He studied acting and directing (1948–1952) at the Drama Conservatory, which in 1949 became the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His teachers included Karel Höger, Otomar Krejča, Jiří Frejka, Jiří Plachý, Božena Půlpánová, Ladislav Pešek, and Radovan Lukavský.
From 1952 to 1957, he studied psychology and pedagogy with philosophy at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, where he was taught by the renowned Czech philosopher Jan Patočka. He worked as an external educator in psychiatric and correctional institutions. He was interested in rehabilitation based on trust, contact, and relationships. In order to gain a deeper understanding, he spent one month incognito as an inmate in a boys’ correctional facility in Opatovice. He later collaborated with Dr. Hugo Široký, and at the Ledce–Šternberk institution they were among the first in the country to experiment with socio-drama and psychodrama. In the field of psychology and psychiatry, he continued to collaborate on occasional projects until the late 1960s, not only with Hugo Široký, but also with Eva Syřišťová, Ferdinand Knobloch, and Eugen Wolf.
From 1957 to 1959, he became the first teacher of psychology at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU). During this period, together with Jiří Suchý, he created the so-called ‘text-appels’ – public performances of original texts and music at Reduta in Prague. Alongside Jiří Suchý, Helena Philippová, and Vladimír Vodička, he co-founded the Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo Na zábradlí), where he served as head of the drama ensemble and was active as an actor, playwright, and director. He co-authored five original premieres (with Jiří Suchý: If a Thousand Clarinets, Faust, Markéta, Servant and Me; with Miloš Macourek: Trochu; with Pavel Kopta: Sad Christmas; with Václav Havel: Autostop). After leaving the Theatre on the Balustrade, he returned to Reduta, became the artistic director of Salon Reduta, and founded the theatre group Nedivadlo there.
In the 1960s, Vyskočil’s texts began to be published, both in journals and in book form. He was also successful as a writer of radio plays and as a presenter of radio programmes. In 1968, he took part in an international congress of psychologists, where he met Roy Hart, with whom he led a workshop in ‘baby talk’. With the onset of the period of normalization, he was forced to leave Reduta and was no longer allowed to publish. Together with Nedivadlo, he toured various locations across the Czech Republic.
From 1971, he began teaching at the LŠU – a specialised programme offering courses for working people in Josefská Street in Prague. It was here that his concept of studying psychosomatic disciplines and authorial acting as a form of personality education gradually emerged. Over the years, he gathered a team of collaborators around him, and with its core members (Vítězslava Fryntová, Libuše Válková, Hana Smrčková) he moved to the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) after 1989. Nedivadlo gradually developed as an alternative theatre scene, characterised by a distinctive narrative poetics and an exploration of improvisation.
In the 1980s, Vyskočil made occasional appearances in film. After 1989, he fully returned to public life. He published his work, took part in radio discussions, and television produced stage adaptations based on his stories. Several television and film portraits were also made about him, including GEN, Master Vyskočil, Theatre Guru – Prof. Ivan Vyskočil, and Landscape of Fate. During this period, he devoted most of his activities to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU), particularly to the research of Dialogical Acting with the Inner Partner. He initially served as head of the Department of Dramatic Acting, and in 1994 he founded a new independent department, which he named the Department of Authorial Theatre and Pedagogy, later renamed the Department of Authorial Creation and Pedagogy, which he led until 2003.
In 1992, he was appointed Professor of Acting and Authorial Creation. He also received several honours, including the Next Wave Festival award Living Treasure (2003), an honorary doctorate from the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (2005), and the Gold Medal of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (2009). Ivan Vyskočil was a practising Catholic and lived in Prague throughout his life. He died on 28 April 2023, the day after his 94th birthday.
What did Vyskočil tell his students?
- Never be finished.
- Look forward to making mistakes.
- The foundation is not-knowing.
- Do not stay where you are successful.
- When I think it is one way, it is also another.
- Technique belongs to machines.
- Remain constantly curious.
- Talent and cleverness can be traps.
- We do not need to be clever.
- It is enough to take the first step – then things begin to happen.
