Poland part II

Ah... Krackow. A fine fine city that I am always happy to revisit. First day out we take a stroll down the main drag.

 

Garvey in front, posing reflectively against the back drop of Krakow's first and oldest theatre.

 

John and Beata about town.

 

The original Cricoteka. Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was an avant-garde artist, theatre director, set designer and a major figure in 20th theatre reform, known for his revolutionary theatre productions with a primary focus on Witkiewicz, the playwright of my show. In 1980 he created 'Cricoteka' as a 'living archive' to document the achievements of himself and his theatre company. In September 2014 Cricoteka unveiled its new headquarters, with the aim of better presenting his work and its impact on modern art and theatre. We'll get there later in the post. Here Beata poses with some relevant graffiti.

This is the main tower in Krakow's Market Square. Every hour on the hour, four times in succession in each of the four cardinal directions, you will see and hear a trumpeter on the highest tower of the city's Saint Mary's Church. Here he is in action in the picture below... 

 This is a pic from one of my favorite pubs there, the Singer... it used to be a clothing manufacturing facility during the second world war and they kept the machines in tribute.

 

Ok. So we are now at Cricoteka 2. Kantor's tribute to his work. It was very inspiring seeing the Witkiewicz sets and his philosophy through his life time. Truly unique and truly the full expression of the term "Avant Garde".  Above is a pic of his manifesto to give an idea... 

A big ol' 3d star thing in the Kantor gallery

 

This is really cool. It is the set that Kantor designed for Witkiewicz's "Mad Man and the Nun", the play that "John Doe" is based off of. In Kantor's production, the actors were attached to this 'machine' made of fold up chairs (a symbol of the audience), whenever the actors move, they set off the 'machine', so they had to deliver their lines with utterly no movement, also symbolizing how they are trapped in their environment. Go Kantor!

  No, this was the first theatre in Krakow. Darn it, I have no idea what that other building was.

 We are now in Zakopane. This was a fantastic spot we found for dinner, Marzena's. 

 Richard owns and runs the joint and Marzena is his wife. He is a huge fan of the Witkacy theatre and was speechless when he found out that we were the Americans that were working with the company. He told us no one works with them. 

 Looks like we are legit!  Whoooooot!

 Our first event out of many was to attend the opening art gallery with a retrospective of photographs and stage objects from the Witkacy Theatre. It was fancy!

 Our director/ founder of Teatr Witkacy, Andrzej Dzuik when he was a young brooding artist.

 Here he is now with Beata posing in front of the eyes of Witkiewicz.

 The piano bar where I did the most reading I have done in a year. They have swings for the bar stools.

 John takes a swing at it.

 Here we are at the opening premiere of "Metaphysics of a Two-headed Calf", a huge event at the theatre. The president of Poland sent a chancellor to read a personal letter he wrote to the theatre out loud. One of a few events that none of us brought the right clothes for.

I visited Villa Ozaka, where Witkiewicz has several of his paintings/ photographs on display. Here is his ever famous selfie that is painted on the side of Teatr Witkacy.

 

 Witkiewicz made the majority of his living as a portrait artist. His work is quite distinctive and evocotive.

 

 John in front of the spread for the final gala event. Again, we were under-dressed. At least we had just completed a very successful 3 performances so we felt like we were allowed some social liberties.

A final photo of Beata and I outside the 'eye' of Krupowki Street drinking our hot wine. An amazing and difficult trip with all the conflicting emotions of feeling rather empty without my family and yet so self-fulfilled. Thank you Teatr Witkacy, Trap Door, Mr. Dzuik, Matt, and Brock and Meghan (the babysitter extraordinaire) for an extremely reflective and exhausting opportunity! Happy to be home.