Quiz - Nov 6

Question 1

Three partitions of Poland

Answer 1

Russia, Prussia, Austria

Question 2

Gabriela Zapolska

Answer 2

• playwright

- “The Morality of Mrs. Dulska”

Question 3

“The Morality of Mrs. Dulska” is about…

Answer 3

-play exposing middle-class morality issues which was in response to how she was treated after having a child out of wedlock.

Question 4

Stanislaw Wyspianski

Answer 4

• Symbolist playwright
• “The Wedding”
• Stained glass artist

Question 5

“The Wedding” is about…

Answer 5

• play which depicts a unity between country and city folk as a metaphor for the dream of recovering Polish nationhood and bringing together all Polish people.
• Most Polish plays now reference a wedding in some way because of this play.

Question 6

Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (“Witkacy”)

Answer 6

• Painter, art critic, novelist, philosopher, playwright
• father/son rivalry (shared the same name) which is why he went by “Witkacy”
• “The Water Hen”
• Fought in Russian Army
• Produced thousands of paintings and 40+ plays during Poland’s 20 years of independence in the early 1900s.
• Plays “discovered” in the 1950s and thought of as Theatre of the Absurd
• Committed suicide.

Question 7

Years of Polish Independence and a flourishing of the arts

Answer 7

1918-1939

Question 8

Leading Polish directors:

Answer 8

• Szyfman
• Juliusz Osterwa
• Leon Schiller

Question 9

Leon Schiller

Answer 9

• All-time greatest Polish director
• Boguslawski Theatre
• Captured by Nazis but was “ransomed”
• Did theatre in secret during WWII
• “The Little Theatre of the Green Goose”

Question 10

“The Little Theatre of the Green Goose”

Answer 10

• Book of short sketches
• nonsense plays
• mocked political inertia and intellectual pretenses

Question 11

“Golden Age of Polish Theatre and Drama”

Answer 11

1956-1968

Question 12

Kazimierz Dejmek

Answer 12

• Co-founded Theatre Woujin

- Artistic Director of Teatr Polski

Question 13

Tadeusz Kantor

Answer 13

• Avant-garde actor and director
• Actor in his own productions
• “Cricot 2 Theatre”
• Experimented with circus, happenings, Dada and ended with “Theatre of Death”
• Wrote “The Dead Class”

Question 14

Andrezej Wajda

Answer 14

• Film and stage director
• filmed original film based on “The Wedding”
• four Oscar nominations
• Honorary Academy Award for his body of work (Lifetime Achievement Award)

Question 15

Jerzy Grotowski

Answer 15

• Started Theatre of Thirteen Rows
• Polish Laboratory Theatre
• Worked with Joseph Szdjna
• Pushed his actors to the limit
• Spent last years at UCI

Question 16

Slawomir Mrozek

Answer 16

• Early plays influenced by Theatre of the Absurd

- “Tango” (most produced play)