A graduate of the Acting Department of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków /1996/

1 September 1995 – 31 March 2000 – The Stary Theatre, Kraków
1 February 2000 – 31 January 2001 – The Rozmaitości Theatre, Warsaw
1 February 2001 – The Stary Theatre, Kraków

Zbigniew W. Kaleta is a versatile, charismatic actor who has played memorable roles in productions by Krystian Lupa – the Master in “The Master and Margarita”, Paul Morrissey in “Factory 2” and Zarathustra in the famous production of “Zarathustra” in 2005: ‘To a great extent, he carries the weight of the middle part of Lupa’s “Zarathustra” at the Stary Theatre, creating the character of a prophet perceiving, with great pain, the world in ruins after the death of God. This pain, the superhuman effort to deal with experience, is completely believable’ (Jacek Sieradzki, Polityka). Since “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch”, the actor has regularly worked with Jan Klata (in such roles as the comic Don Jacinto de Gouzdrala Gouzdreza in “The Wedding of Count Orgaz”, the tragic Wiktor Haldin in “The Secret Agent” and the title character in “King Ubu”). The actor received an award at the Kalisz Festival for the roles of Jurko Bohun and Azja in Klata’s “The Trilogy”. Prepared for challenges, this actor played an intriguing character in the world of Łukasz Twarkowski’s “Acropolis”, created through new media: ‘Fearful Jacob (Zbigniew Kaleta) appears to grapple with himself and struggle violently within his mind. To fight not against the Angel, but in opposition to it. Repeating the sentence “I don’t know who you are”, he becomes a symbol of our time, a symbol of isolation in relation to another person, disorientation, questions about identity’ (Marcelina Obarska, e-splot). Paweł Miśkiewicz (“Before/After”, “Innocence”, “The Seagull”) and Tadeusz Bradecki (“Operetta”, “Measure for Measure”) have managed to make use of the full extent of the actor’s speciality – his ability to oscillate between comedy, daring grotesque and a psychological depth of expression. His portrayal of Tartuffe, to whom he gave the terrifying personality of a cold psychopath (in Mikołaj Grabowski’s production based on Moliere’s “Tartuffe”), remains engraved in audiences’ memories.

He was praised for his role as Sofia in Bogomolov’s “Platonov”: “The brilliant actor measured up to the challenge and played a woman keeping the secret of her love for a beautiful man in her nearby surroundings from her husband and the world. Kaleta renders the sadness of hopelessly unrequited love, depression that her sensitive husband is helpless against, and a pouting humility. There is a major transformation in this role. Kaleta wears his real-life post-hippy hair-do. At the start he tentatively strokes his gathered hair. As time passes, however, he forgets his male beard, and writes a letter to Platonov as Sofia, begging his lover to escape into the unknown and to begin a new life. The message we receive is a powerful one: that women are more decisive than men (…), and one would like to say that they bear fate’s setbacks with a kind of male dignity, oblivious to how fickle it can be,” suggested Jacek Cieślak (Teatr 4/201

2010 – 50th Kalisz Theater Gatherings – acting award for the roles of Jurko Bohun / Azja in “The Trilogy” based on H. Sienkiewicz, dir. J. Klata
1998 – 2nd Polish Talia Comedy Festival ’98 – acting award for the role of Elbow in “Measure for Measure” by W. Shakespeare, dir. T. Bradecki.