Title: The space of liberty – the space of authenticities
Author: USER
Last saved by: David

The space of liberty – the space of authenticities. Contemporary Polish performance of opera and  theatre.

The stage space in the contemporary Polish theatre is undoubtedly undergoing multiple transformations. Are those conditioned on the vision of the director, and the consequential reception and transmission of the messages, or also on the formal opportunities related to the presented type of play? Such questions stand open for the theatre scholars since a long time.
Approaching and distancing from variously interpreted authenticity is another issue left open. 
While focusing on the search for “the space of liberty” in the contemporary Polish opera theatre, I would like to use the criterion of authenticity understood not only as “the gloomy everyday reality”, but also – as “the sphere of pure beauty”.
In order to support my concept, I would like to quote one of Europe’s biggest theatre directors, Max Reinhard, who spoke in 1901 about his own, consequently realized vison:

The theatre I dream about is a theatre, which will give joy to the people, which will rescue them from the gloomy everyday reality and transfer them into the sphere of pure beauty.. […] However, this shall not mean that I seek to give up the great achievements of the naturalist theatre, to give up the truth and authenticity never achieved before to such an extent!
 
Seeking today for the “spaces of authentic beauty” and “the spaces of liberty”, I turn to one of the highlights of the Polish contemporary opera theatre connected with such artists as director Mariusz Treliński and set designer Borys Kudlička. Their theatre is exactly the theatre, which gives joy to the people. This may be juxtaposed with the works of another younger director, Krzysztof Warlikowski, who is also related to the Polish national opera. Post-naturalist presentations of Warlikowski are the vision of “contemporary everyday reality” and the next stage in search for the new space of authenticity. 

Karolina Prykowska-Michalak, PhD

Born on November 22, 1971
Assistant Professor in the Department of Drama and Theatre in the Institute of Theory of Literature, Theatre and Film at the University of Łódź
Scientific area: modern Polish and German theatre, history of German theatre in Poland

July 2004 - participant of FIRT Congers in Maryland
2006 – Erasmus lecture at the Ludwig-Maximilian University (Munich)

In 1999 –2003 I attended Doctorate Studies Course at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Łódź
2001 – Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilian University (Munich) under scientific supervision of 
Professor H.-P. Bayerdörfer. 
1999 – Post-graduate course at the Center of European Research at the University of Łódź. 
1998 – 1992 Student at the University of Łódź, Faculty of Philology, field of studies: cultural sciences, specialization: theatre science 
1996 – 1997 Student at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. Institute of Theatre Science and Institute of German Philology.
Scholarships from: Deutsches Akademisches Austausch Dienst, Polish-German Co-operation Fund and Adamas Götz-Hübner-Stiftung.
Since June 2003, I hold the position of secretary of the international scientific association Thalia-Germanica.