Polish Theatre Research Articles

Polskie życie teatralne w kontekście procesów europeizacyjnych

Europeanisation understood as a process of assimilation of old and creation of new tasks and standards/rules by the nation states under the influence of European integration affects many areas of our lives. Nor culture or theatre remain indifferent. The possible and existing processes of communitarisation were presented in a wide context showing the distinction of polish theatrical scene to: art and organisation, funding model, international cooperation. The main purpose of the analysis was to present the Polish theatre as an particular model within the European perspective. Its originality is defined by a deep politicization that characterize both artistic project and the practical aspect of management, regulated by legal framework of Polish cultural sphere.

Serial Dyrektorzy. Dzieje prawnego unormowania statusu dyrektora teatru

In journalistic publications about cultural policy, there is a prevailing conviction that the system change of 1989 put an end to the prosperity and carefreeness of Polish theaters and made managers of these institutions face many new problems, unknown in the days of communism. In this paper, based on the study of community efforts to strengthen the position of theater managers in relations with authorities, I argue that this view is overly simplistic and idealizes the situation of culture in the communist Poland. The prolonged and complex efforts to determine the rules of theater manager’s work – which took more than fifty years (1958–2011) – are like a television “soap opera.” Hence the paper’s title (loosely) alluding to the Polish TV show Dyrektorzy, popular in 1970s, which portrays managers of the socialist industry, although the paper does not contain as many dramatic turns of events. The analysis of the sources shows the unchanging ills of the Polish theatre life, which moved from socialism to capitalism, from dictatorship to democracy. Theatre managers are still forced to negotiate with authorities.

The Polish Theatre of Death

There is probably no doubt, that black thread of mourning deeply penetrates the tissue of Polish life. And this is true for many areas of life. From a specific model of Polish Catholicism (with the strongly expressed theme of a crucified Christ), through behaviour in the public space (funerals of great artists and politicians, which become spectacles of patriotism), through to works of art (theatres filled with spirits of the dead and great movie achievements). For the past two centuries death has been a non-negotiable element of our symbolic equipment, an ideological foundation of the Polish collective imagination. Death in its essence – experienced, shown, played – has occupied a prime position in Polish mythology over the last two centuries. And such mythology, as I understand it here, is not just fiction, falsehood or fabrication. Although it has been woven with beliefs and ideas, it leads a real life of its own and has real power over the thinking and behaviour of those who believe in it.

Gurdjieff in the Theater

This article focuses on the links between revolutionary and iconoclastic Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999), and G. I. Gurdjieff. Grotowski is widely honored in the theater world, and understood to have been involved in creating what have been called spiritual experiences within theater movements of the late twentieth century. His work articulated experiences of the spiritual within the body; achieving a removal of spirituality from ecclesial authorities and a relocation of it within the body of the performer. This article explores the manifold resonances between concepts used in Grotowski’s work and that of Gurdjieff, demonstrating how Grotowski’s transformative theater work shows strong elements of Gurdjieff’s influence. Because of the striking and numerous similarities explored herein, a place can be affirmed for Grotowski as an independent Western Fourth Way spiritual teacher, working in theater.

Opowieści dzieci wojny – peregrynacje teatrów niezależnych współczesnej Ukrainy

The Tales of the Children of War – Ukrainian Independent Modern Theatre The author examines the theme of war in contemporary Ukrainian theatre. Starting with a brief description of the representation of Ukrainian topics in plays directed by Poles, the author puts Polish theatre in contrast with the contemporary Ukrainian drama and stage projects presented by the youngest generation of Ukrainian artists. Focusing on plays by Vorozhbyt, Jurov, and Arie, as well as directorial projects-concepts of Brama, Displaced Theatre or the freak-cabaret Dakh Daughters, the author tries to show the diversity of narratives and perspectives of the textual and formal forms. According to Ukrainians, the war is not a narrative story, but it brings attention to some more complex problems of the Ukrainian society.

The Political Involvement of Myth in Its Stage Adapatations

Ancient myths from the Mediterranean Culture often become a language used to express current social and political anxieties. In the contemporary theatre ancient myths are deconstructed and subverted according to the postmodern dialogue with tradition. Aesthetic changes are accompanied by the ideological modifications. This obviously crisis position of myth is associated with the method of de-contextualization when a mythical plot or just a mythical character is involved in the (post)modern political background. This paper is to analyse three theatre productions from Polish theatre (Iphigenia by Antonina Grzegorzewska, 2008; Oresteia by Michał Zadara, 2010; Antigone by Marcin Liber, 2013) which adapt the most political ancient myths of Atreides and Labdacides’ families. Authors will present the ancient literary context of these myths (Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus) and compare it with the contemporary stage adaptations. Political issues which will be discussed concern 1) global terrorism threat; 2) communism; 3) political usage of dead heroes and enemies – post-memory; 4) wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; 5) Nazi genocide; 6) media management of death. All these current problems constitute a deconstructed background for ancient myths and authors will consider whether this procedure creates an empty mythical mask for performance or, conversely, it enriches a source meaning of ancient myth.

