Janina Szarek and the Teatr Studio am Salzufer – Tadeusz Różewicz Bühne Berlin

A close relationship and friendship developed between Janina Szarek and Tadeusz Różewicz. They wrote to each other regularly for many years. When the poet died in 2014, the name of the theatre was changed. Since then, it has been called Teatr Studio am Salzufer – Tadeusz Różewicz Bühne Berlin.

In 2014, the Teatr Studio celebrated its 10-year anniversary once again with a successful première. This time it was “Pfannkuchen, Schweine, Heilgenscheine” (Pancakes, Swine, Halos), a play based on prose texts and poems, also based on the novel “Angels and Pigs in Berlin” by Brygida Helbig-Mischewski, an author who lives in Berlin and was nominated for the NIKE prize, the most important literary award in Poland. The theatre portal www.teatrdlawas.pl called the production one of the most important Polish theatre productions worldwide in the 2014/2015 season.

Janina Szarek’s artistic work regularly earns her acclaim and awards. In 2014, the actress was awarded the Gloria Artis Medal, the highest award bestowed by the Polish Minister for Culture and National Heritage for artistic creations and cultural achievements. One year later, Janina Szarek was awarded the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Prize, which the theatre critics at the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute award for services to raising awareness of Polish theatre culture abroad. In 2017, the actress was awarded the Golden Owl in the Theatre category, an award given by the Vienna monthly magazine “Jupiter”, which is conferred on deserving Polish cultural and artistic creatives who live abroad. In the same year, Janina Szarek was also nominated for the Blauer Bär [Blue Bear] European Award, with which the Land of Berlin and the representative body of the European Commission in Germany honour people who have been active in disseminating and strengthening European values.

For Janina Szarek, the founding and upkeep of the German-Polish theatre was at the heart of her artistic activities in Berlin. Looking back, the actress, in summing up her successes, feels that the path towards realising this idea, even if it was a long and uncertain one, turned out to be a fulfilment of her true calling: “...I had to emigrate from Poland to build this theatre in the Berlin of today.”[13]

Monika Stefanek, August 2018

Address: TRANSform Schauspielschule und Teatr Studio, Salzufer 13-14, 10587 Berlin

Website: www.transform-schauspielschule.de

[13] Elżbieta Baniewicz, Ein halbes Leben in Berlin..., p. 93.