Ladislav Smoček

Ladislav Smoček (born 24 August 1932, Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech writer, playwright and theater director. He comes from a family with a military tradition. His father was an officer in The Czechoslovakian Army. After studying at a secondary school in Plzeň he graduated as a theatre director from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) in 1956. His schoolmate there was for example Václav Hudeček and one of his professors was for also František Salzer. He started his career in The City Theatre in Benešov (1956–1957), then he was active in Brno (1957–1960) and in 1960 got a place as a director in Laterna magika in Prague. And after few more years he decided to move to the National theatre company where he in 1965 co-founded The Drama Club (Činoherní klub), where he remains employed as a playwright and director until the present. In the period between 1992 – 1993 he was a director of the Vinohrady Theatre and he acted there as a director on a few occasions since that time. Though he wrote less than ten plays, he is together with Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout one of the most performed Czech playwrights.