Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre of Silesia

Situated in Katowice, the Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre of Silesia is the largest drama scene in Upper Silesia. The theatre building, designed by architect Carl Moritz and opened in 1907, was for the first 15 years used by German theatre. After restoration of Silesia to Poland, in October 1922 the building started being used by the Polish Theatre of Katowice.

The Theatre was created as a result of actions taken by the Katowice Society of Friends of the Polish Theatre. The first director of the Theatre was Tadeusz Wierzbicki. Directors that followed him, especially Marian Sobański, who was the head of the Theatre from 1927 until the outbreak of World War II, spared no pains to make sure premieres of the most important classic Polish plays opened on the Katowice stage. Examples include e.g. Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady (Foretathers Eve) or dramas written by Stanisław Wyspiański, who the Theatre was named after in 1936.

After World War II, the Theatre of Silesia provided harbour for the team working for the Polish Drama Theatre of Lvov. Among the Lvov artists who came to Katowice with the director Bronisław Dąbrowski were Aleksander Bardini, Roman Hierowski, Stefania Michnichowska, Irena Tomaszewska and Edward Żytecki. That team marked the ambitious beginning of post-war artistic work of the Theatre and a point of reference for Theatre directors that followed. It is then that the stage career of Tadeusz Łomnicki began. Łomnicki became famous for his roles that included the Boy in Dwa Teatry (Two Theatres) by Jerzy Szaniawski, Puk in Shakespearean Midsummer Night's Dream or the main role in Szczęście Frania (Frank's Luck) by Włodzimierz Perzyński, where he was accompanied by Antonina Gordon-Górecka and Igor Śmiałowski. In 1949, when Władysław Woźnik was in charge of the Theatre, Gustaw Holoubek (who then became the Director of the Theatre) joined the team. His actor's portfolio included e.g. the amazing role of Pierczychin in Maxim Gorky's Petty Bourgeois, Łatek in Aleksander Fredro's Dożywocie (Life Annuity) or the King in Mazepa by Juliusz Słowacki . The second half of the 1950s was marked by the cooperation of the theatre with Jerzy Jarocki, who directed the world premiere of Bal Manekinów (Mannequin Ball) by Brunon Jasieński, Look Back In Anger by John James Osborne, The Police by Sławomir Mrożek, and then Frank V by Friedrich Durrenmatt and Łaźnia (The Baths) by Włodzimierz Majakowski. At that time our playbills listed names of set designers such as Kazimierz Wiśniak, Kazimierz Mikulski, Wiesław Lange and composers like Henryk Mikołaj Górecki or Wojciech Kilar. Frequent replacements of the Theatre directors did not always allow us to consequently follow and fulfil our artistic plans or to create a uniform image of the Theatre. But on the other hand, there were some advantages to these changes - the successive directors attracted outstanding artists to the Theatre. The Theatre cooperated e.g. with Lidia Zamkow, Tadeusz Kantor, Józef Szajna, Jerzy Kreczmar, Bohdan Korzeniewski, Kazimierz Kutz, Otto Axer, Lidia Skarżyńska, Jerzy Skarżyński, Franciszek Starowieyski, Krzysztof Pankiewicz, Marian Kołodziej and later on Irena Jun, Anna Polony, Józef Czernecki, Jan Maciejowski, Krzysztof Babicki, Tadeusz Bradecki, Maciej Wojtyszko, Barbara Ptak, Barbara Stopka, Barbara Zawada, Marek Braun, Wojciech Jankowiak, Jerzy Moskal, Anna Smolicka, Tadeusz Smolicki, Andrzej Witkowski and others.

Among many generations of actors that performed on the Katowice stage were such personages as Halina Cieszkowska, Ewa Dałkowska, Ewa Lassek, Zofia Truszkowska, Emir Buczacki, Mieczysław Jasiecki, Tadeusz Kalinowski, Bolesław Mierzejewski, Józef Para and Michał Pawlicki. Ignacy Gogolewski engaged a group of young actors for whom the Theatre was a place where they gained first stage experiences. They included Ewa Dałkowska, Anna Romantowska, Krzysztof Kolberger and Marek Kondrat.

When Jerzy Zegalski (1981-1992) and Bogdan Tosza 1992-2003) were directors of the Theatre, the group of artists that were later on in the years 2003-2005 headed by the director general and artistic director Henryk Baranowski was formed. Since September 1, 2005 Baranowski has been the Theatre's artistic director while the post of director general was given to Krystyna Szaraniec. For the current list of our actors and other team members see our website (Artistic Team).

The Theatre attempts to play the role of a national theatre for Silesia. In the repertoire, especially for the Main Stage, there is always room for outstanding plays, both Polish and world-famous. The Small Stage, opened in 1981, is a place where contemporary Polish and other dramas are staged. The third place where plays are staged is Scena w Malarni (Malarnia Stage), created in 1992 in former Masonic lodge (initiation hall) that is situated in a building currently owned by the Theatre.

Based on the assumption that, by its nature, theatre is a place of synthesis of many arts, the artistic offer of the Theatre of Silesia is regularly enriched and includes meetings with writers, art exhibitions and music performances. This way the ideas and goals of Stanisław Wyspiański, who the Katowice stage was named after, are put into effect. In two galleries created in the foyer of the Main Stage and Small Stage we present exhibitions of works of art related to the theatre. For instance, the galleries exhibited theatre-and-literature-related works of Jerzy Duda-Gracz, Maciej Bieniasz, Zygmunt Brachmański, Henryk Waniek, Adam Myjak, Roman Kalarus, Tadeusz Siara, Gunter Grass, Stanisław Mazuś, Roman Maciuszkiewicz and many other artists. The galleries are also a place of remembrance of the Theatre and artists and authors that used to work here.

The Theatre takes pride in putting forward an initiative to organise in Katowice the Day of Poetry, the culmination of which was awarding Josif Brodski a honoris causa degree by the University of Silesia in June 1993. The celebration was marked by the participation of many eminent authors, such as Czesław Miłosz, Tomas Venclova or Stanisław Barańczak. As a follow-up, in September 1996 the Theatre organised Gunter Grass Days, during which we had many excellent translators of Polish and German literature as guests.

The Katowice Theatre of Silesia is also proud of many international contacts it has. In the last few years we have had performances in many parts of Europe - including Moscow and Ufa in Russia, Lvov and Vilnius, Brussels and Stockholm, Vienna and Paris.