Polish theater actress Наnna Mudra: biographical research

Polish theater actress Наnna Mudra: biographical research

Activity of branch sections of the Solidarity Trade Union in 1980–1981 on the example of the “Solidarity” National Coordinating Commission of Theatre Workers

In the initial part of the paper, the history of trade unions in the Polish theatre has been outlined. Also, the situation in the theatre environment in the second half of the 1970s has been presented. In that time, the first symptoms of the conflicts, which later influenced the activity of the theatre section of “Solidarity”, appeared. Actors participated in the “Solidarity” movement since the very beginning. They took part in strikes in the coastal cities Gdańsk and Gdynia in August 1980, after which Committees of the new trade unions were established in most theatres in Poland. A need for coordination of the Committees appeared, and therefore, on the 10 November 1980, the theatre section of “Solidarity” was established. It dealt with the following issues: conditions of employment, theatre education reform, theatre’s self-government, work on Saturdays, and the theatre reform. However, its actions proved to be a failure, whose main reason was the split inside the section caused by the conflict between one part of the theatre “Solidarity” with the SPATiF (Association of Polish Theatre and Film Artists) authorities. A description of the mentioned conflict forms an essential part of the present paper.

Semiological analysis of Polish theater posters

Through the application of semiological analysis to theater posters made by two Polish authors, the paper uncovers signs, meanings, codes and specifics of the „Polish school of poster-making“ and contemporary Polish posters. Aside from this, I suggest a methodological framework for studying the issue of coding and shaping a theater poster as a culturally specific form of visual communication. The aesthetic and semiotic outlook of the Polish theater posters which were chosen is analyzed using the semiological method which highlights their differences and similarities. By pointing out the system of codes through the examples given here, a graphic designer is informed about the existence and the possibilities of a more systematic approach to shaping a theater poster.

Film actors, theatre actors? The Polish actors’ market in recent years

Film actors, theatre actors? Th e Polish actors’ market in recent years The author of the paper analyzes the career paths of Polish film and theater actors in recent years, taking account of social and institutional changes in Polish theater and cinema after 1989. On this basis, current three strategies present in the acting profession are identified: Courtier, Byplay and Celebrity. These three groups are highlighted depending on actors’ artistic achievements and accu- mulated symbolic capital. The main thesis of the article is that leading film actors, who are most successful on the big screen, forsake engagement in theater. While describing this regularity, the author provides specific examples of actresses and actors - eg. Magdalena Cielecka, Andrzej Chyra, Jacek Poniedzialek and Agnieszka Grochowska. The article concludes with considerations about the various reasons why Polands market for film actors and the theater market have split in recent years.

ULICA 29: Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatrów Ulicznych [Street 29: International Festival of Street Theatres] by Teatr KTO

