About the school
Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw Branch Campus in Białystok was established in 1975 as the Puppetry Department. Since 1978 it has educated students in acting and directing, and since 2018 in puppet theatre technology as well. The head of the Branch is a vice-rector prof. dr hab. Marta Rau. Białystok puppetry is considered to be one of the most influential schools in Europe. It provides contact to students with outstanding pedagogues and artists from Poland and abroad, initiates art and research projects. The school is a generator of innovation and an art laboratory of new practices, both didactics and artistic. The international biennale is organised in Białystok (initiated in 1979) – Festival of Puppetry Schools PUPPET-NO-PUPPET, which brings together over 200 young artists from around the world. The school also develops an international programme of puppet theatre studies together with partners from Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.
The Gulf
The first sentence is the most difficult to write. Just as it is difficult to make a mature decision. Everything requires courage and risk. You have to pack up. Move. But what if we are drowning in thoughts, associations, and uncertainties? Time passes and if we don’t take the first step we are in danger of madness. Sometimes, however, uncertainty takes us on a real journey – the one where we meet ourselves, we ask ourselves the most accurate questions, and the answers appear spontaneously. “Odmęt” is a free
impression on the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor of the One Thousand and One Nights. These adventures meet the hero before he leavs, and the journey takes place in a world of seemingly worthless objects. The performance is a game with forms, illusion created on faith in the life of objects. All that to learn something about yourself. After all, we can often see that getting lost is finding the right path.
“Working at such an excellent level at school is rare. But here it is. ‘Odmęt’ by Marek Idzikowski (…) undoubtedly is such a performance” – dr hab. Marek Waszkiel writes in a review on his blog (https://www.marekwaszkiel.pl/2019/02/22/odmet/). And he adds: “… the idea of the whole, in which Michał Ferenc moves with incredible efficiency, makes the greatest impression. If this performance was broken down into scenes, actions, events – it wouldn’t be much. But each of them is tasteful, invented, subtle, delicate, puppetry, sometimes virtuoso. (…) Three quarters of an hour of the performance pass like three moments. Too fast.”
Marek Idzikowski, director, received the grand prix for “Odmet” of the Krakow FORUM FOR YOUNG DIRECTORS, organized by the Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow, Poland.
Author:
Director: Marek Ildzikowski
Dramaturge:
Set design:
Light design:
Sound:
Music: Michał Ferenc, Dawid Mkrtchyan
Production:
Photo:
Cast:
Michał Ferenc
In Polish with English subtitles.
