12th International Meetings of Puppetry Schools “MetaFORMS”, will take place from 17th to 21st May 2016 in PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow Branch in Wroclaw. This year’s edition will be a very special since Wroclaw in 2016 holds a title of European Capital of Culture and our Meetings will be a part of various artistic events related to this. We would like this year’s Meetings to be a place and a space to present divers students’ etudes and performances that will be an artistic showcase of puppetry schools from all over Europe.
The name of the Meetings – „MetaFORMS” – is an attempt to determine the space for this confrontation. The theatre of artistic metaphor compose of puppet theatre, mask theatre, theatre of form, materials, objects of an actor, multimedia, light, sound, space… This wide spectrum of means of theatrical expression keeps its homogenous, poetic shape thanks to the metaphor. Beside students presentation the program of the Meetings will consist of a number of accompanying events like off – shows, workshops, discussions, concerts, city game, and party at a club at the end of each day.
We hope that the Meetings will not only be a chance to discuss about the state of the puppetry education and contemporary puppetry but also they become a chance to make friends and to exchange contacts between students and teachers of European schools.
We look forward to seeing You!
Krzysztof Grębski
Head of the Meetings
Our partners:
Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava www.vsmu.sk
PRAGA
Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Solo matches
H. Ch. Andersen/Zuzana Vítková
direction: Zuzana Vítková
cast: Roman Džačár, Dan Kranich, Lucie Valenová
duration: 40 minut
Performance inspired by the world of old matches, H. Ch. Andersen and dreams that come and go. Warm and frosty winter tale where meeting and loneliness are two sides of the same coin.
To the lighthouse till page 73
Virginia Woolf/ Klára Hutečková
direction: Klára Hutečková
cast: Klára Hutečková, Kateřina Součková, Sára Marcová, Dan Kranich,
František Hnilička, Tomáš Hron, Kateřina Dvořáková, Lucie Valenová, Jiří Rouš, Eva Zavřelová
duration: 55 minut
opening night: 23.10.2015
To the Lighthouse till page 73 is the graduate performance of students in their final year of master’s studies at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The performance is experimental, it falls within the area where theatre borders on other disciplines such as performance or art installation.
We use the composition and the rhythm as main principle. Sometimes very dramatic moments arise from the different interactions with objects because of their contrast. To the Lighthouse does not tell the story of Virginia Woolf’s novel, it is a picture of the inner mental lives of her masterfully described characters. Neither poetic, nor violent, it uses both delicate and brutal stage actions to communicate this picture which is not black-and-white. As the central, only 4 sentence long situation slowly unfolds, the meaning of the dialogues changes every minute. Object on stage want to be played with, they provoke the actors into creativity. The line between performer, actor and character is blurry and often grows even thinner until it dissolves completely and the actors find themselves playing their roles.
BERLIN
Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art Department Contemporary Puppetry
Creatures Hill
author: ensemble
direction: Prof. Markus Joss
cast: Maike Drexler, Leonie Euler, Luisa Grüning, Gloria Iberl-Thieme
duration: 60 minut
opening night: 12.12.2015
The initial impetus for this work was given by the novel “The Fifth Child” published in 1988 by Doris Lessing. Into an ordinary family an unusual child is born, a monster. The dramatic approach starts at a point when already everything seems lost. The family is devastated. The older children, the well-bred ones, already moved away. Father Ike hasn’t been home for quite some time. Mother Ireen stands her ground, all the while clinging to her son, nevertheless desperately fighting her maternal instinct. Aunt Sarah, Grandma Deborah, Sister Sally and Housemaid Patricia are worn down to their bones as well. Even the specialist hospital “Pations Garden” refuses admission. This institute is committed to believe there is a speck of good in every human being – but the boy of the McConnolys… he is just… too much.
What to do when everything you have fought for, your life’s dream of a happy family, is suddenly being ripped apart by a single individuum who just doesn’t want to participate?
The texts and characters of Creatures Hill evolved through improvisation with Face Masks combined with Hand and Glove Puppets.
Four actresses each play two characters, who are therefore not only bound together by the monstrous events, but also physically attached to each other, unable to escape the situation.
