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Gombrowicz & Zadara from Capitol Theatre, Wroclaw, Poland in US
Polish Cultural Institute Press contact: Agata Grenda
350 Fifth Avenue, #4621 tel.212-239-7300, ext.3009
New York, NY 10118 email: a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival,
with support from the Polish Cultural Institute in New York,
presents
Capitol Theatre, Wroclaw
OPERETTA
by Witold Gombrowicz
directed by Michal Zadara
SEPTEMBER 10-13, 2009
Post show discussion, September 10
A fashion-conscious count pines for a young beauty and wants to dress her. The young beauty just wants to go around naked. A rival suitor proclaims his love. There’s a duel! There’s a ball! A Marxist revolution staged by pickpockets! A camel falling from the sky!
New York, August 17, 2009 – The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, with the support and on the initiative of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, presents Operetta, a major work by Polish literary giant Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), re-envisioned by Michal Zadara, one of the most innovative Polish theater directors of his generation. Each production of Operetta is scored anew; and for this latest staging Poland's multiple-award-winning jazz pianistLeszek Mozdzer composed an eclectic score that ranges from heart-wrenching ballads to punk rock. Performed in Polish with English supertitles.
The Live Arts Festival premiere will be preceded on Sunday, September 6, by a panel discussion, "The Theater of Witold Gombrowicz and of Michal Zadara," which along with Zadara will feature Thomas Sellar, critic and editor ofTheater, Yale School of Drama, and a special guest − Rita Gombrowicz, the author's widow, literary executor, and the author of two key biographical works, Gombrowicz en Argentine and Gombrowicz en Europe. Allen Kuharski, Chair of the Department of Theater at Swarthmore College, will moderate.
In an interview in Time Out New York, Prof. Kuharski described Gombrowicz as "Poland's counterpart to Jean Genet, but with Joe Orton's sense of humor. Gombrowicz's most powerful political weapon is his humor." Village Voicecritic Charles McNulty called Gombrowicz's works "unbeatable sources of absurdist adrenaline"; and Louis Begley, writing in the Washington Post, deemed the Polish writer an "eccentric genius." In Operetta, his final play, Gombrowicz adopts the operetta form in order to present 20th century transitions to totalitarianism in a grotesque way. At the same time, the author expresses a tentative faith in the redemptive power of youth.
In Zadara's interpretation, music, fashion, dancing, and chaos − and a cast of 22 − dominate this wild fable of the 20th-century's elite running out of ideas. An operetta is the romantic comedy of opera; this Operetta explodes the form − and our expectations. As Joanna Derkaczew in Gazeta Wyborcza writes: "Zadara succeeds in showing us a macabre silly vision of society; one in which the elites are mediocre, but to throw them out means leaving society at the whim of populists, manipulators and sectarians."
WHAT: The Theater of Witold Gombrowicz and of Michal Zadara – panel discussion with special appearance of Rita Gombrowicz
WHEN: Sunday, September 6, 1:00 PM
WHERE: The University of the Arts, Arts Bank; 601 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
TRANSPORTATION: directions available at www.uarts.edu
ADMISSION: free, tel. 215.413.1318
WHAT: OPERETTA BY WITOLD GOMBROWICZ AT THE PHILADELPHIA LIVE ARTS FESTIVAL
WHEN: Thu., September 10 – Sun., September 13, 2009; Tue-Sat, 7:00 PM; Sat-Sun, 3:00 PM
Post show discussion, September 10. Performed in Polish with English supertitles.
WHERE: The Wilma Theater, 265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
TRANSPORTATION: www.wilmatheater.org
ADMISSION: $15, $25, $35; tel: 215.413.1318, www.livearts-fringe.org or at Festival Box Office at The Hub: 626 N. 5th Street, tel. 215.413.1318
WITOLD GOMBROWICZ (1904-1969) is recognized as one of the 20th century's greatest writers. Most of his work was written during self-imposed exile in Argentina and France and could not be published or performed in Communist Poland for decades. His works rankled the establishment with their biting, irreverent humor, dissident views, and homoerotic innuendo. From the viewpoint of philosophy, Gombrowicz is intriguing as a thinker whose concepts anticipate ideas popular during the second half of the twentieth century, from existentialism to Lacanian psychoanalysis to deconstruction.
