“So school was replaced with work at the Jedlička Institute in three shifts. I went to work a lot, we all tried to somehow come to terms with the fact, I was in a bit of a dump at times. I thought that I’d carry on going to parties or to the pub with the same people, but then I realised that when I made an appearance somewhere, it just spoilt the mood, because it brought up the subject of whether there was any point in doing it [signing Charter 77 - trans.] or not - that it brought up a topic that was terribly inconvenient, and that no one wanted to discuss it any more. So I cut myself loose from the school. I guess it was really hard for me to come to terms with the fact that the people I had been used to seeing at school from morning till night would just disappear from my life. I would get pretty mournful.”
“They kept telling me in Bartholomew Street how my parents would be dismayed, how sorry they’d be, and how important I was to them; they knew absolutely everything, I was very surprised by that - they knew that we were the first to get the big Orion television, that people would come visit to watch figure skating, they knew it all. It’s almost touching. A Mrs Šulcová lived down below in the downstairs flat, and one time during Easter she made me this confession that she had talked about our family a few times, but only ever in a good way - which is true, there was nothing bad in the testimonies. She just felt the need to tell me about it what with it being Easter.”
“Then after the holidays I was called in to have a talk with Rector Martínek. He didn’t receive me in Lažan, which was where the rector had his office at the time, but in a park by the riverside. He told me the whole matter was terribly uncomfortable to the school, that I was surely capable enough, that he knew I was dating someone and that perhaps the best would be if I got pregnant, or that I should interrupt my studies because of some illness, and if I interrupt the studies, the matter will be resolved. Of course, I didn’t want to accept that. I was in a kind of mood, or everything that went on took on such a course or direction, that such a thing was completely out of the question, so I refused it. Then the disciplinary committee was launched, and it was presided over by the dean of the Theatre Faculty, Eva Šmeralová, an infamously committed citizen. They expelled me for ‘the negative positions which I had taken and which I had upheld’. That was the wording. I remember that the whole time the disciplinary committee was in session, they spoke ‘Ptydepe’ [an allusion to the eponymous, incomprehensible, artificial bureaucratic language from Václav Havel’s play ‘The Memorandum’, somewhat akin to Orwell’s ‘Newspeak’ - trans.]. I don’t remember if they addressed me formally or informally, but I do remember which room we went into, I know that I was shown inside by what was then the promising [Youth] Unionist - or perhaps Party member already - Ondřej Šrámek, I know how they sat there opposite me and said: ‘You know well enough why! You know well enough what this is about! We this and that, and you refused, you won’t hear reason, and so on...’ And the verdict was: expelled from school.”
Jaroslava Šiktancová, née Odvárková, was born on 2 October 1954 in Prague, into the family of a seamstress and a waiter, as the second of two children. After completing primary school she attended Nad Štolou Grammar School in Prague, from which she graduated in 1974. After successfully passing her entrance exams she began studies of theatre direction at the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts (the Theatre Faculty) in Prague. In January 1977 she signed Charter 77, in early summer that year she was summoned for questioning at the State Security headquarters in Bartolomějská Street, and in 1978 she was expelled from her studies by a disciplinary committee, without proper explanation or detailed justification. In 1978-1982 she secretly worked as the assistant of National Theatre actor and director Miroslav Macháček, for four productions. In 1977-1989 she worked at the Jedlička Institute, as a cleaning lady in offices, cinemas, at the Metropolitan Chapter of St Vitus in Hradčany, then also as a gardener in Veltrusy, and from 1988 as research room administrator at the National Museum and archivist at the National Theatre. After the 1989 revolution the Theatre Faculty allowed her to finish her studies, and she graduated with a production of Androcles and the Lion; she received her diploma in 1990. She worked in theatre direction in several regional Czech and Moravian theatres; after a brief engagement at E. F. Burian Theatre she worked with Kašpar (Jester) Theatre for several seasons. In the 1990s she participated in a number of professional courses in Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden. She has been teaching acting at the Theatre Faculty since 1993. She lives with her husband in Prague. Their son David also graduated from the Theatre Faculty and works as a theatre director.
