Past events

Tales of Pola Negri

Sunday, January 30, 2011, at 3:00pm

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AGATA PILITOWSKA

Graduate of the Cracow National School of Drama.
Part of her final exam directed by Jerzy Stuhr, played the role of Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" . After her graduation, she performed as a guest star at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre and at the Old Theatre in Cracow, among other in such plays as "The Bluebird" and "The Vaudeville Romance" She also cooperated with Polish TV, playing in "His Lordship Nobody", "The Physicists" and "The Forgotten Devil"

Since she came to Toronto in 1986 she appeared in over 100 productions . She has appeared in "Something in the Air" (Toronto Workshop Productions), "Candid" London, UK), "Ours is the Night" (the Format Stage), "Polish Bethlehem", "Vatzlav", and "American Dreams" (Polonia Theatre). This last play, written by Kazimierz Braun specially for Maria Nowotarska and Agata Pilitowska, was successfully staged in Toronto, Montreal and other cities across Canada and the U.S. and was very warmly received in the Słowacki Theatre in Cracow, Poland, where both actresses appeared in 1995. Since the year 1991 A.Pilitowska along with M. Nowotarska she is the leading actor of Salon of Poetry, Music and Theatre. Together with Krzysztof Kolberger, a ranking Polish actor, she starred in the play "Today I Went Visiting Afar". She played the role of the young Helena Modrzejewska in the film "Modjeska Canyon", adapted for Polish TV by Stefan Szlachtycz. She also prepared a stage presentation based on the poetry of Wisława Szymborska and played in both Polish and English .Other big productions were : "Poetry without Borders" based on Nobel Prize Winners Wislawa Szymborska and Czeslaw Milosz , " Don't be afraid to love", "The Last Link in the Chain" in the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, the lead feminine role in the "Wedding", a play by Witold Gombrowicz in the Annex Theatre in Toronto. A very important achievement in Agata Pilitowska's artistic career are the roles written for her and M. Nowotarska by Kazimierz Braun like Tamara Łempicka in the play "Tamara L.", the role of Ewa Curie in Kazimierz Braun's "Radiation" - a play about the life of Marie Curie and the role of Pola in " The Tales of Pola Negri " by Kazimierz Braun. Agata Pilitowska together with Maria Nowotarska present Kazimierz Braun's plays in many Canadian, American Cities and also in Brasil and Europe ( Cracow, Warsaw, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Paris, Malmo, Stockholm, London, Vienna, Zurich, Utrecht). Her next role will be Hanka Ordonowna in a play written for A.Pilitowska by Kazimierz Braun.
Besides being active in the theatre, Agata Pilitowska works for OMNI television, as the host of the "Z ukosa" (Sideglance) programmme.

Agata Pilitowska was honoured with the title of "Merited for Polish Culture" conferred by the Polish Government , and was awarded a very prestigious medal "Gloria Artis " by the Minister of Culture and the National Heritage of The Republic of Poland.

Maria nowotarska

Studied in ballet school and in Cracow College of Theatrical Art, from which she graduated in 1957. Hired by the prestigious Juliusz Slowacki Theatre in her city of birth, she worked under some of the most renowned Polish directors, among them Bronislaw Dabrowski, erwin Axer, Lidia Zamkow or Krystyna Skuszanka, cast in important roles in both drama and comedy. She also appeared in a number of films and TV plays, before she immigrated to Canada in 1990.

In Toronto, where she settled, Nowotarska soon started an extensive and varied theatrical activity.

Kazimierz Braun

A director, writer and theatrologist. From 1967 to 1974 the director of the J. Osterwa Theatre in Lublin. From 1975 to 1984 the director of Contemporary Theatre in Wroclaw.  His artistic achievements contain more than 100 theatre and TV plays.

Since 1985 a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College, University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently a Professor at State University of New York in Buffalo.

Until 1985 Braun was a Professor at University of Wroclaw and State Drama School in Wroclaw.  After a famous production of "The Plague" by Albert Camus, corresponding with the Marshal Law ambiance, he was forced to immigrate abroad.

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