Gombrowicz’s works have been translated into more than 30 languages and staged in over 30 countries. His first and most famous play, Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, was staged by Ingmar Bergman for Sweden's National Theatre; and The Marriage was produced at the Comédie Française in Paris. The past decade has seen a flurry of interest in Gombrowicz, with publications of previously untranslated works, like Bacacay, and new translations of novels that first appeared in English in the 1960s, like Pornografia, which Grove Press will release in November 2009 Gombrowicz’s prose works have inspired numerous adaptations for the stage, including Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre’s 2006 dance piece Several Witty Observations and Teatr Prowizorium and Kompania Teatr’s 2002 adaptation of the novel Ferdydurke. Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theater Company received an Obie in 2004 for its play Hell Meets Henry Halfway, which is based on Gombrowicz’s novel The Possessed.
MICHAL ZADARA (b. 1976, Warsaw) is one of the most important Polish theater directors of his generation. He grew up mainly in Austria and West Germany, where he attended English-language schools, and studied atSwarthmore College in the U.S., where he majored in Theater Studies and minored in Political Science, receiving his B.A. cum laude in 1999. After living in New York for a year, Zadara returned to Poland to work with set designer Malgorzata Szczesniak at Warsaw's Rozmaitosci Theatre (now known as TR Warszawa). In 2001 he began studying directing at the State Theatre Academy in Krakow with renowned director Krystian Lupa and the acclaimed actor and Academy professor Jan Peszek.
Since 2004, Zadara has directed productions at the National Theatre in Warsaw, the National Stary Theatre in Krakow, and other prestigious theaters in Gdansk, Wroclaw, Szczecin and abroad (Berlin, Tel Aviv). Known for his bold interpretations of canonical Polish authors, he has also adapted and/or staged works by Duerrenmatt, Eliot, and Heiner Mueller, among others. In 2007 the weekly magazine Polityka awarded Zadara the prestigious Passport Award for theater, citing his "impressive creative output" and his capacity to "restore faith in theater as a space for artistic freedom." In 2008 he was the featured artist at the biannual Warsaw Theater Meetings Festival, a showcase of the best productions of the year in Poland. The festival program included seven productions by Zadara. In January 2010, Zadara will debut at Warsaw's National Opera, directing Greek composer Iannis Xenakis's rarely staged Oresteia.
The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United States and Poland, both through American exposure to Poland’s cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts.
The Institute initiates, organizes, promotes, and produces a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as Lincoln Center Festival (Kalkwerk in 2009); BAM (Krum by TR Warszawa in BAM’s 2007 Next Wave Festival, which received a Village Voice Obie Award); Art at St. Ann’s (TR Warszawa’s Macbeth, 2008); Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center; La MaMa E.T.C.; Film Society of Lincoln Center; The Museum of Modern Art; Jewish Museum; PEN World Voices Festival; Poetry Society of America; Yale University; and many more. PCI co-produced the off-Broadway run of Irena’s Vow, with Tovah Feldshuh, which ran on Broadway in 2009.
Tracing Jerzy Grotoswki in New York
Polish Cultural Institute Press contact: Agata Grenda
350 Fifth Avenue, #4621 tel.212-239-7300, ext.3009
New York, NY 10118 email: a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
and
The Performance Studies Department,
Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
present
TRACING GROTOWSKI’S PATH:
THE YEAR OF GROTOWSKI IN NEW YORK
– from La MaMa E.TC. to Lincoln Center Festival –
Celebrating the work and legacy of the revolutionary theatre director
Jerzy Grotowski
FEBRUARY 6 – JULY 13, 2009
Curator: Richard Schechner, NYU University Professor, TDR Editor
ANNOUNCEMENT OF APRIL – MAY EVENTS
New York, March 10, 2009 – Following February’s inspiring and remarkably well attended events, which featured some of Grotowski’s most important collaborators from around the world, including Ludwik Flaszen from Poland an
d Maud Robart from Haiti, the March segment of the Year of Grotowski focuses on his influence in America, while April and May events will address some of the most compelling and misunderstood issues associated with this revolutionary director: Is Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre just another Old Boys’ Club? (a meeting with some of Grotowski’s key female collaborators, including the renowned Polish actress, Rena Mirecka, MESTC CUNY, April 16); Couldn’t Grotowski have been revolutionary without joining the Communist Party? (a meeting with theater historians atJohn Jay College, April 17); What did Grotowski really think about arch-rival Tadeusz Kantor? (a meeting with specialists on the two directors, NYU, May 4) and much, much more. Program details follow on the next pages.
