Michal Zadara

Michal Zadara (born 19 October 1976 in Warsaw) is a Polish theatre director and set designer. He has worked primarily in Warsaw and Krakow, but he also staged several plays abroad, in Germany, Israel and the United States. He studied at the American International School of Vienna, and at Swarthmore College.^[1]

Early years and education

Born in Warsaw, Zadara left Poland with his parents when he was three years old and moved to Austria, and then to West Germany. He attended English-language schools. In 1994 he began studying Political Science at Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia. After two years of study, he took a leave of absence from Swarthmore, and studied directing at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, and then oceanography at Sea Education Association in Massachusetts. Upon returning to Swarthmore he changed his major to Theatre Studies, and earned his B.A. with honors with a minor in Political Science in 1999. After his studies, he moved to New York, where he worked as a publicity assistant, theatrical carpenter and computerized-banking assistant. He also directed one show at the no longer existing off-off-broadway stage Collective Unconscious.

In the year 2000 he returned to Poland. After being rejected from the Krakow Theatre School, he worked as an assistant and collaborator of set designer Małgorzata Szczęśniak at Warsaw's Rozmaitości Theatre. In 2001 he was accepted and began studying at the Directing Department of the Krakow Theatre School.

Theatre career

Since 2004 Zadara has directed more than twenty plays and performance art pieces at The Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdansk, Stary National Theatre in Krakow,^[2] Współczesny Theatre in Wrocław, National Theatre in Warsaw, Współczesny Theatre in Szczecin, the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin, the HaBima National Theatre in Tel Aviv,^[3] and a staging of Iannis Xenakis's opera Oresteia at the National Opera in Warsaw.

He was nominated for the Political Passport prize in 2006 and 2007, and was awarded this prize - the Polish equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize - in 2007. His 2007 production of Witold Gombrowicz's Operetta was presented in the 2009 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Artist Bio-Michal Zadara". livearts-philly-fringe.org. http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=6891. Retrieved January 14, 2010. 
2. ^ "A one-stop shop for Polish theatre". The Irish Times. 7 January 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0107/1230936726371.html. Retrieved 21 April 2010. 
3. ^ "Bio of Michal Zadara". zadara.pl. http://www.zadara.pl/zadara. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 
4. ^ "Gombrowicz's "Operetta" at Philadelphia Live Arts Festival". culture.pl. http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/wy_in_operetka_philadelphia_live_arts_festival_2009. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Zadara, Michal
Alternative names
Short description	Polish theatre director
Date of birth	19 October 1976
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death