Different exemplary scenes reveal insights into a deeply rotten society. A society in which its members struggle to cope with the unpredictable, untamable by applying the values of its culture. A futile battle.
BIAŁYSTOK
The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw
Puppet Theatre Art Department in Bialystok
Czego nie chcę
autor: zespół/ author: ensemble
pedagogical guidance: Piotr Damulewicz, Mateusz Smaczny
cast: Karolina Martin, Anna Złomańczuk, Joanna Kozioł, Magdalena Słowik, Michał Ferenc, Julia Dyga, Małgorzata Nowacka, Dominik Gorbaczyński, Adam Neczyperowicz
music: Sernik
duration: 50 minut
opening night: 06.2015
This performance was created during the ”Acting with an object” class. A thought that make the authors of the show began their search was a St. Paul’s Epistle to Romans quote “I don’t do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I don’t want to do”. Next the objects were chosen, to help actors express this subject best. It has been decided to chose a torture devise – the stocks, because of their symbolic meaning and an aura that they bring.
Il Lusions
author: ensemble
cast: Kamila Wróbel, Anna Moś, Michał Szostak
duration: 35 minut
opening night: 16 stycznia 2016
Surrealism – is a style in art that destroys our rational approach to life. With its help three young people are searching for an answer how to express themselves. They use one thing that we all have, their body. They invite us for an oneiric walk in search of the form.
The performance combines our nightmares with irrational forms that show how we see our bodies and how we look for our identity. We will see a selection of etudes inspired by paintings (Dali), dance and all kinds of movement, leading us to an illusion. The illusion that usually help us see the most.
Na głodzie
Ulf Stark ( „Czy umiesz gwizdać Joanno?”/ „Can You Whistle, Johanna?”)
pedagogical guidance: Michał Jarmoszuk
cast: Michał Szostak, Damian Krajczyk
duration: 20 minut
opening night: 01.2016
This etude was created during „Acting with a mask” class. It is a short playful performance on the subject of existence in a vampire skin. It is an abstract interpretation of the text by Ulf Stark.
Nikt mnie nie poznał
Artur Pałyga
direction: ensemble
pedagogical guidance: Jacek Dojlidko i Agnieszka Makowska
cast: Anna Domalewska, Roksana Miner, Rafał Derkacz
duration: 25 minut
opening night: 31.01.2016
The performance based on Artur Pałyga’s play „No one recognized me” is a story about a star as great as Marylyn Monroe. An eccentric with wonderful voice, who loves animals; loved and hated by many, Violetta Villas. It is a journey into her soul, her desires and fears, her always returning failures and successes. The guides in this journey are two masters of ceremony who want to bring Violetta to the stage one last time.
OSIJEK
Academy of Arts Osijek
HELL ON EARTH
Denis Peričić
pedagogical guidance: Lyudmila Fedorova i Tamara Kučinović
music: Nikša Eldan, Filip Eldan, Nino Pavleković
cast: Nikša Eldan, Filip Eldan, Nino Pavleković
duration: 45 minut
opening night:
„Hell on Earth” by Denis Peričić is a contemporary play written in the tradition of mediaeval mystery plays. The play is about strange, inexplicable and infernal events that announce the arrival of the Day of Judgment, and the power of faith of the protagonist, priest Mihalj Mendušić, and his fight against the forces of hell.
Set, costumes, and props have been replaced by the core instrument of any true performer – the body. Thus, the applied puppetry technique is represented by an animation of body parts.
SOFIA
National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts ”Kr.Sarafov”
Smiles from the old films
direcion: Prof. Zheni Pashova & assoc. prof. Petar Pashov
duration: 55 minut
opening night: 29.10.2015
Colorful kaleidoscope of comic characters and situations provoked by the world cinema at the beginning of last century. With a smile and respect the young artists take us into the romantic world of that time. Their characters with their problems and ambitions remind us that one hundred years is a small episode in the history of the humanity.
Clowns and Puppets
direction: Prof. Zheni Pashova & assoc. prof. Petar Pashov
duration: 45 minut
opening night: 4.12.2014
„Clowns and Puppets” is a classic puppet performance with „puppets” (glove puppets). In the entertaining storyline adventures of puppet characters muddle with comic situations mixed up by the clowns. The common between them is the naive enthusiasm and the positive energy directed to solve the „complex” life problems.
