The Havel Festival : Timeline : Early life in theater, 1958

Celebrating the life and art of Václav Havel
New York City, October through December 2006

Timeline: Early life in theater, 1958 – 1968

Go back to
Childhood and early adulthood
Through 1957

Go forward to
Life as a dissident playwright
1969 – 1988


	1958
		Havel writes comic play about army life with fellow soldier Karel Brynda. Play gets to finals of army theater competition, then eliminated as subversive.
	1959
		Havel discharged from army. He works as a stagehand at the ABC Theatre.
	1960
		Havel begins working at the Theatre on the Balustrade. He authors a small comic piece, Motormorphosis, to be performed as part of a larger comedy about the current mania for automobiles, called Hitchhiking. Motormorphosis is never performed, instead being adapted into the one-man version of Hitchhiking performed by the artistic director, Ivan Vyskocil. Havel writes An Evening With the Family. It is not performed. The victory of Communism is announced, and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic is declared, with a constitution further affirming Communist power.
	1962
		Havel co-writes The Best Rock Years of Mrs. Hermanova, a vehicle for legendary swing singer Ljuba Hermanova. He co-directs it with Jan Grossman, who later that year takes over the leadership of the Theatre on the Ballustrade.
	1963
		Havel writes The Garden Party. It is produced at the Theatre on the Balustrade, and gains critical acclaim.
	1964
		Havel marries Olga Splichalova. Kalus Junker, a German literary agent, hears about The Garden Party and comes to visit Theatre on the Balustrade. He takes Havel on as a client.
	1965
		Havel’s next play, The Memo, is produced at the Theater on the Ballustrade. It also gains good reviews.
	1966
		Havel’s *first book, Minutes,* is published*. It includes The Garden Party, Memo,* essays, and Anticodes, a collection of typograms—poems whose meaning derives from their visual typographic presentation.
	1967
		Moderate Alexander Dubcek takes over leadership of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ousting Stalinists from positions of power.

Go back to
Childhood and early adulthood
Through 1957

Go forward to
Life as a dissident playwright
1969 – 1988

Václav Havel. Photo by Alan Pajer.

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