Teatr Arka

THEATER HISTORY

Arka Theater was founded in 1992 on the initiative of Renata Jasinski, then actress of the Contemporary Theater in Wrocław and her colleagues - Andrzej Nowak and Bogdan Michalewski, director of the Na Bruk Theater. The idea was born earlier in the student's time, Renata Jasinski, who was fascinated with the way he worked with Jerzy Grotowski, and his student Zygmunt Molik encouraged the dream of a true, independent, experimental theater.

The first period - mainly the attempts of existence and survival, possible thanks to performances in Wroclaw Garrison Club at ul. Pretficza, then in the Black Lounge, the Club of Creative Associations and in Wroclaw schools. The proper beginning of the Arka Theater is 1997. At that time Alexandre Marquez joined the ensemble, previously an actor of the independent theater in Burgundy, who brought to Wrocław the fascination with the works of Jerzy Grotowski. The common ideal made Jasińska and Marquez join forces and in a tenement house at ul. Mint created a theater open to all, pervading moral and spiritual values. At the basis of the Grotowski Theater experience, the belief that art can be found everywhere, that it is possible to blur the boundaries between the spectator and the actor.

Another breakthrough was the year 2002. The Ark began to conduct educational, therapeutic and cultural activities. Prisons, psychiatric hospitals in Wroclaw, Lubiąż, Stronie Śląskie and Bolesławiec, care and education centers, centers for children with disabilities and autistic became places of daily work of actors. Experiences with such different and specific backgrounds have identified Arka's distinctive repertoire from other theaters and the originality of his profile. The repertoire included both shows for adults and for schoolchildren, educational and therapeutic performances.

An important event in the development of the theater was the spectacle "Kuglarze Pana Boga", in which next to the professional actors - graduates of European theatrical schools - first disabled people invited after art workshops conducted in friendly centers. "I discovered talent, stage performances spontaneity and amazing theatrical intuition," says Renata Jasińska. Since 2004, disabled students have been as important a part of the ensemble as professional actors and have appeared in almost every theater performance.

The theater opens to the experience of other theaters, draws inspiration from theaters of the East, Artaud art, but also from Polish artists, such as Kantor, to find their own way and to pass the energies learned through their own experiences.

 The theater promotes Poland and Wroclaw abroad, going to Italy, France and Scotland, Britain, Sarajevo. He wins prizes at international festivals - in 2012, at Korczak International Festival in Warsaw. Theater collaborators are internationally renowned artists. Italy represents Lamberto Gianini,, United States - Kazimierz Braun and Max Archimedes Levitt (of the University of Buffalo) and Megan Mongird (of the University of Arizona).