Tracing Grotowski’s Path: Year of Grotowski in New York is the first in-depth and extensive presentation in the U.S. of the innovations and influence of world-renowned Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski in all the phases of his artistic career. This broad spectrum of work is being presented through a variety of panels, films, lectures, and workshops organized by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Performance Studies Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
UNESCO has designated 2009 as “The Year of Grotowski” – 50 years after the founding of the Polish Laboratory Theatre and 10 after the death of the world-renowned Polish theatre director, who was both master teacher, and, for many, a spiritual leader. With events devoted to Grotowski’s work taking place world-wide, Year of Grotowski:Tracing Grotowski’s Path is the most extensive program anywhere outside Wroclaw.
The Polish Cultural Institute invited Prof. Richard Schechner of NYU, one of the foremost experts on Grotowski, to serve as curator of this multi-faceted celebration, which brings together some of the most important contemporary performance practitioners. These include early Grotowski collaborators, former Polish Laboratory Theatre actors, as well as theatre and performance scholars and historians from around the world. By attending to aspects of Grotowski’s work usually overlooked or misrepresented, Tracing Grotowski’s Path will contribute to popular and scholarly discourses around one of the greatest artists and innovators of the 20th century,
Considered one of the most important and influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century, Jerzy Grotowski revolutionized contemporary theatre. Beginning in 1959 with his early experiments in the Polish town of Opole and subsequently with the Polish Laboratory Theatre in Wroclaw, Grotowski changed the way Western theatre practitioners and performance theorists conceive of the audience/actor relationship, theatre staging, and the craft of acting. This phase of his theatrical work, also called “poor theatre,” was the basis for one of the most influential theatre books of the 20th century: Towards a Poor Theatre (1968). After abandoning the “theatre of productions,” Grotowski continued to push the boundaries of conventional theatre, first in his paratheatrical work, and later in his performance research, which took him to India, Mexico, Haiti, and elsewhere, in search of the traditional performance practices of various cultures (Theatre of Sources, 1976-82). This work led Grotowski to his identification of particular abiding elements of ritual traditions (Objective Drama, 1983-86). In the final phase of his work Grotowski explored the far reaches of the performance continuum, which he traced from “Art as presentation” toward what has been called “Art as Vehicle.”
A Grotowski Chronology and full February-July Program are available at www.PolishCulture-NYC.org
DETAILED APRIL–MAY PROGRAM
(unless noted otherwise, all events are free and open to the public):
Women in the Grotowski Diaspora: Training, Transmission, Creativity
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016
This evening of conversation and work demonstration features three former Grotowski collaborators: Rena Mirecka (Poland/Italy), Stefania Gardecka (Poland), andAng Gey Pin (Singapore/Italy). Although the particularly strenuous physical training emblematic of Grotowski’s approach is not gender specific, it has historically been associated with a masculine conception of the performer because of the central position occupied by Grotowski’s male collaborators in most of his theatrical work and paratheatrical experiments. However, as evidenced by archival sources, personal testimonies, and transmission processes, but – interestingly – rarely by printed materials, several generations of women from different cultures and traditions actively participated in all phases of Grotowski’s research, and continue to play a pivotal role in today’s intercultural Grotowski diaspora. What in Grotowski’s approach has inspired women to dedicate their life to such research? Moderated byVirginie Magnat, Assistant Professor of Performance at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada.
