A GIRL ON A TRAMPOLINE

A GIRL ON A TRAMPOLINE

Švanda Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic

Hosted by the Chopin Theatre, Chicago

Sunday, September 21 @ 7:00 PM

140 minutes including intermission

Performed in Czech with English subtitles

Reception to follow

Complimentary admission · RSVP required

Suggested donation: $25 at the door (cash or check payable to the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum)

Presented in collaboration with the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, the Prague Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago. Supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague.

All proceeds will benefit cultural programming and the digitization project at the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum.

About the Play:

A Girl On A Trampoline is the second play written for the Švanda Theatre by screenwriter and dramatist Pavel Jurda. This time, he draws inspiration from the lives and experiences of Zdena Salivarová and Josef Škvorecký, two exceptional Czech novelists and translators who could not pursue their careers due to an unfavorable political climate. They were banned from returning to Czechoslovakia after leaving for Canada in 1968. There, the couple founded a publishing house named '68 Publishers.

Jurda wrote an intimate play that blends autobiographical facts with a fictional historical layer; it portrays the creative and challenging lives of the Škvorecký couple, first in communist Czechoslovakia and later in exile in Toronto, Canada. The final script emerged as a collaborative effort of all artists involved—from the director and dramaturg to the entire cast.

The play borrowed its title from a short story by the renowned Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. In the story, Hrabal observes a girl jumping on a trampoline at the beach, noticing how she repeatedly pauses for a brief moment at the peak of her jump before falling back down—not only to the trampoline but also to those around her, engaged in similarly foolish efforts (fishermen, vendors, dockworkers, etc.). In that brief moment of stillness, Hrabal draws a connection to the "quixotic" repetitive struggles of those who persist in their daily toil, armed with enough madness and folly to pursue a perfect adventure…

Throughout history, there have been numerous attempts to rewrite the past. Yet, we see a handful of "warriors," lighthouse keepers, or pilgrims who, with heavy hearts, leave their beloved homeland to create conditions elsewhere that preserve and nurture fundamental human and cultural values.

'68 Publishers

A Czech exile publishing house that was founded by Zdena Salivarová Škvorecká and her husband, Josef Škvorecký, in the autumn of 1971 in Toronto. The couple began publishing both Czech originals and English translations of Škvorecký’s work, later including books by other Czech and Slovak authors who were banned in Czechoslovakia at the time. Books published there could, therefore, be smuggled into the communist homeland. In total, 227 titles were published by '68 Publishers, the majority of which were written by exiled and samizdat authors such as Josef Škvorecký, Arnošt Lustig, Egon Hostovský, Zdena Salivarová, Ivan Diviš, Václav Černý, Adina Mandlová, Bohumil Hrabal, Eda Kriseová, Jindřich Heisler, Ferdinand Peroutka, Ludvík Vaculík, Václav Havel, Jan Skácel, Ivan Klíma, Pavel Kohout, Milan Kundera, Tom Stoppard, Božena Němcová, Jan Patočka, Egon Bondy, Viktor Fischl, Jan Zahradníček, Prokop Drtina, Jaroslav Seifert, Karel Poláček, Jan Werich, Milan Uhde, Ivan Blatný, and many others.

Salivarová led the publishing house from the outset, handling most of its activities herself: she was responsible for editorial and technical work, as well as graphic design. Since the company did not employ professional editors, they began, as a joke, to list fictional collaborators in the colophons. They used characters from their books—a joke only understood by true connoisseurs—or politically familiar names, playfully altered, such as Vasila Bilaková. Since 1974, they adorned the book covers with artworks, mostly by Czech exile artists, further enhancing the overall quality of their publications. The writer and close friend of the couple, Milan Kundera, once said, “Without '68 Publishers, serious Czech literature in print would have ceased to exist.” The Škvoreckýs’ publishing house had both moral and aesthetic significance and ensured that Czech literature retained its continuity.

The Political and Social Situation in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and 1968, and the Fall of Communism in 1989

1948

Three years after the end of World War II, a political crisis within the government and the growing influence of the Communist Party led to a communist takeover. Under direct supervision from the Soviet KGB, the total of 248 people were executed in political trials. The borders were closed, and the first wave of emigration to the West and the USA began (actress Adina Mandlová, poet Ivan Blatný). A slight loosening of restrictions came in the 1960s with the so-called Prague Spring.

1968

The hope for freedom was brutally crushed in the night of August 21, 1968, when Czechoslovakia was invaded by five armies of the Warsaw Pact, led by the Soviet Union. The second wave of emigration began (Zdena Salivarová, Josef Škvorecký, and Ivan Diviš). A year later, the borders were closed again, and freedom of speech was suppressed for a long time known as Normalization. A part of occupying troops was meant to remain in Czechoslovakia until the situation was “normalized”, with no set date for its departure. The last soldiers left the country only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

November 17, 1989

Student protests culminated in the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The Czech people regained their freedom and democracy. President Gustav Husák resigned, and Václav Havel became the first democratically elected president.