LONDYN
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
The Green Coat
author: ensemble
direction: Karoline Solbakken
cast: Callan Purcell, Sonny Brazil, Anna Galek
duration: 45 minut
opening night:
‘The Green Coat’ is a devised puppetry piece using puppets, objects and music to tell a personal story about a random act of kindness which happened during the Second World War. The story is told with no words as sound is a kind of third performer.
FILM
Punch’s Letters to his son
author : Jenny Dee
director: Jenny Dee
film length: 15 minut
In the early spring of 2014, I came across an old dishevelled book in a charity shop, entitled 'Punch’s Letter’s to his Son'. This book was written in 1848. The character Mr Punch from the traditional Puppet show Punch and Judy features, this book has inspired me to write and direct this film.
The Protagonist of the piece is Punch’s Son the baby who has aged in the cold arms of the care system, trying desperately to discover more about his past and work through the emotions associated with being abandoned.
Jenny Dee
BRATYSŁAWA
Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava
The Miraculous Jorney of Eduard Tulane
directing a artistic tutorial: Katarína Aulitisová, Markéta Plachá
cast: Viktória Jenčková
design: Mária Bačová
duration: 30 minut
Once, in the house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost…
BYTOM
PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow Dance Theatre Department in Bytom
choreography: Edan Gorlicki
cast: Amanda Barnaś, Kamil Baryła, Tobiasz Berg, Krystyna Dębicka, Mateusz Flis, Natalia Handzlik, Tomasz Lis, Dariusz Nowak, Kamil Pilarski, Mikołaj Prynkiewicz, Alicja Różańska, Ewelina Ściana
duration: 80 min.
Out Cry’ is not a declaration of perspectives. It is not a statement or a lesson. It is neither fiction nor non-fiction. It is not about you or me and not about discovering who we are. It is not about relationships so there will be no duets. There are no gender connotations and no sexual contents. It is not attempting to be something new and definitely not attempting to be intellectual bla bla bla. It is not conceptual research about time and space. It is not entertaining nor metaphysical nor philosophical. Its not about looking for the answers and not about asking more questions. It might not be fun either and you will not vote for the best dancer. But ‘Out Cry’ exists in our bodies and it is a home for our little protest. We know its not going to change the world but perhaps it might help us feel something.
WROCŁAW
PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow, Branch in Wroclaw
BELIEVE ME YOU FOOL
author:Michał Pabian
direction: Cezary Studniak
cast: Agata Dura, Teresa Kowalik, Sandra Kromer, Daria Krzyżaniak, Sara Lech, Ilona Lewandowska, Natalia Maczyta, Piotr Czekalski, Paweł Janyst, Nikos Kotowicz
duration: 135 minut
opening night: 15.01.2016
“Believe me you fool” is really about loneliness. Loneliness which becomes obsession and starts to form alternative worlds of the characters – religions, rituals, believes.
Like in a false mirror we observe a media show in which people compete for the most spectacular performance. Stupidity of esteem for the prosthesis of sensitivity and wisdom leads to the situation when characters give up on themselves and take on strange, ambiguous, sometimes visional poses of ready-to-sell economic projects, which dream to become products of the consumer world. Lost in the obsession of being the best they become cultural idiots who compulsively desire to be still believed to exist.
