Jaroslav Kvapil (25 September 1868 in Chudenice, Kingdom of Bohemia – 10 January 1950 in Prague) was a Czech poet, theatre director, translator, playwright, and librettist. From 1900 he was a director and Dramaturg at the National Theatre in Prague, where he introduced plays by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky into the repertory. Later he was a director at the Vinohrady Theatre (1921–1928). He wrote six plays, but is today chiefly remembered as the librettist of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka.[1]
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Kvapil was the principal author of the Manifesto of Czech writers of 1917, signed by over two hundred leading Czechs, favouring the concept of Czech self-government.[2]
He was a prominent freemason, from 1923 to 1924 he was first Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Czechoslovakia.[3] He was married to actress Hana Kvapilová from 1894 until her death in 1907.
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