2021 in Powszechny Theatre – 400 spectacles, 1,3 million viewers

In 2022 we wish you health, good, empathy and tolerance. May we talk to each other and listen to each other – especially now when we have so different opinions and views. Let us be together!

We invite you to reading a short 2021 recapitulation in Powszechny Theatre.

Artistic risk and first previews, the 27^th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, “Theatre Close To People” – cultural education, revitalization and actions against exclusion. Solicitude for our viewers and looking up new places for “meetings” with them. Theatre on the internet, radio and television. Those catchwords can very briefly recapitulate 2021 in Powszechny Theatre in Łódź.

Thank you for being with us in those hard times. Thank you for your support and the energy you gave us by being with us – at the theatre, on the internet, in front of computers. We begin the following year, full of challenges. 

• First previews – the courage of taking up artistic risk… 

“Artistic risk is very important in the theatre – Ewa Pilawska, the Powszechny Theatre director used to say. It is connected with the courage of presenting brand new plays which have not been “tested” and not shown elsewhere. Thanks to first previews and confrontation with viewers theatre can develop itself.

In 2021 we premiered five brand new spectacles – 3 of them were the world first previews of Polish comedies written especially for Powszechny Theatre in Łódź – Polish Comedy Centre. We showed “A Good Change” by Jakub Przebindowski, “I Wanted To Be” by Michał Siegoczyński and “Dancing With The Stars” by Michał Walczak (the spectacle was presented at Jeleniogórskie Spotkania Teatralne and it will be shown in February at Katowicki Karnawał Komedii).

In the “Child In A Situation” project we premiered two spectacles: the first Polish show of “#Tagged” by Dave Deveau and the first world presentation of “Courage” by Jaś Kapela and Hanna M. Zagulska. Both of them were directed on a voluntary basis by Ewa Pilawska. We also began the 7^th edition of “Comedywriting” – a competition with the aim of encouraging Polish playwrights to write comedies for Polish theatres.

We also started rehearsals for “Imagine 2” by Krystian Lupa – our co-production with Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw. The world premiere will take place on 23 April, 2022, at our Big Stage.

• The 27^th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant. Artist in a crisis?

The 27^th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant took place in October instead of March. Its main subject – “Artist In A Crisis”. The Festival’s artistic director Ewa Pilawska raised a few questions for the viewers and the creators to answer. “Is not it a paradox that art helps us live through most difficult times and at the same time it is an “added value” we give up in the first place when necessity comes? What is a relation between the society and an artist? What is a relation between a receiver and a creator? Is art the field we are all responsible for? Was it only the pandemic that showed us how much we needed artists and art? Or maybe the pandemic has made us realized we do not care for art?” – Ewa Pilawska wrote in the Festival’s introduction.

There were 8 performances, exhibitions, discussions and meeting with the creators. There were two Master Performances at the festival: “Odyssey. A Story for Hollywood”, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, produced by Nowy Theatre in Warsaw and „Honour Row”, by Jarosław Mikołajewski, directed by Krystyna Janda, produced by Polonia Theatre in Warsaw. The viewers chose their favourites: in the Audience Plebiscite „3STRS”,  directed by Luc Perceval was awarded as the best performance and individual awards went to Oksana Czerkaszyna for her roles in “3STRS” and in “Heart of Darkness” (directed by Paweł Łysak) and to Mariusz Ostrowski for his role in  “I Wanted To Be” (directed by Michał Siegoczyński) – our first preview).  

• New reality – theatre  in television, radio, on the internet

The pandemic and the lockdown made us look for any possibilities of meeting with our viewers. When we could not play live we used modern technology. On our YouTube channel we presented (for free) 15 episodes of the 2^nd season of “The Maid Advises”, they were also presented on TV TOYA.

Radio Łódź broadcast several spectacles of our original project “Reading theatre for people with poor eyesight and blind”. TV TOYA presented our special New Year preview of “The Family” by Antoni Słonimski, directed by Wojciech Malajkat (we premiered it live at our Big Stage on 18 December).

Our shows were available all year long online for symbolic 20 groszy. We were also streaming our shows live from the Small Stage.

• "Theatre Close To People” – against exclusion and for cultural education

Spectacles for the retired, spectacles for the students, spectacles for the unemployed, New Year’s Eve for the unemployed, spectacles for the medics – we continued our projects in order to make culture more available for all viewers. We co-operated with nursing homes, socio-therapy centres, educational care centres and orphan homes in order to make our spectacles available for the inmates.

We prepared several spectacles in the “Reading theatre for people with poor eyesight and blind” project. There were also on-line shows with subtitles specially for the deaf.

We levelled economic borders – all our internet spectacles cost symbolic 20 groszy and were available to all people who could not leave their homes or avoided public places because of the pandemic. The first preview of “A Good Change” took place in the Manufaktura Shopping Mall market – we prepared 2,000 free invitations for the viewers.

It is very important for us to oppose any exclusions and to inspire our viewers to reflex. That concerns also young people and that is why we continued our original “Child In A Situation” project (spectacles and workshops). The project’s spectacles take up important subjects such as transgender (“Courage”), homosexuality (“Seventeen”), poverty exclusion (“Johnny, King of Moving”) or sex exclusion (“Girls Like That”). We continued other educational projects, such as theatrical lessons or actor workshops; we also took part in the Łódź Senioralia and seniors’ weekends with culture.   

• Powszechny Theatre in… Łódź, Szczecin, Opole

Thanks to the internet our spectacles and projects could reach viewers all over Poland and even the world. “Child In A Situation” project got a new internet version and broader coverage. The spectacles were available both live (together with the workshops) and on-line (with the workshops, too) for a symbolic charge and that is why we had viewers in distant cities – one day we played in Łódź, the second day in Szczecin and then in Opole…

• 2021 in numbers 

In September, the Łódź Province governor Tobiasz Bocheński handed 27 orders and medals awarded by the President of Poland and the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport to the actors and workers of Powszechny Theatre.

In 2021 we played almost 400 times and organized over 120 workshops and educational classes. Thanks to the internet, radio and television total amount of our viewers and listeners amounted to almost 1,3 million.