Jiří Ostermann

Jiří Ostermann (born October 4, 1935 in Prague , † September 2, 1990 in Toronto ) was a Czech reciter , lyricist, actor. In Czechoslovakia in the 1960s he was considered a propagator of beatnik poetry and jazz . In 1963 he was the founder of the Prague poetic wine tavern and the later Viola Theater .

Life

Ostermann began to recite on stage as early as the 1950s; during his military service in 1955/56 he worked in the theater in Český Těšín . From 1962 he appeared with a few other performers in a loose association called Poetický kabaret (Poetic Cabaret) and was looking for rooms in Prague for their performances. He found it in 1963 and was the main initiator of the founding of the permanent viola stage, which was not far from the Reduta theater and jazz club .

In the following two years, during which Ostermann directed Viola, Viola became a free space for experiments with the poetry of the Beat Generation (in Prague, the protagonists of this poetry movement were called Beatniks), where works by Lawrence Ferlinghetti , Gregory Corso , Jack Kerouac as well as Allen Ginsberg were recited daily. The New York Times correspondent, Paul Underwood, wrote in the October 20, 1963 issue: “... It's surprising to find a place like this in Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia ... It's the New- York clubs in Greenwich Village ... "

Ostermann left Viola in 1965 due to disagreements about the further program direction of the stage. In 1968 he emigrated to Canada, where he lived in Edmonton, Vancouver, Windsor and Toronto. Together with Jiří Martínek , his colleague from the viola period, who followed him to Canada, he made attempts to continue his work as he did in viola - they failed primarily for linguistic reasons. Ostermann earned his living as a waiter for a long time. In 1990 he visited Prague for three weeks. After he was disappointed to find that the viola era had been largely forgotten in 1963/1965, he returned to Toronto, where he died a short time later.

Filmography

• 1968: Kulhavý ďábel
• 1967: Muž, který stoupl v ceně
• 1967: Sedm havranů
• 1964: ... a pátý jezdec je Strach
• 1962: Letos v září

Scripts

Ostermann staged several viola performances between 1963 and 1965, including the following:

• Komu patří jazz , first performance on July 22nd, 1963, 100 repetitions
• Klaunyjáda damúr , first performance on August 12, 1963, 25 repetitions
• Poezie Allena Ginsberga , first performance on September 28, 1963, 61 repetitions
• Džez náš vezdejší , world premiere on March 20, 1964, 61 repetitions
• Startuji ze San Francisca , first performance on June 24, 1964, 15 repetitions
• Poezie Gregory Corsa , premiered October 14, 1964, 17 repetitions

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paul Underwood: Poets of Prague challenge party , in: The New York Times, issue of October 20, 1963, online at: query.nytimes.com / ... (archive; only readable by purchase or subscription), quoted here according to: Jiří Ostermann - beatnik a exulant z Violy , publication of the Radio of the Czech Republic Český rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha, online at: krajane.radio.cz / ...

swell

• Jiří Ostermann - beatnik a exulant z Violy , publication of the radio of the Czech Republic Český rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha, with personal memories of some personal friends and colleagues of Ostermann, online at: krajane.radio.cz / ...
• Jiří Ostermann , filmography on Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze ČSFD, online at: csfd.cz // ...