benešov Benešov (; ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 17,000 inhabitants. The town is known for the Konopiště Castle. Administrative division Benešov consists of 15 municipal parts (in brackets population ...

(1956–1957), then he was active in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

(1957–1960) and in 1960 got a place as a director in

Laterna magika Laterna magika (), largely considered the world's first multimedia theatre, was founded as a cultural program at the 1958 Brussels Expo. It launched its official activity on 9 May 1959, as an independent company of the National Theatre, perform ...

in Prague. And after few more years he decided to move to the National theatre company where he in 1965 co-founded The Drama Club (''Činoherní klub''), where he remains employed as a playwright and director until the present. In the period between 1992 – 1993 he was a director of the

Vinohrady Theatre Vinohrady Theatre () is a theatre in Vinohrady, Prague. Construction began on February 27, 1905. It served as the Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army from autumn 1950 to January 1966. It contains a curtain painted by Vladimír Županský depicting ...

and he acted there as a director on a few occasions since that time. Though he wrote less than ten plays, he is together with

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

and

Pavel Kohout Pavel Kohout (born 20 July 1928) is a Czech and Austrian novelist, playwright, and poet. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a Prague Spring participant and dissident in the 1970s until he was not allowed to return from A ...

one of the most performed Czech playwrights.

Plays

*''Piknik'' (1965) (opening performance of The Drama Club /DC/) *''Dr. Burke's Strange Afternoon'' (1966) (translated into fourteen languages) *''The Maze'' (1966) (one act) *''Bitva na Kopci'' (?) (one act) *''Cosmic Spring'' (1970) *''The Noose'' (1972) (written in English) *''Nejlepší den'' (1995) (the only play performed in Plzeň instead of DC)

Selected performances – director

*2006 – ''

Les Liaisons dangereuses ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (; English: ''Dangerous Liaisons'') is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu on March 23, 1782. It is the story of the Marquise Isabelle de Merteu ...

'' by

Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton (born 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (play), ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the Les Liaisons da ...

, DC *2005 – ''Me and Jezebel'' by Elizabeth Fuller, Divadlo Ungelt *2004 – ''The Businessman from Smyrna'' by

Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (, also , ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays ...

, DC *2003 – ''Driving Miss Daisy'' by

Alfred Uhry Alfred Fox Uhry (born December 3, 1936) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the recipient of the two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for '' Driving Miss Daisy'', as well as the Academy Award for the 1989 film adaptat ...

, Divadlo Ungelt *2002 – ''Mask and The Face'' by Luigi Chiarelli, DC *2001 – ''Deskový statek'' by Václav Štech, DC *1999 – '' Marriage Play'' by

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

, Divadlo Ungelt *1997 – ''Wild Spring'' by

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and ot ...

, Divadlo Ungelt *1994 – ''Vodní družstvo'' by Josef Štolba, DC

Awards

*2006 The prize of The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic *2007 Laureate of the

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum' ...

of the Czech Centre of the International

PEN club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

References

Literature

* Petr Hořec, Milan Neděla: ''Rozpomínky'', Goldstein & Goldstein, Prague, 1997, str. 36, * Z. Sílová, R. Hrdinová, A. Kožíková, V. Mohylová : ''Divadlo na Vinohradech 1907 – 2007 – Vinohradský ansámbl'', issued by Divadlo na Vinohradech, Prague, 2007, str. 117, 119, 124, 127, 136, 139, 144, 150, 189, 191, 193,

External links

Article on Spisovatelé.cz

Divadlo 2007, Article "Ladislav Smoček neznámý"

* Ladislav Smoček (interview from Czech Television show " Na plovárně") �
online streaming from the TV archive
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smocek, Ladislav 1932 births Living people 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights Czech male dramatists and playwrights Czech theatre directors Writers from Prague Recipients of the Thalia Award Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni