An Enchanted Land, with Visions from Beyond: The Theater of Stanisław Wyspiański

“An Enchanted Land, with Visions from Beyond: The Theater of Stanisław Wyspiański”

Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1, 2025

Stanislaw Wyspiański (1869–1907) was a Polish playwright, designer, painter, and theater visionary. He proposed a new Polish theater—one in dialogue with the world—that was both admired and misunderstood in his short lifetime. Despite his significant production history in Poland and abroad, Wyspiański remains less known to American theater.

This conference centers performance, translation, and adaptation as a means to encourage greater awareness of his legacy. The program includes a screening of the celebrated film version of Wyspiański’s The Wedding—as well as readings from other dramas, and a performance of his one-woman piece The Death of Ophelia, in new English-language translations.

“Wyspiański loved theater—for him, it was an enchanted land, and the costumed actors—visions from beyond.”
— Stanisława Wysocka (1877–1941), Polish actor and director

Locations: Linsly-Chittenden Hall (63 High Street), Humanities Quadrangle (320 York Street), Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) (149 York Street)

Events:

• Friday, February 28 (Linsly-Chittenden Hall and Humanities Quadrangle, as noted):
  • 4:00pm–4:30pm: Coffee (Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 102)
  • 4:30pm–6:00pm: Welcome and Opening Talk (Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 102)
  • 6:00pm–7:30pm: Dinner (Humanities Quadrangle, Room 131 – Student Lounge)

  • 7:30pm–9:30pm: Screening of The Wedding by Wyspiański, directed by Andrzej Wajda (Humanities Quadrangle, Room L02 – Alice Cinema)

     

Saturday, March 1 (CCAM Room 103 – Leeds Studio, unless otherwise noted):

• Throughout the day: Window Projections Installation of Wyspiański’s stained-glass designs
  • 12:00pm–1:30pm: Roundtable: “Wyspiański in Performance”
  • 1:30pm–3:00pm: Lunch
  • 3:00pm–4:30pm: Roundtable: “Wyspiański in Translation,” with readings from The Wedding, Liberation, and Acropolis by Wyspiański
  • 4:30pm–5:00pm: Coffee (CCAM Lobby)
  • 5:00pm–6:15pm: Staged Reading of The Death of Ophelia by Wyspiański and Discussion
  • 6:15pm–6:30pm: Closing
    
     

Participants:

• Mateusz Antoniuk; Faculty of Polish Studies, History of 20^th-Century Polish Literature; Jagiellonian University
• Anna Róża Burzyńska; Polish Studies, Theatre and Drama; Jagiellonian University
• Lauren Dubowski, Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), Yale University
• Katarzyna Fazan; Polish Studies, Theatre and Drama; Jagiellonian University
• Dorota Jarząbek-Wasyl; Polish Studies, Theatre and Drama; Jagiellonian University
• Dominika Laster, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of New Mexico
• Tamara Trojanowska, Slavic & East European Languages & Cultures, University of Toronto
• Students from the David Geffen School of Drama, Yale University (to be announced)

Organizers:

• Krystyna Illakowicz, Slavic and Languages and Literatures, Yale University

• Lauren Dubowski, Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), Yale University

   

Note: The English-language translations of Wyspiański’s dramas presented in the conference are by Lauren Dubowski, as is the window projections installation.

Generously Sponsored by: the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund; the European Studies Council of the Yale MacMillan Center

Partners: Department of Slavic and Languages and Literatures; Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM)

Photo: Stanisław Wyspiański, Self-Portrait, 1902 (National Museum in Warsaw/Cyfrowe MNW)