Zdena Salivarová (married Škvorecká) was born on October 21, 1933, in Prague. A Czech singer, novelist, translator from French, and the wife of Josef Škvorecký, she co-founded the exile publishing house '68 Publishers with her husband in 1971 in Toronto, Canada. Born into a family of a bookseller and publisher, she was one of four children. After February 1948, her father was imprisoned, their business was nationalized, and the family was relocated from the prestigious Pařížská street to a tenement in Karlín. Two years later, her father returned from Pr*son and soon emigrated to the United States. Her childhood was marked by poverty and social prejudice due to her family background. Her brother, Lumír Salivar, spent ten years in the Jáchymov labor camp, working in the uranium mines. Later, he collaborated with '68 Publishers. Her older sister left the family. After graduating from a Prague gymnasium in 1952, Salivarová became a member of the Czechoslovak State Song and Dance Ensemble in 1960. She performed as a singer and actress at Prague’s Laterna magika (1961–1962) and at the Paravan Theater. She was briefly part of the female vocal group Inkognito Quartet. She translated works from French, including those by Simenon, Mallet, and Allain. She also appeared in acclaimed films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. In 1958, Salivarová married Josef Škvorecký. Between 1965 and 1968, she studied dramaturgy at the Film School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. A year after the invasion of the “friendly” Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, she and her husband left the country. During Škorecký’s working trip to the United States, they decided to stay permanently in exile. In 1971, Salivarová and Škvorecký founded '68 Publishers, publishing mainly Czech books that were banned in communist Czechoslovakia. The publishing house ceased to exist in 1993. In 1978, the Czechoslovak government stripped the couple of their citizenship. In 1990, Salivarová and her husband were awarded the Order of the White Lion (Class III) for their contribution to Czech literature in the world. In 1992, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto. She has lived in Toronto ever since. Her most famous work is the semi-autobiographical novel Honzlová (1972, 1990), which was admired by the world-renowned author Graham Greene. In this novel, Salivarová does not shy away from criticizing the regime. Her narrative style is direct, sharp, and reflects her personality. Despite the pressure of the regime, she tried hard to remain faithful to fundamental ethical principles.

Selected works: Pánská jízda (1968), Honzlová (1969, publication banned; Toronto 1972; English translation in the USA and UK), Nebe, peklo, ráj (Heaven, Hell, Paradise, 1976, Toronto), Samožerbuch (Self-Serving Dictionary, 1977, with Josef Škvorecký), Hnůj země (1994), Osočení (1993)

Josef Škvorecký was born on September 27, 1924, in Náchod, and died on January 3, 2012, in Toronto. A Czech writer, novelist, essayist, translator, and the husband of Zdena Salivarová, he co-founded the exile publishing house '68 Publishers with his wife. He spent his childhood in Náchod; after graduating from the Náchod gymnasium in 1943, he was conscripted for forced labor as a manual worker in the local factory and later in Nové Město nad Metují. In his childhood, he suffered from repeated pneumonia and was unable to pursue his passion for football; chronic bronchitis also prevented him from excelling in playing the saxophone. These circumstances, as he said, led him to a career as a writer. He was able to attend university only after the war when educational institutions reopened. He briefly studied medicine at Charles University in Prague before switching to the Faculty of Arts, where he focused on English and Philosophy. After graduating in 1949, he was assigned to a teaching post at a secondary school in Police nad Metují and a social school in Hořice. In 1951, he earned a doctorate and began his two-year military service. After returning, he worked as an editor in the Anglo-American department of the State Publishing House for Fine Literature and the Arts (Odeon). From 1953 to 1960, he lived at Na Březince 1159/13 in Prague’s Smíchov district. In 1956, he became an editor for the prominent journal Světová literatura (World Literature). He had to leave the editorial post after the political scandal following the publication of his first novel Zbabělci (The Cowards) in 1958. That same year, he married his girlfriend Zdena Salivarová. In January 1969, he traveled to the United States, where he initially lectured at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and later participated in a fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. After the publication of Tankový prapor (The Tank Battalion) was halted in Czechoslovakia, he and his wife decided to stay in exile, settling in Toronto, where he was offered a professorship. Between 1969 and 1990, he taught at the University of Toronto, where he led courses in contemporary Czech theater and film, English and American literature, and from 1970, also creative writing. Additionally, he taught film history and theory at the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. From the 1970s, he lectured as a guest professor at many North American universities. In 1971, he and his wife Zdena founded the publishing house '68 Publishers, which became one of the leading Czechoslovak publishing houses, both in exile and beyond. The Škvorecký couple was stripped of their Czechoslovak citizenship in 1978. Škvorecký’s works have been translated into many languages; he published in journals both in Czechoslovakia and abroad, translated from English—mainly American literature—and contributed to film scripts. In 1980, he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature from the University of Oklahoma. In 1990, he and Zdena Salivarová were awarded the Order of the White Lion for their contributions to Czech literature in the world. Škvorecký was a highly prolific author, with his most significant work being the novel Zbabělci, providing a comprehensive portrait of Czech society immediately after World War II. Many films have been adapted from his works.