SKÓRA
Olo Herskin
direction: Konrad Dworakowski
cast: Katarzyna Borek, Grzegorz Borowski, Piotr Bublewicz, Piotr Czekalski, Agata Dura, Piotr Jędrasik, Nikos Kotowicz, Teresa Kowalik, Sara Lech, Adrianna Maliszewska, Paulina Mikuśkiewicz, Katarzyna Młynarczyk, Patrycja Potyralska, Jagoda Siegień, Aleksandra Spyra
duration: 205 minut (1 przerwa)
opening night: 18.03.2016
Skin covers the body. It gives colour, it emits a specific smell. It identifies us. It is a packaging tailored to fit its content. It is a costume fitted to our inside. It closes tightly on us, it is our outline, which we fill up, it is a line between worlds, between the outside and what we carry inside. To feel being inside someone’s skin is much more than to fill his shoes…
Let’s make an experiment. Can somebody else’s skin fit us…? Is it elastic enough to fit it’s owner and us … we don’t know that. We want to test it. In search of interesting, spacious and expressive skin, distinctly different than ours we found our way into a movie, Skin by Pedro Almodovar, and this is what we’ve found there…
GODZINA WROŃCA
Direction: Jerzy Bielunas, Magdalena Śniadecka – Skrzypek
Muzyka/music: Mateusz Pospieszalski
Choreaografia/choreography: Maciej Florek
cast: Klara Broda, Malwina Brych, Aleksandra Pałka, Małgorzata Pauka, Mateusz Barta, Patryk Bartoszewski, Michał Bajor, Artur Caturian, Dominik Gostomski, Igor Kowalunas, Łukasz Kurczewski, Adam Turczyk, Mateusz Wiśniewski
On the basis of parts of novel „Wroniec” young actors tell a story about the martial law in Poland in years 1980 to 1983. This is a two-way story. On one hand there are words written by Jacek Dukaj and music composed by Mateusz Pośpieszalski, on the other hand there is a cycle of pictures and plastic animations designed by students.
Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art Department Contemporary Puppetry
The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw
Academy of Arts Osijek
National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts ”Kr.Sarafov”
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava
PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow Dance Theatre Department in Bytom
PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow, Branch in Wroclaw
OFFORMY
A niech to…
M. Guśniowska
direction: Krzysztof Grębski
cast: Jowita Kropiewnicka, Martyna Matoliniec, Piotr Michalczuk, Filip Niżyński, Weronika Pawlik, Jacek Schmidt
live music: Piotr Michalczuk, Weronika Pawlik
duration: 45 minut
A story about a goose – poet who lost the meaning of life. Together with her “friend” the fox she goes to the wolf to be eaten. Will this journey change her life, will she find the meaning of her life? Or maybe life doesn’t have to have meaning?
Och, ciężki brzuszku
Mateusz Pakuła
artistic guidance: Tomasz Maśląkowski
Cast: Maja Bartlewska, Wiktoria Czubaszek, Katarzyna Kłaczek, Monika Stanek, Iga Bancewicz, Joanna Kowalska, Kornel Sadowski, Tomasz Tywoniuk, Hubert Waljewski
duration: 50 minut
It is an extremely contemporary performance on the subjects that concern all of us. What are the problems of people living in a “first world”. What worries us in the times of common wealth. Nothing really concerns us, because none of the problems touch us directly, doesn’t it? Can we fight problems when we have no influence on them? If not, what is left to do?
SŁUCHOWISKO SENSORYCZNE
An experimental project somewhere in between sound and visual theatre. An audience is being introduced into a magical, metaphorical world with the help of spacious sound, light and sensoric effects which influence all five senses.
direction: Agnieszka Błaszczak
Przegląd Piosenki Formy – PPF
An event for music enthusiasts and theatre of form enthusiasts. A concert of PWST’ students and graduates and other artistic universities. Everyone can participate, a soloists and a groups, with a prepared song with improvisation. A chosen form can be used freely in your piece. We want to offer a space for an artistic and creative relaxation. We want to connect the possibilities that specific forms gives with music. Combination of those ingredients will bring interesting scenic values.
CZYTANIE DRAMATU
For our youngest audience we prepared contemporary puppetry drama’s reading.
WERNISAŻE
In Szklarnia we prepared art exhibitions of two painters form Wroclaw: Agata Filip and Krzysztof Witkowski
GODZINA SZKLARNI
Each night, after the last performance we invite you to our festival club Szklarnia for concerts, dances, informal discussions and party.
Szklarnia is our official partner and a Festival Club of the International Meetings of Puppetry Schools METAFORMS.
Have a sneek peek of what we’ve prepared for you!