Reviewed by: ULICA 29: Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatrów Ulicznych [Street 29: International Festival of Street Theatres] by Teatr KTO Jacob Juntunen ULICA 29: MiĘdzynarodowy Festiwal Teatrów Ulicznych [Street 29: International Festival of Street Theatres]. Organized by Teatr KTO, Kraków, Poland. July 7–10, 2016. The haunting image on promotional materials for Kraków’s 29th annual street-theatre festival, ULICA, was a human face with upswept hair covered in flaking white paint except for a red stripe across the eyes and a small red rectangle on the lower lip. Its dark eyes stared directly at the viewer, creating a defiant image of a decaying clown in Poland’s national colors. The theme of this year’s festival was “carnival,” which fit the nightmare-sideshow face, but the red and white also suited the festival’s stated goal of taking stock of Polish street theatre. Despite the participation of twelve theatre groups from abroad, the lineup this year was not as international as in years past. Notably missing were Poland’s Baltic and eastern neighbors, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. One group from Lviv in western Ukraine represented that border state, but no groups from the more troubled parts of Ukraine performed. The program billed ULICA as “the largest festival of street theatres in Central Europe.” However, the lack of participation from the region underscored the tensions inherent in carnival: the seemingly anarchic avoidance of societal norms, here represented by a takeover of public space, all sponsored, permitted, and controlled by official powers. If ULICA’s carnival were truly an opportunity for political anarchy, national troubles would not have halted the travel of theatres. The relative absence of international participation created an undercurrent connecting ULICA 29 to Polish and European politics. Since the festival is sponsored by national and municipal governments in Poland, the fact that the right-wing, nationalist Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Order) party is in power might account for a larger percentage of funds going to Polish rather than international troupes. Similarly, Russia’s incursions into Ukraine, saber-rattling toward Poland and the Baltics, and control of Belarus may have diminished troupes’ ability to travel. Regardless, a festival heavily weighted toward Polish theatre highlighted increasing nationalism throughout Europe. Click for larger view View full resolution The cart from Andante. (Photo: Jacob Juntunen.) Despite a reduced international presence, the number of participating theatres actually increased from thirty-two in 2015 to forty-four the following year, including over 200 participants (actors, dancers, musicians) and an estimated 100,000 viewers. Because Kraków has a large market square (the [End Page 656] Rynek) in its Old Town, as well as several nearby smaller squares, viewers could attend both massive outdoor spectacles or happen upon small performances with only a few actors. This year saw the addition of performances in the newly gentrified district of Rynek Podgórski (Podgórski Square), so Kraków’s most popular public spaces were filled for four days with eighty-six free performances. Click for larger view View full resolution A moment near the end of Ślepcy. (Photo: Jacob Juntunen.) Many theatres took advantage of the sanctioned street takeover and did not confine themselves to performances separated from spectators. For example, Teatr KTO’s festival-opening act, Peregrinus, challenged spectators’ space by walking through the crowds without the guide typically used in promenade theatre. Instead, eight characters wore identical oversized, bald, and frowning masks and wheeled hand-luggage behind them as they strode toward spectators who dodged and followed. Dressed in conservative gray or black suits, these Everypersons represented the emptiness of twenty-first-century office work, and could find temporary escape only during a grotesque sexual dance in which men competed for the favor of women. The historical meaning of peregrinus—a free Roman provincial subject who is not a citizen—lent a further sense of displacement, as if these characters were not slaves though apart from the imperial center. This is an apt description of Poland specifically, and Central/Eastern Europe generally. The choreography portrayed a managed workday, not autonomy, similar to the false “freedom” of movement that laborers now possess in the European Union. Another play...

Strategie komunikacyjne w zespole Reduty Juliusza Osterwy

This article was created as a result of research work as part of NCN grant. The aim of extensive research is to compare the theatrical lexis of five Polish theatre interwar period reformers including Juliusz Osterwa to whom this publication is concerned. During research the text-corpus method was used. From the author’s texts both published and archives the corpus was compared, which was used as a source of quantitative and qualitative analysis. This article is a confirmation of the thesis that Juliusz Osterwa was consciously forming and introducing strategy both on the level of idea and the language what was proved by these studies.

Blackness as medium : body in contemporary theatre practice and theory

Our text presents the theoretical approach to the problems of body and technology in stage performance. The starting point is the status of the categories such as presence, ephemerality, immediacy of the (theatre) performance, radically undermined in the texts of performance studies scholars such as Rebecca Schneider, Amelia Jones or Philip Auslander. Utilizing examples of performances from young Polish theatre: Krzysztof Garbaczewski (b. 1983) and Radoslaw Rychcik (b. 1981), we juxtapose two functioning models of the body-technology relation on stage. The first – represented by Garbaczewski – is based on an understanding of the body as always mediated. It multiplies (undermines) the body's presence by use of audio-visual means. The second – Rychcik's case – is to push the theatrical presence of the body to the absolute maximum. In this case, the audio-visual layer is used to build a strong opposition to the actor's stage presence. The two examples are used to propose a new theoretical approach. We show that such stage phenomena are not only a sign of a (technological) reality shift, but also, a very important theoretical input in the understanding of theatre. We state that every single body on stage (no matter if consciously, as in Garbaczewski's case, or unconsciously as in the Rychcik's case) is already mediated and the use of technological tools is a way to play with this specific character of theatre corporeality. This broader perspective also incorporates elements of the political dimension of annexing media-mediated and media-manipulated corporeality, for it will follow the apparently transparent and natural dimension of such actions, whereby once again it will turn, as postulated by Jacques Ranciere, aesthetic considerations into political considerations.