Selected works (abridged): Zbabělci (1958), Legenda Emöke (1964), Sedmiramenný svícen (1964), Smutek poručíka Borůvky (1966), Bassaxofon (1967), Lvíče (1969), Tankový prapor (1971), Mirákl (1972), Hříchy pro pátera Knoxe (1973 in Toronto, 1991 in Prague), Prima sezóna (1975 in Toronto, 1990 in Prague), Konec poručíka Borůvky (1975 in Toronto, 1992 in Prague), Příběh inženýra lidských duší (1977), Samožerbuch (1977, with Zdena Salivarová), Návrat poručíka Borůvky (1981), Příběh neúspěšného tenorsaxofonisty (1994)

Adina Mandlová, originally named Jarmila Anna Františka Marie Mandlová (born 1910 in Mladá Boleslav, Austria-Hungary, died 1991 in Příbram, Czechoslovakia), was the most frequently cast and most popular actress of the Czech cinema during the First Republic era. A femme fatale of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, she led a very wild and turbulent life. She appeared in dozens of films, with her last Czech film released in 1944. After the war, she was accused—based on rumors—of collaborating with the German occupiers (despite acting in only one German film during the war) and became one of the victims of so-called people's justice. She was arrested and imprisoned for several months in Pankrác Pr*son. After her release, she was banned from performing in films and on stage. Following a marriage of convenience, she left for England. She later married twice more—first to an English businessman named Geoffrey and then to Ben Pearson, a successful and openly gay entrepreneur in the fashion industry. Her acting career was over. In 1974, she moved to Malta and wrote her memoir Dneska už se tomu směju (Today I Laugh at It), published in Canada with the help of Josef Škvorecký through his exile publishing house, '68 Publishers. After her husband died, she returned to Czechoslovakia, already seriously ill. She died of tuberculosis in a hospital in Příbram.

Ivan Diviš (1924, Prague – 1999, Prague) was a Czech poet and essayist. He is considered one of the most original poets of the second half of the 20th century, belonging to the generation of poets who began writing during the Protectorate. As a high school student, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned; most of his poetry collections were published only in the 1960s. His poems are filled with anxiety and a search for the meaning of life in an incomprehensible and cruel world. In 1969, he emigrated to West Germany and started working for Radio Free Europe, based in Munich. As a result, his books were banned in Czechoslovakia. Until the fall of communism, Diviš—like other authors featured in Radio Free Europe—was not mentioned in any dictionaries or encyclopedias. He returned to Prague only in 1997, and passed away two years later. '68 Publishers published two of his poetry collections, Noé vypouští krkavce (Noah Releases the Raven) and Konec štěstí (The End of Happiness). One of his most notable works is his litany-style composition Moje oči musely vidět (My Eyes Had to See), published in 1991 near the end of his life. In this work, he struggles to come to terms with the criminal, animalistic nature of the human species to which he belongs. His memoirs serve as both a portrait and a condemnation of society during World War II, the communist coup of 1948, and the era of normalization.

Ivan Blatný (1919, Brno – 1990, United Kingdom) was a Czech poet and translator, and the son of Moravian writer Lev Blatný. Unfortunately, his father passed away in 1930 when Ivan was only eleven years old, and less than three years later, his mother also died. He published his first poetry collection, Paní Jitřenka (Lady Morning Star), in 1940. After World War II, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1948, he was sent to London as part of a three-member delegation from the Czechoslovak Writers' Syndicate, but he never returned. Speaking on the Czech-language broadcast of BBC Radio, he denounced the suppression of culture and artistic freedom in Czechoslovakia. After seeking political asylum in England, he was declared a traitor by the Czechoslovak regime, stripped of his property and citizenship, and became a banned poet. He struggled deeply with life in exile; he did not speak English. His paranoid schizophrenia worsened, and he spent three years in a psychiatric hospital in Ipswich. He remained there for the rest of his life. In 1977, he met nurse Frances Meacham, who sent his poems—written in an unfamiliar language—to the exile publishing house '68 Publishers in Canada. The collection Stará bydliště (Old Addresses) was published there, greatly encouraging Blatný and leading him to work on a new collection.

He passed away in Ipswich from emphysema and was buried in Brno, at the Central Cemetery.

Laterna Magika

A Girl On A Trampoline works with the principle of Laterna Magika.

Laterna Magika is the world’s first multimedia theater. Its foundational principle combines elements of drama theater, dance, ballet, pantomime, and black light theater with film. At the 1958 Expo in Brussels, Czechoslovakia gained attention with an original show that merged stage action with film and music. The performance, named Laterna Magika, astonished both the general public and professionals. Based on the principles of Laterna Magika, a very successful theater was established in Prague, becoming an "export product" of Czechoslovak culture. Since its beginnings, the theater has been under constant pressure and political supervision. From 1961 to 1962, Zdena Salivarová worked there as a singer and actress. After the 1989 revolution, Laterna Magika found its home at the New Stage of the National Theater.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Chopin Theatre, 1543 West Division Street, Chicago, United States