Transcript JAN WERICH
JAN WERICH Lucka Keilová The early life • He was born on 6th February 1905 in Prague. • He was important film and stage actor and film screenwriter. • He was studying at a grammar school and then at the Law Faculty of the Charles University. He didn´t finish this studies. Since 1927 he began to devote to theatre activities. • During his studies at school he met his future partner Voskovec. They started to work together since 1926. • Ar first, they worked together in the magazine and soon they began to perform in the Liberated Theatre (Osvobozené divadlo). • They worked there as writers and actors. They were memorable comedic pair. The Liberated Theatre • It was the Prague avant-garde scene founded in 1925. • Stage plays were interspersed with songs, dances and other scenes. This is called a revue. • The goal of the games was critisism of society, politicans and dictators. • The first play of Voskovec and Werich was the Vest Pocket Revue. Here is the beginning of Forbin. It was fore stage. • The next theatre plays are Smoking revue, Caesar, Donkey and the shadow, Executioner and Fool, Rag Ballad, Heavy Barbora and so on. • The theatre was closed by an official ban in 1938. The life during World War II • When the Liberated Theatre was closed, Voskovec and Werich were forced to leave Czechoslovakia. They spent their life in the USA during the World War II. There, they were actors too. Their plays were performed in English for American public and in Czech for the local Czech community. • They were creating anti-Nazi radio programs in Czech language, which were broadcasted to all Europe. The life after World War II • Werich came back to liberated Czechoslovakia in 1945, Voskovec a year later. • They tried to restore the Liberated Theatre as a Theatre W+V. Because of the political situation it was not possible to do political satire. So the theatre worked only a few months. • Voskovec left our republic after 1948, first to France and then to the USA, where he was until his death. • Werich became a director of the ABC Theatre for several years. • Miroslav Horníček became his new partner. Werich featured many renewed plays from the Liberated Theatre with him. Werich´s daughter • She was a Czech writer and translator. • She was born in Czechoslovakia but then she left our republic with her parents to the USA, where she lived to the age of 10. • She graduated the Theatrical Academy of Performing Arts acting (DAMU). • She was a theatre actress rather than a film actress. She was in the Czechoslovakia film actor group. • At the end of the 50´s, she traveled with her father several times to Italy. • She narrated some stories with her father like Italian Holiday. Werich and film • Werich was not only a theatre actor but also a film actor. • Before the war he starred in for example Peníze nebo život, The World Belongs to Us nám etc. • After the war he filmed many films. For example The Emperor and the Golem, The Secret of Blood, Once upon a Time There Was a King etc. • Fimfárum 1, 2, 3 were published after his death. There is only Werich´s voice from the original author´s reading of the book Fimfárum. The end of his life • Werich was awarded the title of the National Artist. • Propaganda used his signature under Anti-Charter between 70´s and 80´s to denigrate him. He signed it under the pressure. • Werich was outside the mainstream of the culture in our Republic at the time of normalization. He was ignored until his death. • He died of the cancer of the larynx. • Werich died on 31st October 1980 in Prague. • His grave is next to the one of his best friends Voskovec. • http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Werich • http://www.spisovatele.cz/jan-werich • http://www.velikani.cz/index2.php?kat=litcz&zdro j=werichj • http://www.databazeknih.cz/autori/jan-werich171 • http://www.csfd.cz/tvurce/2018-jan-werich/