Grzegorz Jarzyna Head and Artistic Director of TR Warszawa

GRZEGORZ JARZYNA – born in 1968, playwright, stage director, head and artistic director of TR Warszawa, theater company set by himself. He studied philosophy and directing in Cracow. Jarzyna is one of the best-known stage directors ever to come from Poland. His first play,Tropical Craze after Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, was one of the most famous theatrical debuts in Poland and marked the beginning of a new era in Polish theatre. He has directed over 20 theater and opera productions, staged, among others, at the Schaubuhne in Berlin, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Tonelgroupe in Amsterdam.

Jarzyna has staged and radically reinterpreted classic drama (Tropical Craze according to Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Magnetism of the Heart based on Aleksander Fredro's Maiden Vows), adapted major European novels (Mann's Doctor Faustus, Prince Myshkin according to Dostoyevsky's The Idiot), directed famous contemporary plays (Brad Fraser's Unidentified Human Remains, Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis in Warsaw and Dusseldorf, Dorota Masłowska’s No Matter How Hard We Tried) and well-loved operas (Mozart's Così fan tutte at Teatr Wielki in Poznań, Prokofiev’s Gambler after the novel by Dostoyevsky at Opera de Lyon). His readiness and enthusiasm for cutting across genres have resulted in 2007: Macbeth according to Shakespeare (2005), an almost cinematic production with the action taking place on four separate sets, T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T based on Theorema by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Giovanni based on Mozart's Don Giovanni and Moliere's Don Juan, a production melding dramatic theatre and opera.

Jarzyna's international reputation was established with the invitation of his productions to numerous festivals and guest performances on stages in Europe and beyond, including Moscow, Jerusalem, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Stockholm, London, Dublin, Toronto, Wellington, Avinion, Los Angeles and New York. In June 2008 Macbeth was shown on a purpose-built stage under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, 4.48 Psychosis was presented at the Edinburgh International Festival, Giovanni inaugurated the Baltic House festival in St. Petersburg and performed on Holland Festival in 2010.

He has also directed several television productions: Tropical Craze according to Witkiewicz, History according to Witold Gombrowicz, the TV version of 2007: Macbeth and concerts - 49 International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn (2006).

Jarzyna is the author of librettos to operas with music by Zygmunt Krauze – Iwona based on the drama by Witold Gombrowicz (2006) and Pułapka based on the drama by Tadeusz Różewicz (commissioned for the World New Music Days Wroclaw 2014),
and dramas - Areteia (2009), written for the project „European Capital of Culture RUHR 2010”, and Medea Project, performed in 2006 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, which won him the Nestroy Preise, the most important theater award in the German-speaking region.

Jarzyna has won numerous prizes and distinctions, including the award of the Minister for Foreign Affairs for his outstanding contribution to promoting Poland internationally (2002) and a Gold Medal commemorating the St. Petersburg Tricentennial (2004). and the Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for exceptional artistic achievements in 2009.