Vaclav Havel at the Public

Went with my daughter to see Vaclav Havel finally collect his Obie Awards tonight from Olympia Dukakis (Mighty Aphrodite) after watching a cool panel discussion featuring Wallace Shawn (my dinner with Andre), Edward Albee, Israel Horovitz and Anna Deavere Smith talking about citizenry and the arts. Columbia University has been sponsoring his residency at Columbia all season. http://www.havel.columbia.edu/
the film and citizenship video from last week is online now and I saw Havel and Bill Clinton go at it a few weeks ago. That video is worth a view: http://havel.columbia.edu/conversation.html

From what the College says, they've presented no less than 22 special events all in the past few months surrounding Havel's accomplishments politically and artistically.

The panel was supposed to discuss Mr. Havel’s work and its influence on American art but they kind of spoke about politics and how they all abhor the current republican regime (who doesn't?) They all had their shining moments. I'm sure the Columbia site will have the video from this event online.

The Times writes that In 1968 he won an Obie, (the Off Broadway theater award) for his play “The Memorandum,” but since he was under house arrest in Czechoslovakia, he never did get it. The producer Joseph Papp, snuck the Obie into Czechoslovakia and presented it to him clandestinely.