The English Language Theater of Ostrava, a student theatre working under the
Department of English and American Studies of the University of Ostrava, began in 1995.
Its first production was "Home At Six", a unique comedy with dialogue entirely
in monosyllables. The following season ELTO offered a double bill, the Czech premiere of
noted American playwright Israel Horovitz's absurdist drama "Line" and the world premiere of
Tom Connolly's "Two Women Off Color: A
Black Comedy." Last season ELTO pesented the world premiere of "Little Innocence or The Daughter of an
Engineer", a parody of a 19th century melodrama, written and directed by Tom
Connolly. ELTO has successfully toured Moravia and Silesia and harvested applause in
Slovakia, Poland and Germany. In the 1998 sping issue of "Bostonia" magazine, an
international journal that has thousands of readers all over the world, an article about
the University of Ostrava highlights ELTO's achievement. The actors of ELTO are students
from the University of Ostrava.
"Hey Taxi!" or - How to Address
Taxi Drivers
Every American taxi driver will love you and give you a better rate iff you address him
as a hackie or just shortly as a hack. Try it and the
driver will hack his guts out for you!
A Few Words about the Original Play and
Clifford Odets
Waiting for Lefty, a one-act in six scenes about a taxi
drivers' union strike, was written in Boston and first produced at the Longacre Theatre,
New York City, on March 26, 1935. At a time when many Americans were being polarized
politically, this play was one of the most effective propaganda pieces for the left. One
of its producers, Cheryl Crawford, noted: "Never before or since have I heard such a
tumultuous reaction from an audience. The response was wild, fantastic. It raised the
roof." What exactly happened? At the very end, the audience joined the actors and
marched out of the theatre shouting "Strike! Strike! Strike!" The play ran 168
performances.
Clifford Odets (1906-63) was the leading playwright of
left-wing social protest in the 1930s. Before he wrote Waiting for Lefty for the
Group Theatre, he worked as an actor there. Golden Boy, written in 1937, is considered to
be his best play, but it was Waiting for Lefty that made him famous overnight.
Other plays: Awake and Sing! (1935), Till the Day I Die (1935), Paradise Lost (1935),
Rocket to the Moon (1938), Night Music (1940), Clash by Night (1941), The Big Knife
(1949), The Country Girl (1950) and The Flowering Peach (1954).
