Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard to Receive the 2021 BBLA Award
BBLA is delighted to announce that Sir Tom Stoppard, a Czech-born British playwright, is the recipient of the 2021 BBLA Award for Unparalleled Service to the Czech and Slovak Communities. He will be honored on September 23 at the 2021 Annual Gala organized by BBLA and the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. Please join us for the event.
“We are thrilled to present the 2021 Award to Sir Stoppard. He supported Czech and Slovak dissidents during the harsh times of the 1970s and 1980s. We will honor his friendship with Vaclav Havel and his unprecedented volume of inspiring and absolutely unique plays, especially his play “Rock ‘n’ Roll” which revolves around the history of the Czech underground and the importance of music and art in both oppressive regimes and the free world”
Tom Stoppard was born as Tomas Straussler in 1937 in Zlin in the former Czechoslovakia. As an eight-years old, he and his family were forced to escape from the Nazi forces invading his home town and subsequently the Japanese forces occupying Singapore. He wrote and translated numerous plays. The influence of Polish and Czech absurdists in his works is apparent. His works gave rise to the term ‘Stoppardian’ to describe works using wit and humor while addressing philosophical concepts.