SUKCES SCENICZNY DZIEŁ DE FILIPPA W POLSCE

Niniejszy artykul analizuje uwarunkowania sukcesu tworczości Eduardo De Filippo na deskach polskich teatrow. Szczegolne zainteresowanie tworczośc dramatyczna Eduar- do De Filippa wzbudzila w Polsce na przestrzeni lat 50. i 60. XX w. Rowniez w latach 80. i 90. ubieglego wieku na scenach teatrow w Warszawie, Krakowie, Bydgoszczy, Toruniu, Bialymstoku, Kaliszu, Łodzi czy Gdansku licznie zgromadzona publicznośc mogla podziwiąc najwybitniejsze dziela Eduardo De Filippo takie jak Filumena Marturano , The Millions of Naples czy The Art of Comedy , ktore jest uwazane za jeden z najwazniejszych manifestow europejskiej awangardy XX w. Rownie duzym zaintersowaniem publiczości nad Wislą cieszyly sie sztuki De Filippa z pogranicza dramatu realistycznego, komedii, czasem wrecz farsy, niepozbawionej jednak elementow tragizmu, takie jak Great Magic czy Top Hat .

Towards a Jurisprudence of the Embodied mind – Sarah Lund, Forbrydelsen and the Mindful Body

As Erika Fischer-Lichte remarked, the great Polish theatre theorist Jerzy Grotowski redefined the notion of the body of the actor as an embodied mind, as a responsive and responding self. Conversely, law abjures the body, its interpreters – lawyers and scholars – inured in practices of rationality, reason and logic, or mindful disembodiment. Travelling through the Danish capital, encountering Danes real and fictitious to illustrate how much we function through our bodies, this essay suggests that we are better and more effective legal interpreters as embodied minds, rather than disembodied minds. But this is not mindless embodiment, a mere reflex or bodily outburst. The embodied mind is self-aware (physically, socially, intellectually) and possesses the same embodied virtuous morality held by Grotowski’s actors. Reminiscent of Kierkegaard’s uniting of the mind-body divide, this connected mind and body challenges the Augustinian negation of the body and associated interpretative assumptions inherited over centuries of legal thought.

Zmowa kobiet? Inscenizacje feministyczne w polskim teatrze dwudziestolecia międzywojennego

The first wave of feminism in Poland consisted of a wide range of events. All women who were educated, independent, and professionally active and successful were regarded as feminists (regardless of their self-identification). Women of the theater, i.e., playwrights, directors, actresses and scenographers, who occupied themselves with “womanly subjects” in the 1920s and 1930s, created feminist theater which was important though it did not last long. In numerous feminist performances, theatrical productions dealt with subjects such as women in control of their own sexuality and bodies, women’s full participation in life, as well as economic independence and equal rights for women. Feminists in Polish theater, for example, Zofia Modrzewska, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska, Irena Grywinska and Marcelina Grabowska, were typically not treated seriously by male critics, who were condescending, scornful, and unable to transcend their male perspective.

Pamięć o Zagładzie w perspektywie historyka teatru

In his Polski teatr Zaglady [The Polish Theater of the Holocaust], Grzegorz Niziolek, who starts with theater and specific theatrical performances and who focuses on artistic phenomena, presents problems that go far beyond art. This is a book that should be read by historians, literary scholars, political scientists and cultural experts. Sociologists and psychologists who study social behavior will also find some of its sections interesting. This Cracow theatrologist presents the extermination of Jews during the occupation of Poland as well as Polish-Jewish relations, i.e. one of the most difficult Polish problems, permeated with silence and resentment, in the form of a monograph and in relation to the history of post-war theater, of which it is an important part.

Post-Communist Specters: Polish Theatre in the Twenty-First Century

Post-Communist Specters: Polish Theatre in the Twenty-First Century

Irish-Polish Cultural Interrelations in Practice: Interviews with Chris Binchy, Piotr Czerwiński, Dermot Bolger, and Anna Wolf

The following interviews with practitioners of Polish-Irish intercultural relations give voice to two Ireland-based Poles and two Irishmen who, in different ways, have reacted to and represented the new Polish presence in Ireland. Chris Binchy and Piotr Czerwinski have focused on the experiences of Polish labour migrants in Dublin in their respective novels Open-handed (2008) and Przebiegum zyciae (2009). Dermot Bolger explored, among other things, the historical parallels between Polish and Irish histories of migration in his play The Townlands of Brazil (2006). Anna Wolf is the artistic director and producer of the Dublin-based Polish Theatre Ireland (PTI).

Semiological analysis of Polish theater posters

Through the application of semiological analysis to theater posters made by two Polish authors, the paper uncovers signs, meanings, codes and specifics of the “Polish school of poster-making” and contemporary Polish posters. Aside from this, I suggest a methodological framework for studying the issue of coding and shaping a theater poster as a culturally specific form of visual communication. The aesthetic and semiotic outlook of the Polish theater posters which were chosen is analyzed using the semiological method which highlights their differences and similarities. By pointing out the system of codes through the examples given here, a graphic designer is informed about the existence and the possibilities of a more systematic approach to shaping a theater poster.