CONTACT

Nowy Theatre named after Tadeusz Łomnicki
5 Dąbrowskiego St.
60-838 Poznań, POLAND

Office
tel. +48 61 848 49 49
fax +48 61 848 49 33
sekretariat@teatrnowy.pl

International Relations Department
Andrzej Hamerski
tel. +48 61 847 86 32
mob. +48 696 939 328
fax +48 61 848 49 33
a.hamerski@teatrnowy.pl

Marianna Szajdak
tel. +48 61 847 86 32
mob. +48 695 652 386
fax +48 61 848 49 33
impresariat@teatrnowy.pl

ABOUT THE THEATRE

The history of Teatr Nowy in Poznań starts in 1923, when the Secession tenement house at 5 Dąbrowskiego St., known to residents of Poznań as “The Dancing Rooster House”, was used as the stage for a theatrical stock company, staging plays by Szaniawski, Strindberg, Wyspiański, Shaw, and Ibsen, apart from farces and comedies for the general public. The stage of Teatr Nowy was visited by the greatest starts of Polish theatre of the time: Irena Solska, Stefan Jaracz, Juliusz Osterwa, Józef Węgrzyn, and Stanisława Wysocka. During its first decade, Teatr Nowy acquires two other stages: the Theatre on the Water in Sołacki Park and the Music Comedy in Marszałka Focha St.

In 1973, after Teatr Nowy was separated from what was known as the Poznań State Repertory Theatres, its independent artistic development began. Since the early 1980s the Theatre has been primarily identified with the performances by Janusz Wiśniewski, a young graduate 
of the Faculty of Directing of the Warsaw State Theatre School, a stage designer and graphic artist.

Panopticum à la Madame Tussaud. The Great Dying or Black Death. Paris 1680 and The End of Europe, Wiśniewski’s two productions prepared with the Poznań Ensemble, immediately triggered invitations to the major theatre festivals of the world 
(e.g. Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Yugoslav BITEF, Jerusalem Festival, Holland Festival in Amsterdam, Festival of “The Theatre of Nations” in Nancy) and brought the most prestigious theatre awards, while Wiśniewski became one of the leading authors of the world’s theatre.

In 2001, Janusz Wiśniewski, the author of the Theatre’s greatest successes, returned to Poznań 
as the director of Wyspiański’s Wedding; two years later he was appointed the Managing 
and Artistic Director of Teatr Nowy. In 2005 his Poznań rendition of Faust according to Goethe won the theatre Oscar – the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festivals. Thus began another chapter of the presence of Teatr Nowy from Poznań on the international arena.

This is how Wiśniewski defines his idea of the theatre:

Theatre!

You take the observed to give back the metaphorical.
You take the individual to give back the universal.
You take the visible to give back the invisible.
You take the real to give back the transparent.
You take the sensual to give back the spiritual.

These are our divine tools with which to fashion the Europe of the Spirit.
Let us be generous, then, in our unity, and let us be “imprudent”,
for how else will we acquire the ability to create the vision?

2008 brought the Polish premiere of an unprecedented production – Janusz Wiśniewski’s play entitled Noah’s Ark. The New End of Europe, produced jointly by six European theatres and the Israeli Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, with the financial support of the European Union. For the first time in its history, the EU subsidised “such an artistically and logistically innovative multicultural project”. Since September 2008, successive premieres of the performance have been taking place in the countries of the co-producing theatres.

Teatr Nowy runs over 500 performances for around 80,000 viewers per season.

The Theatre is at the forefront of the most vibrant Polish repertory theatres.

The Ensemble performs 20 different plays of Polish and world classics and contemporary dramas.

The ensemble of Teatr Nowy is composed of 36 full-time actors and 11 cooperating actors
as well as over 60 administration and technical staff.

The Theatre runs its own tailor’s, carpenter’s, modelling, make-up, and upholstery and decoration studios.

Teatr Nowy has three stages: the Main Stage, for 365 viewers, the New Stage, established in 1977 for 150 viewers, and the Third Stage, set up in 2005 in the former carpenter’s studio, for 84 viewers.

Since 2002 Teatr Nowy has got a patron – Tadeusz Łomnicki, an eminent Polish actor performing in theatre, film and television productions, who 10 years previously died on the stage of Teatr Nowy during a rehearsal of William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Since 1989 the Theatre has been supported financially by the Theatre’s Patrons’ Lodge Association.

Teatr Nowy im. Tadeusza Łomnickiego in Poznań is an Institution of Culture
of the Government of the Region of Wielkopolska.