In
the Rokoko Theater, where he worked as a lecturer and director between, he
staged a musical comedy entitled Hrdina nema milovat based on Napoleon
Bonaparte’ life. After this theater was closed, he started work at the Atelier
theater in Spalena street, which belongs to the State Theater Studio. There he
staged poetical parodies of 19th and 20th century poetry styles called Parkar a
tri parky, based on a book by Josef Hirsal, who was prohibited at that time.
Bednar staged the play under his name, directed it and starred in it together
with Jiri Krampol. Another Bednar play was
Nezkrotna lady Hamiltonova, first
staged in Petr Bezruc Theater in Ostrava, and directed by Bednar himself. At the time when musicals were not that popular, he wrote librettos for musical comedies, including Mazlickove. It describes pop-music communities and was staged by the Karlín Musical Theater, with outstanding music written by Vaclav Zahradnik. His musical comedy, Kolebka pro hrisne panny, was staged by Krusnohorske Musical Theater in Teplice, with music written by Otmar Macha, as well as another of Bednar’s musicals about medical school students called Sestricky, with music composed by Jindrich Brabec.
In
1978 Bednar was chosen in a contest to become the children’s broadcasting script
editor at Czech TV, where he still works. At the children’s department he edited
more than a hundred original fairy-tales and series volumes, the most popular of
which is Arabela, a modern fairy-tale series filmed in cooperation with Milos
Macourek, screenwriter, Václav Vorlicek, director, and co-produced by WDR
Channel, Koln, Germany. The series continues and is called Arabela se vraci (Arabela’s
Returning). Very popular with children are Hirsal’s fairly-tales Kocourkov , Trikrat baron Prasil and
Kraluv sasek, edited by Bednar.Bednar’s rich author portfolio includes the popular student series Zkousky z dospelosti and its sequel Bylo nas sest, made in conjunction with Karel Storkan and Jiri Adamec, and a military series Chlapci a chlapi, directed by Evzen Sokolovsky.
Bednar is the author of the original fairy-tales Princezna Duse, Oskliva princezna, Chladne srdce (based on W. Hauff stories) and of the film O trech rytirich, krasne panne a lnene kytli. In the 1990s, the Brno TV studio filmed Bednar’s original fairy-tales Prsten a retez, Zlaty osel and a two-volume legend Pohadka o Faustovi, all of them directed by Frantisek Filip.
Bednar has finished a poetical fairy-tale based on stories from the book One Thousand and One Nights, called Kouzelny pritel.
As
for Bednar’s drama pieces, the most significant are two adaptations of poems by
Robinson Jeffers, an American poet, translated by Bednar’s father. These are
entitled Cawdor a Fera (nominated for Prix Italiy) and Gudrun, a historical play.Two of Bednar’s TV films were shown at the beginning of the 21st century, entitled Samota and Cerne slzy (gypsy topic) and a psycho-thriller Smrt pedofila. A drama on guilt, conscience and punishment called Odsouzeni k zivotu is being prepared.
While working for TV, Bednar did not forget his theater origins. The Karlin Music Theater staged his remake of the Voskovec+Werich comedy Don Juan and comp., now known as Znam dona Juana.
Ten years later the same theater staged his musical Superhvezda Marenka, an excerpt from the life of Marie Zieglerova, a famous opera singer, based on Adolf Branald novel. Bednar also prepared a play Nenavistna laska, a drama with eight actors, based on the Samota TV film. The first show is planned for the 2005/06 season. With Otmar Macha, his friend, he is writing the libretto for an original opera on Czech history.
For many years, Bednar has also been a teacher. He worked at Prague FAMU, where he taught script editing aimed at children. In 1996 he co-founded the Private Higher Secondary School in Pisek, where he teaches script editing and acting.
He is going to teach at the Pisek Film Academy (FAP), the first private film college in the Czech Republic.
A brief summary
To be staged:
