Editing Václav Havel (section)

==Early theatre career==
[[File:Václav Havel, Obvestilo, Drama SNG v Ljubljani.jpg|thumb|''[[The Memorandum]]'' by the [[Ljubljana Drama Theatre]] in 1969]]
The intellectual tradition of his family was essential for Havel's lifetime adherence to the humanitarian values of the Czech culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hrad.cz/en/president-of-the-cr/former-presidents/vaclav-havel.shtml |title=Václav Havel – Prague Castle |publisher=Hrad.cz |access-date=2013-11-19}}</ref> After finishing his [[military service]] (1957–59), Havel had to bring his intellectual ambitions in line with the given circumstances, especially with the restrictions imposed on him as a descendant of a bourgeois family. He found employment in Prague's theatre world as a [[stagehand]] at Prague's Theatre ABC&nbsp;– ''Divadlo ABC'', and then at the Theatre on Balustrade&nbsp;– ''Divadlo Na zábradlí''. Simultaneously, he was a student of dramatic arts by correspondence at the [[Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague]] (DAMU). His first own full-length play performed in public, besides various vaudeville collaborations, was ''[[The Garden Party (play)|The Garden Party]]'' (1963). Presented in a series of [[Theatre of the Absurd]], at the Theatre on Balustrade, this play won him international acclaim. The play was soon followed by ''[[The Memorandum]]'', one of his best known plays, and ''[[The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (play)|The Increased Difficulty of Concentration]]'', all at the Theatre on Balustrade. In 1968, ''The Memorandum'' was also brought to [[The Public Theater]] in New York, which helped to establish Havel's reputation in the United States. The Public Theater continued to produce his plays in the following years. After 1968, Havel's plays were banned from the theatre world in his own country, and he was unable to leave Czechoslovakia to see any foreign performances of his works.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8964095/Vaclav-Havel.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8964095/Vaclav-Havel.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Václav Havel |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=2013-11-19}}{{cbignore}}</ref>