EVENTS OF INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS OF PUPPETRY SCHOOLS “METAFORMS” IN THE FESTIVAL CLUB “SZKLARNIA” IN THE “OFFFORMS” PROJECT
Ofiar Oświęcimskich street number 19, Wroclaw
We invite you every day to the Festival Club Szklarnia for gigs, exhibitions and performative readings:
-> GIGS = SZKLARNIA TIME
OAK BROTHERS
Tuesday | 17.05.2016| 10:30 p.m.
“Oak Brothers” is a formation that performs old music. They specialize in baroque and classicism. In their repertoire you can find pieces of such masters as Marin Marais and Domenico Gabrielli or less known – but extraordinarily interesting composers – Andreas Lidl or Roland Marais. It happens, that the duet performs also their own compositions. The group functions since June 2013 with students of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wroclaw – Radosław and Szczepan Ignacy Dembiński. Those brothers are also related to bands “Rocal Fuza”, “Baroque Futere” and „All’Antico”, with whom they won a lot of prestigious awards. Lately they won the Eol’s Amber Harp on the Nationwide Festival of Old Music “Schola Cantorum” in Kalisz.
http://oakbrothers.pl/
STANEK & WALJEWSKI
Wednesday | 18.05.2016 | 10:00 p.m.
Monika Stanek & Hubert Waljewski are young and talented third year students of PWST, who will bring the audience to the world of well-known polish and foreign covers. Krzysztof Wojcieszyn will accompany them with his piano’s sounds. May the music be with you!
FRANCIS TUAN
Thursday | 19.05.2016 | 10:00 p.m.
Francis Tuan (actually – Fryderyk Nguyen). Musician, a bit of a writer, a bit of a music lover, too much of a thinker. Dreams of recording a famous all time album, becoming a precursor of a new genre and making a change in the world. Asks about the meaning of everything, still surprised by all around and – unexpectedly – he is happy. His wish is to make electric guitar’s sound more “saint”. For now, he remixes old hits live.https://soundcloud.com/francistuan
SAMBOR DUDZIŃSKI „QUARTETMAN – THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SONG”
Friday | 20.05.2016 | 10:00 p.m.
A Graduate of our Puppetry Department, theatre and musical actor, singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, inventor, instruments constructor. He composes theatre and film music. Plays concerts and teaches in Drama Schools. He’s the president of „Ale Wiocha” – organisation having the 9 hectare open-air museum, where ateliers are formed and provide the possibility of development in many fields of art. “Quartetman” is a single man musical quartet. During the show, Sambor performs pieces arranged for four people, using keyboards, percussion and wind instruments and his voice, which is the strongest point of the artist.
http://www.sambordudzinski.pl
-> EXHIBITIONS
THE AGATA FILIP EXHIBITION
Tuesday | 17.05.2016 | 12.00 a.m.
Agata Filip: „When it comes to my creation, I look for some truth about emotionality, about human’s reactions with environment and our emplacement in the pop culture, this mass production matched universally to everyone. That’s why I mostly paint characters, usually with very meaningful face expression or with an expressive gesture. Contrasting colors which I use have the task to emphasize this vibrant world.”
KRZYSZTOF WITKOWSKI EXHIBITION
Thursday | 19.05.2016 | 12.00 a.m.
Krzysztof Witkowski: “I was born in 1990 in Radomsko. I finished Liceum Plastyczne w Częstochowie, now I’m graduating from Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. I study painting in the atelier of professor Krzysztof Skarbek. In my creation I spin around the subject of interpersonal relations. The object of my exploration is human and this is what I want to pay my attention to. I’m interested in transferring memories, the feelings they bring. Using the expressive formal means like strong colors, lines and contrasts I build the tension and spirituality of the painting.”
-> READINGS IN SZKLARNIA
Before the Thursday (19.05) exhibition in Szklarnia, at 11:00 a.m. the Performative Reading of René Pollesch’s “Sex after Mae West”. This is the invitation for the receiver to mark out the meanings of the drama in the form of live installation. The actresses will create the conditions for a free trade. Human will be degraded to the role of a product. The subject will get a rank of an equivalent of the persons’ subjectivity. The reading is addressed to the people over 16 years old.
To apply for a press accreditation please contact Joanna Śliwińska | Media relations via e-mail: pwst@pwst.wroc.pl.