A “playwright whose work is marked by verbal brilliance, TOM STOPPARD ingenious action, and structural dexterity” (“Tom Stoppard,” Encyclopedia Britannica) BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
-Born Tomas Straussler on 3 July 1937 in Zlín, Czechoslovakia and later fled Czechoslovakia with his family to avoid the Nazi occupation (several of his extended family members died in Terezin and Auschwitz concentration camps, a fact he did not learn until he was an adult). -He grew up in Singapore and India during the Second World War and moved to England in 1946 after the Japanese invasion. -He lived with his mother and stepfather because his father, a doctor, was killed in Singapore (he died a Japanese prisoner of war when Stoppard was 4 years old). -He became a journalist after studying at schools in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. -He began writing plays in 1960; he has also written screenplays and one novel, although his novel was not commercially successful. -He was knighted in 1997; he was voted 76th out of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world 2008. (“Tom Stoppard,” British Council) STOPPARD’S WORK
-Some of his most well-known (and critically acclaimed) work includes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967), The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Travesties (1975), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1977), Professional Foul (1977), On the Razzle (1982), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), and The Coast of Utopia (2002).
-His best known screenplays include Shakespeare in Love (1999) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007); he also collaborated on screenplays for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Sleepy Hollow, and is rumored to have been consulted for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, although he was not officially credited for his work on the Star Wars film. Bibliography: Tom Stoppard
2008 Ivanov/Chekov 1984 Squaring the Circle 2006 Rock n Roll 1983 The Dog It was that Died and Other Plays 2005 Heroes 1982 On the Razzle 2004 Pirandello's Henry IV 1982 The Real Thing 2002 The Coast of Utopia 1980 Undiscovered Country 1999 Shakespeare in Love 1980 Dogg's Hamlet/Cahoot's Macbeth 1999 Plays: Four 1978 Every Good Boy Deserves Favour/Professional Foul 1999 Plays: Five 1978 Night and Day 1998 Plays: Three 1976 Dirty Linen/New-Found-Land 1997 The Invention of Love 1975 Travesties 1995 Indian Ink 1973 Artist Descending a Staircase/Where are They Now ? 1994 Plays: Two 1972 Jumpers 1993 Arcadia 1971 After Magritte 1993 Plays: One 1968 The Real Inspector Hound 1993 The Television Plays 1965-1984 1968 Enter a Free Man 1991 In the Native State 1968 Albert's Bridge 1988 Hapgood 1967 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead 1986 Dalliance/Undiscovered Country 1966 Lord Malquist and Mr Moon 1985 Rough Crossing ABOUT TOM STOPPARD:
“He is always written about as if he were an intellectual acrobat and dazzling word- spinner delighted by ideas and deficient in emotion. And it is perfectly true that he is unafraid to deal with subjects that would deter many dramatists; from metaphysics and quantum mechanics to moral philosophy and moon landings. But behind the intellectual high jinx there lurks an often passionate humanist whose writing betrays an increasing concern both with the abuse of freedom and the nature of love. The key to his work, both formally and intellectually, lies in the idea of collision: as he once told a New York Times interviewer, 'I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting myself‘… Stoppard's delight in the juxtaposition of, or collision between, two different worlds is a constant throughout his career. ” (Billington) THE WISDOM OF TOM STOPPARD