"THEATRE’S MISSION
IS TO ACQUAINT
THE YOUNG
SPECTATORS WITH
THE LANGUAGE AND
CONVENTIONS
OF ART. IT SHOULD
ALSO DEVELOP THEIR
AESTHETIC
SENSITIVITY AND
ENRICH IMAGINATION."
Leokadia Serafinowicz
FROM PUPPET TO ANIMATION
Designed by Jan Berdyszak, rod puppets from “Pieśń
o Lisie” (“The Story of Reynard the Fox”) are the oldest
exhibits in this room. Yet, even they don’t remember
the early days of the puppet theatre in Poznań. At the
time when Berdyszak was only beginning his creative
journey along Leokadia Serafinowicz and Wojciech
Wieczorkiewicz, the Puppet and Actor Theatre (back
then known as Marcinek) was already 15 years old.
It was brought to life by Halina Lubicz in 1939. However,
it wasn’t until April 1945 that one of St Martin Church’s
rooms became its official headquarters.
1960–1980
Since then, Marcinek’s name and address, as well as
its directors were subject to frequent change. Joanna
Piekarska took the position of the theatre’s manager
in 1954. Six years later, she was replaced by Leokadia
Serafinowicz who ran the theatre until 1980 (in 1976
Wojciech Wieczorkiewicz joined her as a co-manager).
The majority of puppets in this room used to perform in
the shows which shaped Marcinek’s identity and history.
Back in the days when Polish puppet theatres performed
mostly fairy and folk tales as well as Russian
plays, the names of Norwid, the Radziwiłł sisters, and
Goethe sounded almost exotic to the local ear. It was
in that time that Marcinek’s artists began to treat the
folk culture references as an opportunity to experiment
with the theatrical form. That’s how puppet operas
such as “Najdzielniejszy”, “O Kasi, co gąski zgubiła”,
“Lajkonik”, and “Koziołki z wieży ratuszowej” came into
existence. Each of these plays was based on folk tales
from a different Polish region. The local influences could
be found in the overall aesthetics, as well as the music
and set design of the respective performances. Shows
performed at Marcinek were appreciated all around
the globe. The puppets which played in “Lajkonik” and
“Wanda” won a gold medal at the 2nd Prague Quadrennial
of Performance Design and Space held in 1971. The
reign of magical realism and papier-mâché was over.
Artists began crafting puppets from wood, wire, metal,
and styrofoam as well as dressing them in decorative
fabrics. When managed by Leokadia Serafinowicz, the
Puppet and Actor Theatre Marcinek became a place
where all generations could experience top-notch modern
art.
1980–1989
After Serafinowicz and Wieczorkiewicz left the theatre,
Marcinek had to wait nine years until an ingenious
manager would appear and rewrite its artistic mission.
It was a turbulent time for the puppet theatre, as none
of its four contemporary directors had enough time to
reshape its identity. Fortunately, during this administratively
stagnant period, numerous original plays were
written and performed in Poznań. Puppets chected in
that time were a reflection of greate mind and creativly
of its authors.
1989–2014
In 1989, the position of the artistic director was taken
by Janusz Ryl-Krystianowski and in a result Marcinek
changed its name to Animation Theatre. Ryl-Krystianowski’s
work exerted a considerable influence on the
theatre’s identity.
Animation Theatre is an actor, puppet, and objectoriented
theatre. Quite extraordinarily, it builds on
the experience of traditional theatre while simultaneously
making the full use of puppets and objects.
The personification process, also known as “the miracle
of enliving”, is an integral part of the puppet theatre.
It manifests itself in conscious and deliberate acts of
animation onstage (an excerpt from an exposé).
What impact did this mission statement have on the
shape of Animacji Theatre in the years 1989–2014? It
certainly translated into the multiplicity of theatrical
forms which profited significantly from the presence
of actors onstage. Janusz Ryl-Krystianowski took every
effort to define the role of the actor. He also sought
to build harmonious relations and maintain a perfect
balance between the message sent by the human
being and the the animated object. His theatre was
versatile thanks to frequent collaborations with gifted
set of designers who created one of a kind puppets for
every show.
PUPPET GALLERY
the entrance to the Puppet Gallery is located in the
ZAMEK Culture Centre’s garden (al. Niepodległości 14)
Teatr Animacji w Poznaniu
ul. Św. Marcin 80/82
61–809 Poznań
(ZAMEK Culture Centre’s
main entrance)