Otakar Zich on the dramatic acting:

This study deals with Otakar Zich's conception of dramatic acting as defined in his 1931 The Aesthetics of Dramatic Art and the historical context in which the concept was formed, e.g. within the first generation of Czech Modernism in the 1890s of which Zich was a member. Zich's aesthetics were influenced by (1) experimental psychology, particularly the associationism Zich adopted from his professor František Krejčí; (2) a theory of the work of art developed by first-generation Modernists under the influence of Richard Wagner; and (3) Nietzschean individualism. Coming from this background, Zich could not fully anticipate the tumultuous developments in theatre during the interwar period, especially the latest practical and theoretical innovations in the field of anti-illusionistic avant-garde acting.