Grotowski in Communist Poland
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, Room 630-T
899 Tenth Avenue New York, NY, 10019
Panelists: Professor Kazimierz Braun, director, former Grotowski colleague and author of Ten Days in Poland Under Communism; Seth Baumrin, director, theatre historian, Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY, author of Ketmanship in Opole: Jerzy Grotowski and the Price of Artistic Freedom;Agnieszka Wojtowicz, theatre historian; Assistant Professor at the University of Opole, author of From Orpheus to the Hamlet Study: Theatre of the 13 Rows in Opole (1959-64) discuss Grotowski’s political activities in Communist Poland. They explore the complex and often contradictory political realities of cultural production in Poland at that time. The period in question spans the establishment of the Laboratory Theatre in 1959 through to the years of Solidarity in the 1970-80s and beyond to the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989. Just what was Grotowski’s (a Communist Party member for more than two decades) and the Laboratory Theatre’s relationship to the Party, to the emergent anti-communist activism of the 1970s-80s, and to the censors who passed on all phases of cultural production, including the theatre? How did the “political realities” affect Grotowski’s artistic work? Moderated by Daniel Gerould, Professor of Theatre and Comparative L
iterature, CUNY Graduate Center.
The Way – A Workshop with Rena Mirecka
April 18 – 22, 2009
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
This workshop is not open to the public.
Rena Mirecka was one of the key figures in Jerzy Grotowski’s “theatre of productions” and paratheatrical experiments from 1959 to 1982. She was instrumental in the conception and development of the “plastic exercises” and created all of the leading female roles including those in Acropolis and Apocalypsis cum Fuguris. Since 1982, she has pursued her own personal research in physical and spiritual theatrical expression. Since 1993, she has directed her own Theater Center inSardinia, Italy. Her current work is called “The Way”.
1967: Grotowski in New York, The First Encounter
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
La MaMa E.T.C., The Club
74A East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003
A discussion with participants in Grotowski’s first American workshop which took place at NYU in the autumn of 1967. Ellen Stewart, founder and director of La MaMa E.T.C., who was instrumental in bringing Grotowski to America, will also be on the panel. Two participants in the NYU workshop – Thomas Crawley and Jerry Mayer (both deceased) – kept a careful journal of this workshop. The observations concerning Grotowski, his principal actor at the time, Ryszard Cieslak, and the work process are “naive” and thus a very interesting document of American actors’ first encounter with Grotowski and his training methods. Richard Schechner will read from the Crawley-Mayer journal.
Grotowski and Kantor
Monday, May 4, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Room TBA
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
A conversation, moderated by CUNY Graduate Center Professor Daniel Gerould, between two internationally known scholars: Zbigniew Osinski, Professor of Polish Studies at Warsaw University and the founder and first director of The Centre for Studies of Jerzy Grotowski’s Work and for the Cultural and Theatrical Research (from 1990 to 2004); and Michal Kobialka, Professor of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, whose most recent book on Kantor,Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre, will be published in 2009. They will assess the distinctive achievements of these two revolutionary theatre artists from Poland and will endeavor to dispel some of the myths surrounding their work in order to reveal clearly the legacy of each for the future of theatre.
OVERVIEW: JULY PROGRAM
Paratheatre, Theatre of Sources, and Objective Drama
Friday, July 10, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
GROTOWSKI AND HIS LEGACY. A THREE-DAY EVENT AT LINCOLN CENTER
Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre and Theatre of Sources Period: Film Documentation
Saturday, July 11, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards: Film Documentation
Sunday, July 12, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini: Grotowski’s Legacy and the Workcenter
Monday, July 13, 2009, 6:30 – 9:30 PM
Lincoln Center Festival
The Polish Cultural Institute, established in New York in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United Statesand Poland, both through American exposure to Poland’s cultural ach
ievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts.
