No abstract

Access to the extensive archives of Jan Dorman has allowed us to see the long-term presence of the Faust theme in Dorman’s theatrical explorations and to study and describe his last production: Walpurgis Night based on Goethe’s Faust (The Animation Theater in Jelenia Góra, 1986), for the first time. The paper is an attempt to reconstruct this production on the basis of manuscripts and typescripts collected by the director in his archive and the reminiscences of people working in the theatre. The archives create an intriguing afterimage of Walprugis Night as a production with an autobiographical dimension, marked by Dorman’s legend and fascination with his methods of work, an aura of mysticism surrounding the production and the director’s sudden death, less than a month after the premiere. Having extracted Dorman’s Walpurgis Night from the archive warehouse we can add another leaf to the history of the reception of Faust in Polish theatre of the second half of the 20th century.

Jan Dorman (b. Dębowa Góra, now Sosnowiec, 1912–d. Będzin, 1986) was a teacher, director, stage designer, author of texts for theatre, founder of the Experimental Child’s Theatre (ETD) in Sosnowiec (1945–1951) and The Children of Zagłębie’s Theatre (TDZ) in Będzin, which has been named after him (1951–1977), lecturer at the Faculty of Puppetry in Wrocław, Branch of the State Academic School of Theatre (PWST) in Krakow, now Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theatre Arts (1978–1986), promoter of culture in Będzin. His theatre practice situated itself between children’s theatre, young spectator’s theatre, puppet theatre, avant-garde art theatre and experiments close to the happening. Dorman’s performances were presented at many festivals internationally; the work of TDZ that he directed represented Poland at the International Exhibition of Stage Design in Amiens, France (1969). Dorman wrote and adapted texts for theatre, composed and selected music, designed the sets (along with his son, Jacek), initiated the “Herody” review of folk productions, maintained extensive contacts with Polish and foreign theatre communities, contributed regularly to theatre  magazines (including Scena, Teatr Lalek, Teatr), and he published his book Children Playing at Theatre. Throughout his life, Dorman recorded his practice through meticulously produced archival documentation.

Europejskie systemy organizacji teatrów Spojrzenie na teatr jako instytucję o swoistej struktu

Teatr Piotra Cieplaka rodzi się z upodobania do paradoksów i swobodnego poruszania się po odmiennych estetykach i domenach teatru. Cieplak jest zarówno autorem teatralnych inscenizacji inspirowanych historiami biblijnymi, jak i fars, spektakli dla dzieci oraz przedstawień rezonujących społeczno-polityczną sytuacją dzisiejszej Polski. Prezentowana w artykule droga reżysera z pokolenia tzw. młodszych zdolniejszych, debiutujących w Polsce po 1989 roku, służy analizie elementów determinujących jego język sceniczny, którego immanentną cechą są gry z teatralnością, a ta wywodzi się z różnych żywiołów: idei teatru misteryjno-moralitetowego, teatru ludycznego, teatru offowego, metateatralności, upodobania do paradoksów i absurdu, krytyki mitologizacji Polski i performatywnie kreowanej audiosfery przedstawień.