Opening of the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre
The Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre will open in April 2016. After eight years of operation, and almost two years of modernization of the buildings at Madalińskiego 10/16, the team led by director Krzysztof Warlikowski will finally begin work in-house in Warsaw's Mokotów district. The opening will include a performance of Warlikowski's Francuzi (The French), screenings of operas directed by him, tours of the buildings guided by the actors of Nowy Teatr, and the international Opening Forum with distinguished guests from all over Europe.
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The Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre is an interdisciplinary institution open to many fields of art. World-class artists will be invited to prepare premieres specifically for a Polish audience and to present their most recognized works. The first guest of this upcoming season will be Markus Öhrn, l'enfant terrible of the European theater, film director and visual artist, who earned his renown at Berlin Volksbühne.
Nowy Teatr will also host Polish artists, those who courageously expand the battlefield of modern theatre. Nowy Teatr ICC will also be open to grass-roots artistic initiatives, festivals, workshops and discussions.
The new space means new challenges for the Nowy Teatr team. The first things that come to mind are questions like: does that mean anything to me as an artist? Will I start thinking differently about theatre? I wonder how this new space may inspire me, push me into new areas. Each of the recent shows by Nowy Teatr, '(A)pollonia', 'Kabaret Warszawski' and 'Francuzi', was intended to inaugurate this place. Yet it is an entirely different thing to prepare a show having just the idea of the new space in mind, and then to actually start working in the finished theatre hall and completing the show – says Krzysztof Warlikowski, artistic director.
Francuzi premiered last year on October 3 and will be staged again between 14 and 17 April. The show has traveled extensively, representing Polish theatre in the world, and this is going to be the first performance in Warsaw since its premiere. On the weekend of 16 and17 April, guests may visit the new Nowy Teatr together with the artists from Krzysztof Warlikowski's team.
April 18 will begin with screenings of operas directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. The audience will have the opportunity to see his international projects including King Roger, Medea and Don Giovanni. The screenings will follow the introductions of Jacek Hawryluk and Piotr Gruszczyński.
22 and 23 April will see the Opening Forum, a debate in the form of an art installation, focused around the slogan SUBMISSION//RAGE//FREEDOM. The debate will be attended by; Hungarian theatre director and artistic director of the Kretakor group, Árpád Schilling; Polish director Krystian Lupa; one of the most interesting representatives of contemporary Russian theatre, Konstantin Bogomolov; director of the Bozar / Belgian Centre for Fine Arts, Paul Dujardin; German literary scholar writer and journalist of Ukrainian origin Katja Petrowskaja; opera playwright Christian Longchamp; Lebanese writer, actor and director Wajdi Mouawad; Russian theater critic and the theatrical curator of this year's Wienef Festwocheb, Marina Davidova; artistic director of the Prague Quadrennial, previously associated with the Institute of Art and Theatre in Prague, Sodja Lotker; and the former director of the international Theatre Festival in Avignon, now director of the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Vincent Baudriller. The discussion will be moderated by Beata Stasińska and Max Cegielski. The Forum will be accompanied by concerts, screening of Walser by Zbigniew Libera and presentations of his video works.
April 26 will see the performance of one of the most interesting Polish compositions of recent years: Passion according to St. Mark by Paweł Mykietyn (musical director of Nowy Teatr ICC) for soprano, reciting voice, choir and chamber orchestra. This piece was commissioned by the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans in 2008.
The construction of the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre was founded with a grant of PLN 19,115,511 from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under EEA and Norwegian Grants, as well as from the Polish national budget and the City of Warsaw.
Nowy Teatr is a municipal cultural institution.
