Hana Kvapilová

In her previous engagement, she played Nora (she was the first Czech actress to perform this role), Ophelia and Gretchen.

Her greatest successes were the role of Mína Mařáková in the drama Guilt (Vina in Czech) by Jaroslav Hilbert in 1896.

Hilbert wrote the role directly for Kvapilová, and this character of a touching, abandoned, poor, girl despised by her mother won her the sympathy of the audience.

In 1897, she created her most famous role, the titular Princess Dandelion (Princezna Pampeliška in Czech) in a fairy tale by her husband Jaroslav Kvapil.

Other actresses of the troupe who also portrayed characters of this type (Marie Bittnerová in Jenůfa and Hana Benoniová Maryša) didn't embrace those roles as a core part in their repertoire (Bittnerová preferred the classical Shakespearean repertoire and Benoniová contemporary Well-made play French salon roles – both of which did not attract the interest of a wider audience).

Journalists accused her of using her husband's influence on her choice of roles and repertoire (she was referred to as the "director of the National Theatre").

In the fall of 1901, she was condemned as being preferred and previous management favourite Hana Benoniová and Maria Laudová were intentionally damaged.

[1] His first big success was the play Guilt performed at the National Theatre in 1896 with Hana Kvapilová in the lead role.

Kvapilová turned down the role of Queen Kunhuta in his upcoming play Falkenstein due to her poor health, although she simultaneously she appeared in guest starred in regional theatres, and Hilbert felt affected by this.

Hilbert also criticized the management of the theatre, which, according to him, doomed the play to failure with the audience already by staging it in the summer season and only four rehearsals were held before the premiere.

In this period, she played "Nora" in Ibsen's A Doll's House; and the lead in Hedda Gabler, "Masha" in Chekhov's Three Sisters, and "Helen" in her husband's The Will o' the Wisp.

She had great success as Her ability to think comprehensively about the character won her the favor of many Czech playwrights – e.g. Jaroslav Vrchlický or Julius Zeyer.

She didn't like external manifestations of acting or outbursts of emotions popular at that time, she valued intimate realistic expression.

Her acting strength was non-verbal elements facial expressions and delivered emotions without words, her "hand talk" was famous, and she used pauses in her speeches to emphasize meanings.