The Institute takes an active collaborative role in the organization, promotion, and actual production of a broad range of cultural events in theatre, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as BAM (Krum by TR Warszawa in BAM’s 2007 Next Wave Festival, which received aVillage Voice Obie Award), Art at St. Ann’s (TR Warszawa’s recent production of Macbeth), La MaMa E.T.C., Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, PEN World Voices Festival, Poetry Society of America, Yale University, and many more. PCI co-produced the off-Broadway run of Irena’s Vow, with Tovah Feldshuh, which will run on Broadway from March 2009.
The Performance Studies Department at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU takes as its object of inquiry and instruction the whole range of performance from the aesthetic to the social, from popular entertainments to ritual, from law and medicine to business, from gender to the performances of everyday life. Students and faculty in the Performance Studies Department’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs explore the myriad ways that performances in many cultures and widely differing circumstances create meaning and identities while shaping social life and inhabiting the arts. In addition to its many courses, the Performance Studies Department is home to the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and two journals: TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies and Women and Performance.
Tracing Jerzy Grotoswki in New York
Polish Cultural Institute Press contact: Agata Grenda
350 Fifth Avenue, #4621 tel.212-239-7300, ext.3009
New York, NY 10118 email: a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
and
The Performance Studies Department,
Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
present
TRACING GROTOWSKI’S PATH:
YEAR OF GROTOWSKI IN NEW YORK
− from La MaMa E.T.C. to Lincoln Center Festival −
Celebrating the work and legacy of the revolutionary theatre director
Jerzy Grotowski
FEBRUARY 6 – JULY 13, 2009
Curator: Richard Schechner, NYU University Professor, TDR Editor
New York, January 22, 2009 – Tracing Grotowski’s Path: Year of Grotowski in New York is the first in-depth and extensive presentation in the U.S. of the innovations and influence of world-renowned Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski in all the phases of his artistic career. This broad spectrum of work is being presented through a variety of lectures, panels, films, and workshops organized by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Performance Studies Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The program, which runs from February 6 to July 13, will involve several prestigious institutions throughout New York City: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Performance Studies Studio, Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, Judson Memorial Church, La MaMa E.T.C., Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Lincoln Center Festival. And it will bring together some of the most important contemporary performance practitioners. These include early Grotowski collaborators, former Polish Laboratory Theatre actors, as well as theatre and performance scholars and historians from all around the world. By attending to aspects of Grotowski’s work usually overlooked or misrepresented, Tracing Grotowski’s Path will contribute to popular and scholarly discourses on one of the greatest artists and innovators of the 20th century.
The program will be enhanced by the exhibition Grotowski in Poland − The Photographs of Andrzej Paluchiewicz, presented from February 6 through March 20 in two locations: the Windows at the Kimmel Center, NYU andthe Riese Common Room at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Jerzy Grotowski from 1966 to 1976. He was not only an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre; but also the ensemble’s resident photographer. He is the author of some of the most iconic images of Grotowski and his collaborators.
The Year of Grotowski in New York Opening will take place Friday, February 6, 7:30 to 11:00 PM at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Cantor Film Center
The opening of the exhibition Grotowski in Poland − The Photographs of Andrzej Paluchiewicz will take place in the Riese Common Room, NYU Tisch Schoolof the Arts, 721 Broadway, on Friday, February 6, at 6:00 PM. The exhibition opening and reception is by invitation only. Press invitations:a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org.
Detailed information for February events and an overview of the March-July program follow.
A Grotowski Chronology is attached and is also available at www.PolishCulture-NYC.org.
UNESCO has designated 2009 as “The Year of Grotowski” – 50 years after the founding of the Polish Laboratory Theatre and 10 after the death of the world-renowned Polish theatre director, master teacher, and, for many, a spiritual leader.
