We the Nation Europe

The National Stary Theatre has begun its 192th artistic season. The plans for its repertoire were explained by the directors: Dorota Ignatjew, Jakub Skrzywanek and Olga Brzezińska – the vice-director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

This season we are planning seven premieres:

The Earth Is Flat
concept and director: Julian Hetzel
October 2024, Kameralna Stage

SEX, MONEY & HUNGER a family chronicle by Emile Zola
based on “Les Rougon‑Macquart” by Emile Zola
director and adaptation: Luk Perceval
January 2025, Duża Stage

The Haunted Manor
Stanisław Moniuszko
director: Anna Obszańska
February 2025, Modrzejewska Hall

Attack on the National Stary Theatre: The Birth of a Nation
concept and director: Jakub Skrzywanek
March 2025, Duża Stage

Scenes from a Marriage
based on motifs from Ingmar Bergman’s screenplay
director and adaptation: Katarzyna Minkowska
April 2025, Kameralna Stage

Spring/Summer
based on Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening
concept and director: Katarzyna Kozyra
May 2025, Nowa Stage

Other projects planned for this season:

The Tissue of the Theatre: Space, Architecture, Senses

We are creating a multisensory performance, Finger Prints, available live and online, addressing the relationship between the human body and architecture and technology. The performance will feature people with vision and movement impairments, the neurodiverse, and the d/Deaf. It joins art and design for the senses, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and speculative design.

Around the Legends of the Stary Theatre

A new series of activities based on the biographies and accomplishments of artists working at the National Stary Theatre. In the 2024/2025 season we are commemorating Jerzy Stuhr and Stanisław Radwan.

MASTERFUL RENDITIONS:

A WEEK WITH JERZY STUHR

A week devoted to the artist’s creative personality, his remarkable abilities combining comedy, the grotesque, irony, and seriousness. This series of events will include: meetings, recollections, screenings of archival plays, and exhibitions of documents connected to Jerzy Stuhr.

This project was developed in collaboration with the Theatre Academy in Krakow.

COMPOSER OF INTERACTIVE SPACES: THE THEATRE OF STANISŁAW RADWAN

The first musical exhibition at MICET is entirely devoted to the work of Stanisław Radwan, an artist whose work goes far beyond composing music for plays.

Krakow Salon of Poetry and Dance

As in previous years, audiences and actors will meet at 12:00 pm in the Helena Modrzejewska Hall for Sunday poetry readings with musical accompaniment. The Salon’s host and animator is, as usual, Anna Dymna, an audience favorite at the National Stary Theatre, together with other figures from the arts and literary scenes, including Bronisław Maj and Wojciech Bonowicz. This season we are expanding the familiar and beloved formula with a dance workshop, choreography, and movement program in the Modrzejewska Hall.

The Saturday meetings will provide a chance to creatively explore the body and prepare viewers to take in new choreography performances. It is also important to create a safe space for working with the body and to find pleasure that comes with movement.

The Year 2081

Complex workshops for playwrights aged 18+.

2081 will mark the round 300th anniversary of the creation of the Stary Theatre – Poland’s first permanent, public, and professional theatre in Krakow. Looking so far in the future, free of the burden of grappling with the everyday affairs of the present, undoubtedly motivates us to create revolutionary theatre projects for the future of Poland and Europe – it prompts us to delve into our deepest dreams and invent the most original ways of making them a reality. How might the theatre of the future look, corresponding to our needs, swiftly and compellingly responding to changes in the world around us? In what sociocultural context will it develop? And finally, what will its repertoire be? What topics will sustain it, and what will it have to tell us?

During the conference, we will also be signing a partner project to collaborate with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute: “Polish Theatre – Europe.”