Theatre programme of the Wroclaw 2016 European Culture Capital is a rich, all-year-round project, in which there is a place for not only educational activities, meetings, and discussions, but festivals, demonstrations, performances and the Theatre Olympics as well.
The theatre programme opens on 14 January with 'Following' . This exhibition of photographs by Krzysztof Fiołek documents activities of Jerzy Grotowski and the Laboratory Theatre in the period of the Theatre of Sources. Presented for the first time ever, the photographs will be exhibited in Wroclaw Contemporary Museum. 'Krzysztof Fiołek often accompanied Grotowski in his wanderings, documenting his research. He took more than a thousand photos,' says Monika Blige, programme director of the Jerzy Grotowski Institute. < /p>
In 2016, culminated will be two projects of Grotowski Institute - BodyConstitution (a programme addressed to young actors, dedicated to body work) and VoicEncounters - a practical seminar dedicated to techniques of working with the voice. In April, a series of workshops with artists and masters of the movement techniques will take place, as part of the first project. It will include Miyamoto Sensei, Mestre Cobra Mansa or Daisuke Yoshimoto. The VoicEncounters, on the other hand, will be closed by presentations of men's confraternities of the Mediterranean, and women's traditions from Iran, Palestine and Turkey. The special guest will be Diamanda Galas.
An international science conference 'Performatics - Ten Years Later' was scheduled for May. It was prepared on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Polish edition of 'Performance Studies: An Introduction' by Richard Schechner. The event will be complemented by a performance 'The Last Supper'.
The programme announces also presentations by residence artists of Grotowski Institute, such as Thomas Richards, the Sinegloss group, and the MITOS group.
In July, there will also be international meetings of theatre schools - 'Making Tomorrow’s Theatre' , and in August, independent theatres will come to town, as part of the Academy of Alternative Theatre.
The turn of August and September will provide another opportunity to see a unique event, which will take place at Świebodzki Station. There, Stephan Stroux will have prepared a multimedia performance 'Unfinished House, Moving People, Moving Grabice/European Songlines'. In the performance, which will talk about moving borders, the sources of culture, longing and European identity will feature, among others, Zbigniew Libera, Olaf Brzeski, Marek Raczkowski, Bente Kahan, Olga Tokarczuk, Julia Marcell, Bastiaan Maris and Matthias Goritz.
All Wroclaw theatres are involved in theatre events. Henryk Tomaszewski Wroclaw Pantomime Theaterwill celebrate its anniversary in the year of the ECC. In May 2016, they will close their education projects with a joint performance of three age groups - children, teenagers and junior actors. Their programme also includes jubilee productions prepared by artists who started their artistic path in the art of pantomime. The performances will be directed by Maćko Prusak and Leszek Bzdyl.
From 14 October to 13 November 2016, the Theatre Olympics 'The World Is Place For Truth' takes place. Performances of the main part will include works by theatre artists from around the world, including Eugenio Barba, Peter Brook, Tadashi Suzuki, Theodoros Terzepoulos, Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci, Heiner Goebbels, Krystian Lupa, Valery Fokin, Pippo Delborno, Jan Fabre. The special guest will be Ariane Mnouchkine, the founder of Theatre du Solei.
'Krystian Lupa's première during the Olympics takes on an important meaning, it becomes a symbol of political, existential and cultural transformation, which we are experiencing nowadays,' says Krzysztof Mieszkowski, director of the Polski Theatre in Wroclaw. 'I can't yet give you the name of Lupa's performance, but I believe he is searching somewhere between Bergman's 'Serpent's Egg' and Alberto Moravia's 'Conformist'.
One of trends of the Olympics will also be the Lower Silesia Theatre Platform, which will include the best productions from Lower Silesia, as well as the Eastern Line - a presentation of the best performances from Eastern and Central Europe.
Also to present its project is Wroclaw Contemporary Theatre. We can expect a summary of 'Contact Zones' , a performance dedicated to Wroclaw artists such as Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Tadeusz Różewicz and Helmut Kajzar, including, among others, the première of Różewicz's 'Departure,' directed by Paweł Miśkiewicz, and Helmut Kajzar's 'Faces by +++ (Three Crosses) and To Be Continued (KaDeWe), directed by Karolina Szyngiera. The audience will also see Malina Prześluga's 'President's Suit', awarded in the WTW Drama Competition, directed by Cezary Ibera (première on March 5, 2016), as well as 'Silesia, Silentia' of Lidia Amejko (premiere on January 23, 2016), directed by Marek Fiedor. In June 2016, the WCT plans performative reading of plays selected from among other entries. < /p>
The programme of the ECC includes also special editions of events such as a New Kids' Theatre Festival, Brave Kids, projects against exclusions, the Cyrkulacje Festival, 37th Actor's Song Review, 50th International Wroclaw Meetings of One-Actor Teatres, and the International Comedy Festival WROCEK.