Considered one of the most important and influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century, JERZY GROTOWSKI revolutionized contemporary theatre. Beginning in 1959 with his early experiments in the Polish town of Opole and later with the Polish Laboratory Theatre in Wroclaw, Grotowski changed the way Western theatre practitioners and performance theorists conceive of the audience/actor relationship, theatre staging, and the craft of acting. This phase of his theatrical work, also called “poor theatre,” was the basis for one of the most influential theatre books of the 20th century: Towards a Poor Theatre (1968). After abandoning the “theatre of productions,” Grotowski continued to push the boundaries of conventional theatre, first in his paratheatrical work, and later in his performance research, which took him to India, Mexico, Haiti, and elsewhere, in search of the traditional performance practices of various cultures (Theatre of Sources, 1976-82). This work led Grotowski to his identification of particular abiding elements of ritual traditions (Objective Drama, 1983-86). In the final phase of his work Grotowski explored the far reaches of the performance continuum, which he traced from “Art as presentation” toward what has been called “Art as Vehicle.”
Tracing Grotowski’s Path: Year of Grotowski in New York is organized by the Polish Cultural Institute and the Performance Studies Department, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Curator: Richard Schechner, Associate Curator: Dominika Bennacer, Project Coordinator: Agata Grenda. Generous support for the program was granted by the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Italian Cultural Institute, New York.
FEBRUARY PROGRAM
(unless noted otherwise, all events are free and open to the public):
Exhibition: Grotowski in Poland – Photographs by Andrzej Paluchiewicz
Friday, February 6 – March 20, 2009
• Windows at the Kimmel Center, New York University (located on the exterior of the Kimmel Building)
La Guardia Place and West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012
• NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Riese Common Room, Ground Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Jerzy Grotowski from 1966 to 1976. He was not only an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre; he was also the ensemble’s resident photographer. He is the author of some of the most iconic images of Grotowski’s productions. Combining images of Grotowski’s work with more rarely seen photographs, this exhibition traces the trajectory of Grotowski’s work in Poland from the “Theatre of Productions” phase to the “Theatre of Sources” phase.
The Year of Grotowski in New York Opening: The Theatre of Thirteen Rows (1959) and The Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw (2009)
Friday, February 6, 2009, 7:30 – 11:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Cantor Film Center, New York University
36 East 8th Street, New York, New York 10003
This event brings together former literary director and co-founder of the Theatre of Thirteen Rows (later the Polish Laboratory Theatre), Ludwik Flaszen and the current directing team of the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland: Jaroslaw Fret and Grzegorz Ziolkowski. What brought the Polish Laboratory Theatre into existence? What was the Polish theatre scene like in those days of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain? What is the current work of the Grotowski Institute? How is the Institute preserving, researching, and using Grotowski’s archives and his Polish heritage? The panel discussion, moderated by Richard Schechner, will be preceded by a screening of a film on Jerzy Grotowski.
Ludwik Flaszen: Grotowski’s Devil’s Advocate
Sunday – Monday, February 8 – 9, 2009
Sunday 5:00 PM; Monday 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio, 6th Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Limited seating available. Please RSVP to yearofgrotowski@nyu.edu
At this intimate lecture-meeting, former literary director and co-founder of the Polish Laboratory Theatre, Ludwik Flaszen will speak about various practical, theoretical and historical aspects of Grotowski’s work from the perspective of his closest collaborator. In this cycle of lectures, Flaszen will address the mystifications and errors that have arisen in interpreting the early period of Grotowski’s work, and through personal testimony trace the trajectory of Grotowski’s development.
Actors of the Polish Laboratory Theatre:
Mieczyslaw Janowski and Andrzej Paluchiewicz
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Riese Common Room, Ground Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Mieczyslaw Janowski worked in Grotowski’s Polish Laboratory Theatre for 8 years, playing in all their core productions. In 1999, he was honored by the President of Poland for his entire artistic work with the Golden Order of Merit. Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Grotowski for over a decade as an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre and as a participant in the paratheatrical work. The two actors will discuss daily life inside the Polish Laboratory Theatre – from rehearsals, role preparation, and performances, to what it was like to work with Grotowski then. Moderated by Dominika Bennacer. Q&A will follow
Grotowski and Maud Robart: Encountering Afro-Haitian Tradition
Thursday, February 19, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Screening Room 006
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Maud Robart is an artist and master teacher whose lifelong investigations draw on her direct experience with the traditional practices of her native Haiti. She is the co-founder of the artistic group Saint-Soleil. Grotowski’s first encounter with Robart took place in 1977 in Haiti. She later became a co-creator of the “Theatre of Sources” project in Haiti and Poland from 1978 to 1980, which was conducted under Grotowski’s direction. Robart’s position is significant and unique in that she is the only collaborator who was involved in all of the post-theatrical phases of his research from “Theatre of Sources” to The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski. The discussion will be devoted to Grotowski’s initial encounter with the living Afro-Haitian tradition and his consequent long-term collaboration with Maud Robart. Moderated by Dominika Bennacer.
