Zdeněk Potužil

* 1947

  • “I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I was dating girls and at the same time doing boys secretly somewhere in the bushes. I came to terms with it at the age of twenty when Mirek Kovářík picked me up on the street. He made me come out. He told me that I was who I was and that I could even profit from it which was true. It didn’t cause a problem. I underwent a coming out and in three months I was at peace with it. Which was actually a miracle, to say it simply. Prior to that I was hung-up about it, drank a lot and what not. Then it all ended, thanks to Kovářík. Mirek Kovářík was a personality with a distinct aura and he was a man who kept his word.”

  • “Up until the age of twenty I didn’t get to travel anywhere. Ever since 1969 I was able to travel to the West every year, enjoying the euphoria of freedom. Back then, I was really excited by the West. I felt schizophrenic and didn’t know what to do about it. My friends Ivan Diviš, Karel Kryl, the writer Ivan Jedlička all imigrated to free countries. I loved them, adored them and at the same time was a member of the Socialist Union of Youth Central Committee. So, it was serious schizophrenia.

  • “I was sick, suffering from a flu. Some guy came to visit me at home. He had a Ministry of Interior ID and he wanted me to find out for him whether Ota Šik’s son was intending to play some role in the Rubín theater. It wasn’t completely ordinary for the police to come to my place but it was ordinary that every six months we’d go to the Ministry of Interior where people asked us whether the youth was doing drugs and whether it was under the influence of the Charter. So, it was commonplace for them to harass such people. After that he came to see me every three months and we went to drink beer. They wanted information about what was going on in Rubín. That was typical. I told him: ‘Come to Rubín, I’ll give you tickets and you can see what they’re doing there. Since you don’t believe me and you have your doubts.’ He didn’t have time for it – he wouldn’t travel there from his flat. I don’t like to say it but he was a moron, a dumb person. A fat bloke, uninteresting, stupid, ordinary. Of course, different sorts of people were after Havel or Placák. I was just a small fish, and a devoted one. As they were playing nice, they never made me angry.”

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    Praha, 29.06.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:05:19
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I was schizophrenic. My friends emigrated, I adored them but at the same time was a member of the Socialist Union of Youth Central Committee

Zdeněk Potužil
Zdeněk Potužil
zdroj: Eye Direct

Zdeněk Potužil was born on 25 August 1947 into the family of a lawyer and doctor of philosophy František Potužil. As a child he was an amateur radio operator. After finishing elementary school he studied a technical school in Prague‘s Ječná street. Following graduation he was admitted to the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1969 along with Miroslav Jelínek and Petr Matějů he established the ensemble Divadlo na okraji (‘Theater on the margins‘). At the Wolkerův Prostějov festival in 1971 he won the jury and the audience awards. The same year he began working as a dramaturg in the Artistic Ensemble of the Youth Rubín, part of the Socialist Union of Youth. In late January 1977 he and the whole ensemble signed the so-called Anti-charter. Shortly thereafter he was contacted by the secret policeman Josef Mertl. Six months later he signed up for collaboration with the secret agency under the codename ‘Bílý‘ (‚White‘). In February 1978 the collaboration was terminated. In late 1982 he got once again contacted by the secret police. He was then registered as a so-called candidate for secret cooperation. In 1987 he left Divadlo na okraji. He also worked as director in Činoherní studio in Ústí nad Labem, in Prague‘s city theaters, and in Rokoko theater. Up until 1991 he managed Studio Rubín. Five years later he became artistic chief of Rokoko theater. On top of his theater work, he also directed five hundred shows for the Czech TV, mostly on poetry.