TOM STOPPARD BIOGRAPHY


Tom Stoppard was born Tomás Straüssler in 1937 in Czechslovakia (present day Czech Republic and Slovakia). He was raised in Singapore and India when his family fled Europe during World War II. His father, Eugen Straüssler, was killed by the Japanese while Stoppard was attending school in Darjeeling, India. His mother, Martha Becková, remarried a British army major, Kenneth Stoppard, which led to the playwright’s name change. Once the war ended in 1946, a young Stoppard moved to England with his mother and stepfather. At the age of 17, he grew tired of his schooling and dropped out to become a journalist. He got a job at the newspaper Western Daily Press, in the town where his family lived.


While writing for the newspaper, Stoppard decided to delve into theatre criticism, which he enjoyed immensely. Upon seeing Peter O’Toole’s performance of Hamlet in 1958, Stoppard fell in love with the theatre and decided he would write plays. Throughout the 1960s he continued to work in


Tom Stoppard


journalism and write plays in his spare time. His first few plays were radio plays, a popular form of entertainment in England where plays are recorded and listened to on the radio.


His first play produced on the stage was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966. This play riffs off two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play that originally inspired Stoppard to write for the theatre. The National Theatre decided to produce the play, which then made its way to Broadway the following year. He went on to become one of the most prolific playwrights of his generation, going on to write 36 plays, 21 of which have been produced on Broadway so far. His plays are known for rich, complicated characters whose intellectual musings and witty banter on morality, art, and existence make up the main action. Some of his best-known plays include: Jumpers in 1972, The Real Thing in 1982 (produced at Roundabout in 2014), Arcadia in 1993, Indian Ink in 1994 (produced at Roundabout in 2014), The Invention of Love in 1998, and The Coast of Utopia in 2002.


Stoppard served on the board of directors for the National Theatre from 1989- 2003. Because of his great influence on British theatre, he was knighted in 1997. Stoppard also writes for film; his screenplays include: Anna Karenina (2012), Tulip Fever (2014), and co-writing the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which he and co-writer Marc Norman won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He has won the Tony award for Best Play for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1967, Travesties in 1976, The Real Thing in 1984 and in 2000 for Best Revival of a Play, and The Coast of Utopia in 2007. Stoppard resides in London, England.•


16 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24