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- Conferences and Seminars 2014
Poland
JAN KLATA, IN DIALOGUE WITH OCTAVIAN SAIU
Jan Klata is a multi-award winning theatre director, playwright and the general and artistic director of Stary Theatre in Krakow since 2013. He studied directing at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, after which he moved to Krakow’s State Higher School of Theatre. In 2002, he submitted his play The Grapefruit’s Smile to the competition accompanying the first edition of Wrocław’s EuroDrama Contemporary Drama Forum. He was awarded and got a chance to direct the debut performance based on his own text. The production remained in the repertoire of Polski Theatre in Wrocław. He directed plays at the Polski Teatr in Wrocław, Wspolczesny Theatre in Wrocław, Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdansk, TR Warszawa, Schauspielhaus in Graz, Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Capitol Theatre in Wrocław. Among his most famous performances are „The Danton Case“ by Stanisława Przybyszewska (2008), ”A Piece on Mother and the Fatherland“ by Bożena Keff (2011) and Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus“ (2012) and “H“ after ”Hamlet (2013).
”First comes rebellion. Defiance against the hypocritical reality, against all those supermarkets, sales, promotions and 'Las Ketchup', 'Tatu', against nonsense and falsehood. Young people look at things in a fresh, sometimes desperate, sometimes angry and malicious, yet valuable way ...Behind this anger there is despair, sadness, sorrow on the one hand and passion for change on the other.“ Jan Klata, Słowo Polskie 18th of April 2003, http://culture.pl/
”What distinguishes J. Klata from other contemporary artists is the sharp theatrical language and radicalism of his artistic visions. For example, while referring to pop culture, he does not use it in the performance as a quote, but instead completely “plunges” his story into it. One can say that the director lives in a symbiotic relationship with the mass culture. He uses it consciously, emphasizing that the mass culture is the Polish contemporary reality. Simultaneously, using pop culture in new contexts he attracts a broader, mainly young, new audience. Thus the classical literature is for J. Klata an extremely important point of reference [...] we can observe that they form a kind of historical chronicle.“ Aleksandra Konopko, „The theater of Jan Klata. Struggling for a new audience“
”First comes rebellion. Defiance against the hypocritical reality, against all those supermarkets, sales, promotions and 'Las Ketchup', 'Tatu', against nonsense and falsehood. Young people look at things in a fresh, sometimes desperate, sometimes angry and malicious, yet valuable way ...Behind this anger there is despair, sadness, sorrow on the one hand and passion for change on the other.“ Jan Klata, Słowo Polskie 18th of April 2003, http://culture.pl/
”What distinguishes J. Klata from other contemporary artists is the sharp theatrical language and radicalism of his artistic visions. For example, while referring to pop culture, he does not use it in the performance as a quote, but instead completely “plunges” his story into it. One can say that the director lives in a symbiotic relationship with the mass culture. He uses it consciously, emphasizing that the mass culture is the Polish contemporary reality. Simultaneously, using pop culture in new contexts he attracts a broader, mainly young, new audience. Thus the classical literature is for J. Klata an extremely important point of reference [...] we can observe that they form a kind of historical chronicle.“ Aleksandra Konopko, „The theater of Jan Klata. Struggling for a new audience“
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