E.F. Burian

Burian was born in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, where he came from a musical family. His father, Emil Burian, was an opera singer. E. F. Burian is the father of singer and writer Jan Burian. In 1927, he graduated from the Prague Conservatory, in the class of J. B. Foerster, but he began participating in cultural life much sooner. E. F. Burian was a member of Devětsil, an association of Czech avant-garde artists. In 1926 - 1927, he worked with Osvobozene divadlo, but after disputes with Jindřich Honzl, he and Jiři Frejka left the theatre. Later, they founded their own theatre, Da-Da. He also worked with the Moderni studio theatre scene. In 1927 he founded the musical and elocutionary ensemble Voiceband.

In 1923, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. His work, strongly influenced by communist ideas, bordered on political agitation. In May 1933, he founded the D 34 theatre, with a strongly leftist-oriented program.

In 1941, Burian was arrested and spent the rest of World War II in German concentration camps at the Small Fortress Theresienstadt, Dachau and finally in Neuengamme. He helped to organize illegal cultural programs for the inmates. In 1945, he survived the RAF attack against the prison ship Cap Arcona, and returned to Czechoslovakia, where he was already presumed dead. After the war, he founded D 46 and D 47 theatre, and led theatres in Brno and the operetta house in Karlin. After Victorious February in 1948, he worked as a member of the Czechoslovak communist parliament. In the post-war time, he became one of the leading promoters of the communist cultural nomenclature. He attempted to reorganize theatres, with a goal of placing communists into leadership posts of theatres.