Jindřich Honzl

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Milan Knobloch : Jindřich Honzl (Prague)
Image from a production by Honzl in the Osvobozené divadlo (1927)

Jindřich Honzl (born May 14, 1894 in Humpolec , Austria-Hungary ; died April 20, 1953 in Prague ) was a Czech director and theater theorist.

Life

Jindřich Honzl was involved in various literary and theater projects in Prague in the 1920s. He became a member of the group of writers Devětsil and founded and ran the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theater) and the Da-Da Theater in alternating collaboration with Jiří Frejka and Emil František Burian .

He directed and wrote texts on theatrical theory of avant-garde theater. He staged choir appearances and crowd scenes and developed dramatic montage as a stylistic device . In 1934 the Nové divadlo was created as an experimental stage with his participation .

Honzl took part in the discussions at the Prague School , which was institutionalized in 1926 as the “Prague Linguistic Circle”.

During the German occupation of the Czech Republic from March 1939, directors such as Emil František Burian , Karel Dostal and Jiří Frejka tried to show the audience signs of resistance in their directorial work with hidden allusions, stresses and stretches in the language and simultaneous facial expressions and gestures, which, however, did Spy not remained hidden. Honzl was entrusted in 1939 with the management of Divadélko pro 99 by the Borový publishing house, which had a theater license . Honzl was attacked for his work by the Nazi-loyal collaboration press and he gave up this activity in 1941 in protest against Burian's arrest.

After the liberation in 1945 he became director of the drama theater of the State Theater in communist Czechoslovakia in 1948 (Národní divadlo). He staged plays by Czech authors of the 19th century such as Josef Kajetán Tyl , Václav Kliment Klicpera , Vilém Mrštík in modern theater forms and brought Vítězslav Nezval and international authors such as Guillaume Apollinaire , Jean Cocteau and Alfred Jarry to the stage. He only complied to a limited extent with the greater consideration of contemporary Soviet authors in the program, demanded by the communist government.

Fonts (selection)

  • Roztočené jeviště , 1925
  • Vznik moderního ruského divadla , 1928
  • Sláva a bída divadel , 1937
  • Dynamics of the Sign in Theater (1940) , translation into English, in: George W. Brandt (Hrsg.): Modern theories of drama: a selection of writings on drama and theater 1850–1990 . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998 ISBN 0-19-871140-9 , pp. 269-278
  • Román lásky a cti: Dramatická montáž . Prague: Borový, 1941
  • K novému významu umění , 1956
  • Základy praxe moderního divadla , 1963
  • Divadélko per 99 . Prague: Orbis, 1964
  • The Hierarchie of the Dramatic Device , in: Ladislav Matějka, Irwin R. Titunik (Eds.): Semiotics of art. Prague School contributions . Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1976 ISBN 0-262-13117-X , pp. 118-127
  • Articles in the theory journal Otázky divadla a filmu

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ladislav Matějka (Ed.): Sound, sign and meaning. Quinquagenary of the Prague linguistic circle . Ann Arbor, MI; Univ. of Michigan; 1978
  2. ↑ Volker Mohn: Nazi cultural policy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: concepts, practices, reactions . Essen: Klartext, 2014 ISBN 978-3-8375-1112-3 Zugl .: Düsseldorf, Univ., Diss., 2011, p. 377
  3. ↑ Volker Mohn: Nazi cultural policy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , 2014, p. 384
  4. ↑ Karel Vondrášek: Soviet cultural model and the Czech theater 1945–1968: on the tension between Czechoslovak cultural policy and Czech theater; Analysis and documentation. 1. (Analysis) . Bochum: Projekt-Verlag, 1999 ISBN 3-89733-028-8
personal data
SURNAME Honzl, Jindřich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech director and theater theorist
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Humpolec , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1953
Place of death Prague