LIVING IN TRUTH to Present Václav Havel Short Plays at Florida State

The Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation will present Living in Truth: An Afternoon of Short Plays by Václav Havel and a Conversation on Civil Courage on Sunday, October 4, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. in the Globe Auditorium at Florida State University.

The event is free and open to the public and will feature staged readings of short works by Czech playwright, dissident, and statesman Václav Havel, followed by a public talkback exploring truth, conformity, resistance, moral compromise, and civil courage.

Presented in conjunction with Havel 90, an international commemoration of Havel's 90th birthday, the program will introduce Tallahassee audiences to Havel not only as a political figure, but as a dramatist whose plays examine the difficult choices ordinary people make while living within systems that reward silence and conformity.

'Václav Havel's plays continue to resonate because they show how ordinary people respond when faced with pressure to stay silent or conform,' said Isabelle Schenk, President of the Rosenstrasse Foundation at FSU. 'His ideas about truth, resistance, and moral courage connect closely to the Rosenstrasse Foundation's mission and show how individual choices can become acts of civil courage.'

The staged readings will feature Jeffrey Mandel, John Stevenson, Caleb Goodman, Jessica Frasier, and Emily Cole.

Havel's dramatic work frequently places seemingly ordinary people in situations where comfort, career, friendship, or security come into conflict with personal conscience. Often humorous and absurd, the plays nevertheless pose serious questions about complicity and responsibility: What does it mean to tell the truth when silence is easier? When does compromise become participation? And how can individual acts of refusal become acts of resistance?

Following the readings, the audience will be invited to participate in a moderated discussion connecting Havel's concept of 'living in truth' with the mission of the Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation and the history of the Rosenstrasse protest.

The Rosenstrasse protest took place in Berlin in 1943, when relatives of Jewish men who had been arrested by the Nazi regime gathered publicly on Rosenstrasse and demanded their release. The foundation uses the history of the protest as a starting point for examining the possibilities and limits of civil courage and the choices available to individuals confronting injustice.

By bringing Havel's theater into conversation with Rosenstrasse, Living in Truth invites audiences to consider civil courage not simply as an extraordinary act of heroism, but as a series of choices about whether to remain silent, conform, speak, or resist.

Event Details

Living in Truth: An Evening of Short Plays by Václav Havel and a Conversation on Civil Courage

Sunday, October 4, 2026
2:00 p.m.
Globe Auditorium, Florida State University
110 S. Woodward Avenue
Tallahassee, FL 32306

Admission is free and open to the public. Advance reservations are encouraged at www.ticketsource.com/rosenstrasse-civil-courage-foundation.

Parking is available nearby at Traditions Way Garage, 860 Traditions Way.

About the Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation