Welcome to summer at CR. This issue we visit some great cities, just long enough to catch some theatre – that urban art form – and talk to an award-winning filmmaker; see an exhibit. Then wrap it up at the New York Casino, the pub that has no gambling tables but a lot of food and drink… in the heart of 19th-century San Francisco.
All the elements of seasonal hedonism are here – Sea, Sun and Sex – but so are cruelty, indifference and memory, all playing havoc with people’s dreams and hearts. It’s love and death in Tel Aviv.
In 2010, the International Theatre Institute gave Monique Stalens the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Award. How fitting, because it was Witkacy (Witkiewicz) who spoke of theatre as a strange dream, unfathomable, unlike anything else in the world. Such was Stalens’ life.
“Wow, we did that?!” Yes, dear children, listen to Jill Godmilow and learn what your brave and smart elders once did, nothing less than “the greatest revolution in the world.”
“When enemies agree to sit at the table, push away anger and desire for revenge, they find a way to compromise,” IPN historian Przemysław Gasztold-Seń tells Bobbie Traut. Democracy is always a work in progress, and Gasztold-Seń remains optimistic.
A 3D map of the Tatra mountains wows; Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Decalogue” to get an American remake; Aquila Polonica’s “Color of Courage” wins awards; and variant spellings are suddenly everywhere – including here.
Traveling back in time again to 19th Century California where those expert tour guides, Lynn Ludlow and Maureen Mroczek Morris, take us to San Francisco’s lively gathering spot, the New York Casino. Owned by General Kris, the handsomest general in the Union Army, the Casino is known for its convivial spirit along with a steady flow of spirits. A regular patron is Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski who likes nothing more than philosophical discussions about the true nature of “Polishness” between visits to the generous – and free – offerings at the General’s table.
Meet a publisher who thinks more European writers should find a spot on American bookshelves. Ross Ufberg and New Vessel Press are rescuing lost literary voices, including that of Poland’s Marek Hłasko.
Hard to trace the first encounter between Frederique Michel and Jan Kott, but their meeting and collaboration at City Garage eventually led to Polish Theatre Month in Los Angeles. Maria Pilatowicz tells the story.
Where would you meet Studs Terkel, Zadie Smith and Małgorzata Pospiech; see John Cusack’s adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” as well as Theatre Banialuka’s “Opowieść o chłopcu i wietrze;” in fact a non-stop stream of eclectic, daring, stimulating events? Megan Geigner leads the way to Chicago’s fabulous Chopin Theatre.
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