354 shows, more than 134 thousands spectators – what a year!

2015 was a very good year for Powszechny Theatre in Łódź. We played 354 shows which were seen by more than 134,000 spectators.

Last year on our both stages we produced altogether 12 previews:

• “Oś” directed by Filip Gieldon (premiere)

• “The School for Wives” directed by Janusz Wiśniewski

• “Song Factory” by Maciej Karpiński and Maciej Wojtyszko, directed by Maciej and Adam Wojtyszko (premiere)

• “Stop Motion” by Malina Prześluga, directed by Jakub Zubrzycki

• “Brunch” by Juliusz Machulski, directed by Michał Siegoczyński (premiere)

• “Heaven Eyes” by David Almond, directyed by Andrzej Jakubas (Polish premiere)

including six previews of the Reading theatre for people with poor eyesight and blind (all of them were as directed, as usual, by Ewa Pilawska on a voluntary basis):

• “The Mating Game” by Robin Hawdon

• “Heaven Eyes” by David Almond

• “Do Not Disturb” by Florian Zeller

• “The Kiss” by Ger Thijs

• “It Runs in the Family” by Ray Cooney

• “Ony” by Malina Prześluga.

In 2015 our spectacles, actors, directors and initiatives received many awards given by the critics and by the spectators, to mention only a few of them:

• Golden Mask for the achievements in directing was awarded to Janusz Wiśniewski for “The School for Wives” which was produced specially for the 21^st International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant

• Golden Mask for the best actor’s debut was given to Marta Jarczewska for the role in “Oś” directed by Filip Gieldon

• Golden Mask for the best actor was awarded to Dymitr Hołówko for the role of Chrysalde in “The School for Wives” in Powszechny Theatre (directed by Janusz Wiśniewski) as well for the role of Robert Aigner in “Time of call” by Robert Wichrowski (produced by Logos Theatre)

The 20^th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant was given a “Plaster Kultury” award by the spectators as the most important theatrical event of 2014.

“Song Factory” was chosen as the most important event of April 2015 by the spectators in the Łódzkie Sukcesu plebiscite.

Jakub Firewicz was the Halokultura plebiscite winner for the Best Łódź Theatrical Role in 2015. He received the award for his role in “Stop Motion” directed by Jakub Zubrzycki.

The 21st edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant took place in March and April. The main points of the festival were 10 performances presenting the spectrum of Polish and European theatre, discussion on the condition of an artist, an academic session showing the works of Tadeusz Kantor as related to the world avant-garde and the exhibition dedicated to Konrad Swinarski. During the 21^st edition of the International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant with always more than full audience (the attendance during this edition amounted to astonishing 124,9%! ) artists and spectators discussed about who a contemporary artist is. They were trying to find answers to questions raised by Ewa Pilawska, the artistic director of the Festival.

According to our principle „Theatre close to the public” we continued our initiatives: Spectacle for the unemployed, Spectacle for pensioners and Child in a Situation. “Heaven Eyes” – the Polish premiere – was produced within the last project. We also realized more than 200 free workshops, lessons and meetings within the projectTheatrical education. In July we organized Holidays with culture for young people – theatrical workshops, meetings with a psychologist and presentations of our spectacle „Stop Motion”. The project that was co-financed by the City of Łódź turned out to be very popular and it showed that it is really worth playing during holidays for young spectators who need theatre and want to come to the theatre in order to discuss difficult problems that need some deep reflections. That is why in Theatrical education there has been a place for workshops “Don’t say you didn’t know…” that always precede every “Stop Motion” show. We also started new workshops for young people – “Get used to a monster inside you”. They are run by Andrzej Jakubas and a psychologist and they develop the idea of Child in a Situation project. We continued our series Masters of Łódź Theatres. For one week we hosted Logos Theatre and its Christian Culture Festival.

Last year we introduced some new initiatives. One of them is Yoga in Theatre – meetings run by purna yoga teacher Monika Dąbrowska (second edition of the project started in October). We also started workshops Open stage. Theatrical critics in practice – obligatory classes for University of Łódź students who meet with famous critics: Aneta Kyzioł, Jacek Wakar, Dominika Łarionow and Łukasz Drewniak. We inaugurated second edition of Open stage devoted to theatre scenography. The classes are run by the Oscar winner Allan Starski, the set-designer of our show “Song Factory”.

In 2015 we also introduced another facilitation for our spectators – mobile application which makes it easier to find information on our shows as well to buy tickets using your smartphone or tablet.

Thank you very much for that year!