Havel Vclav

Czech nationalist, playwright and president, a thorn in the side of the Communist Party and the Czech government for 20 years through his political protest. As a playwright, Havel gained international recognition in 1968. Because he could not remain silent about the persecution of fellow Czech artists, Havel was incarcerated by the Communist Party. By 1989, he had spent at least five years in prison. When world changes shattered Czechoslovakia in November 1989, he became a major symbol of the emerging freedom. The Velvet Revolution occurred on 12/29/1989, when Havel was sworn in as President, sharing his power with Dubcek and ending 40 years of Communist rule. Havel continues to be honored as an international symbol of courage and freedom. In February 1990, he received a standing ovation after his speech on freedom and democracy before both houses of the U.S. Congress. Havel grew up in a comfortable bourgeois family. His father, a real estate developer and entrepreneur employed a cook, maid, and chauffeur to help run the household. During WW II, the family continued to live in comfort even after a bomb destroyed the family home in Prague. The family finished the war on their country estate in Moravia. Havel and his younger brother Ivan, born in 1938, lived an idyllic childhood. While Ivan played outside with the other boys, Vaclav preferred to sit inside and quietly read his fathers books. A childhood friend, film director Milos Forman was Havels dorm leader at a boarding school outside of Prague. Chubby and lacking agility in sports, Havel always displayed good sportsmanship despite getting his nose bloodied during the boys boxing matches. At 12, Havel witnessed the bloodless Communist coup ending the fledgling four-year-old second Czech republic. In 1948, the Communist party confiscated the family holdings and his father was imprisoned. Upon his release, he became the administrative advisor in Lucerna, the shopping complex he had once owned. As a privileged teen, Havel was forbidden to attend state high school like his friends. For five years, he cleaned test tubes in a chemical laboratory and earned his degree at night school. His hunger for knowledge continued to grow and Havel began to write poetry. Outraged over the treatment of Czechoslovakias literary intellectuals, Havel began to make secret pilgrimages to the "non-citizens" homes. He joined the new underground that met at Pragues Cafe Slavia and began to make trouble as an outsider of mainstream Czech life. In 1956, at 20, Havel spoke out at a conference about the mistreatment of Czechs greatest poets. He was in the army from 1957-1959. writing plays that mocked the military administration. In the army, Havel recognized his ability to condemn the system by writing subversive plays criticizing the culture from the stage. Havel went to work as a stagehand in Pragues ABC Theater. In 1960, he moved to the small, dubious venue Theater on the Balustrade where he met his future wife Olga who was an usher. Havel worked the lights to building the sets at the theater. In 1963, his first important play, "The Garden Party" was performed at the theater and became a sensation with the Prague audience. He followed his success with "The Memorandum" in 1965. In 1968, Joseph Papps New York Shakespeare Festival produced "The Memorandum" for the New York stage. Havel was acclaimed in New York, staying for six weeks in America. He was honored with an Obie Read less