OVERVIEW: MARCH-JULY PROGRAM
Grotowski in the Americas
Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Work Demonstration by Taller de Investigacion Teatral UNAM – National University of Mexico
Friday, March 13, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio
Anthropocosmic Theatre Techniques: A Workshop by Taller de Investigacion Teatral – UNAM National University of Mexico
March 14 – 15, 2009, 10:00 AM – 1:30 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio
Grotowski’s Influence on American Actor Training
Saturday, March 28, 2009, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Women in the Grotowski Diaspora: Training, Transmission, Creativity
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center
Grotowski in Communist Poland
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
The Way – A Workshop with Rena Mirecka
April 18 – 22, 2009
Judson Memorial Church
This workshop is not open to the public.
1967: Grotowski in New York, The First Encounter
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
La MaMa E.T.C., The Club
Grotowski and Kantor
Monday, May 4, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Paratheatre, Theatre of Sources, and Objective Drama
Friday, July 10, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
GROTOWSKI AND HIS LEGACY. A THREE-DAY EVENT AT LINCOLN CENTER
Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre and Theatre of Sources Period: Film Documentation
Saturday, July 11, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards: Film Documentation
Sunday, July 12, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini: Grotowski’s Legacy and the Workcenter
Monday, July 13, 2009, 6:30 – 9:30 PM
Lincoln Center Festival
The Polish Cultural Institute, established in New York in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United Statesand Poland, both through American exposure to Poland’s cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts.
The Institute takes an active collaborative role in the organization, promotion, and actual production of a broad range of cultural events in theatre, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as BAM (Krum by TR Warszawa in BAM’s 2007 Next Wave Festival, which received aVillage Voice Obie Award), Art at St. Ann’s (TR Warszawa’s recent production of Macbeth), La MaMa E.T.C., Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, PEN World Voices Festival, Poetry Society of America, Yale University, and many more. PCI co-produced the off-Broadway run of Irena’s Vow, with Tovah Feldshuh, which will run on Broadway in 2009.
The Performance Studies Department at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU takes as its object of inquiry and instruction the whole range of performance from the aesthetic to the social, from popular entertainments to ritual, from law and medicine to business, from gender to the performances of everyday life. Students and faculty in the Performance Studies Department’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs explore the myriad ways that performances in many cultures and widely differing circumstances create meaning and identities while shaping social life and inhabiting the arts. In addition to its many courses, the Performance Studies Department is home to the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and two journals: TDR: The Journal of
Performance Studies and Women and Performance.
Made in Poland in NYC
Poland in Perspective: A Festival of Plays in New York
by Caridad Svich
THE FILES. Photo by Robert Rabiej.From October 22nd to November 30th, 59E59 Theaters will be ablaze with an exciting festival of Polish works never before seen in the U.S.Presented by 59E59 and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, the festival features theU.S. premiere of playwright and filmmaker Przemyslaw Wojcieszek’s scabrous comedy Made in Poland (directed by Jackson Gay and produced by The Play Company), two one-act comedies by Michael Walczak, Sandbox (directed by Piotr Kruszcynski) and The First Time(directed by Marcy Arlin) produced by Immigrants’ Theatre Project, and the landmark Polish ensemble The Theatre of the Eighth Day’s docu-drama/archive of memory piece The Files. Although the city has seen Polish work before, what distinguishes this festival is the fact that all the works were written post-2000. Therefore, the festival represents the first attempt by a venue in New York to showcase a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Polish playwriting.
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