František Zborník
Arts and Libraries Department, Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic
A graduate of the Pedagogical Faculty in České Budějovice where he majored in Czech and German language and literature, František Zborník also pursued special studies of drama education at the Theater Faculty of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He began his career as a secondary school teacher in Vodňany; in 1986 he became a lecturer at the Pedagogical Faculty of the South Bohemian University, first at the Languages Department, later at the Department of Czech Language and Literature. He specialized in didactics of literature, in particular in using the principles of drama and theatre techniques in teaching (drama education). In 1999 he was invited to lecture at the Departments of Pedagogics and of Primary Pedagogics of the Pedagogical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. In 2002 he became director of the National Information and Consultancy Center for Culture (NIPOS). In 2008 he was appointed director of the Department of the Arts of the Ministry of Culture. He lectured occasionally at various universities in the Czech Republic on literature, drama education and theatre; he was also lecturer of managerial courses e.g. for the further education of teachers or other, business-related disciplines. From 1990 to 1994 he was mayor of the town of Vodňany.
Throughout his life, František Zborník has been involved with the theater on a non-professional as well as professional basis. In the 1970s and 1980s in Vodňany he was a leading figure: an author, director, lyrics writer, member of the amateur theatre group “Šupina”, one of the best amateur theatre ensembles in Czechoslovakia of that time, winner of a theatre award from the Jiráskův Hronov festival and participant in a number of international festivals all over Europe. With professional theatre he collaborates mainly as an author of theatre plays and adaptations of literary works and as a director (script and directing of Markéta Lazarová at the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice).
Apart from his theatrical activities, he has written books for children and radio plays and done some other scripts and directing. He has published many articles on drama education in expert periodicals, and has written reviews of theatre plays for dailies and for the radio.