The Polish STUDIO Theater in Vilnius received the status of a professional theatre

The Polish STUDIO Theater in Vilnius, under the direction of Lilija Kiejzik, received the status of a professional theater on Friday.

The Polish Theater Studio in Vilnius was founded in November 1960 under the name of the Polish Dramatic Group at the Club of Communication Workers. It was the first artistic institution of this kind established in Vilnius after the war. For many years, the team has been and still is promoting correct Polish and promoting Polishness among young people. Until today, the group is a meeting place for the Polish intelligentsia in Vilnius, where you can not only get to know the theater, but also literature, art, culture and music.

Unlike some Polish organizations in Lithuania, over the years of its activity in the “Soviet” times, the amateur theater never propagated or supported the occupation system by staging propaganda performances by Soviet authors, it was rather an “opposition” theater suffering for its activity and origin as well as anti- its Soviet founders, liaison officers of the Home Army, Mrs. Janina Strużanowska, whose husband was an officer of the Second Polish Republic, before his death in the Third Republic appointed to the rank of Brigadier General.

Over the years of its activity, the Theater has staged over 90 performances based on dramatic, poetic and musical works. It creates 3 international theater festivals: since 1994 Vilnius Meetings of the Polish Stage and since 2012 the International Festival MonoEast, and since 2020 it has organized the International Theater Festival “TRANS/MISJE Balticum”.

The main goal of the theater’s activity is to promote and disseminate Polish theatrical culture in Lithuania and to promote the legacy of the Theater on Pohulanka and the “REDUTA” theater of Juliusz Osterwa.

The activity of the Polish STUDIO Theater in Vilnius is not limited to staging performances. From the beginning of the 1990s, the theater organized meetings with well-known actors and directors, as well as theater workshops. There was also cooperation with many Polish organizations in Lithuania: ZPL, song and dance groups “Zgoda” and “Wilia”, Polish schools and gymnasiums in Vilnius and in the Vilnius region.

The performances of the Polish Theater Studio in Vilnius have been staged on many stages in Poland, Germany, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Great Britain. In 2020, it celebrated its 60th anniversary as an Institution of Higher Public Utility, called “POLSKI TEATR STUDIO w WILNIE” (name change in 2018), which allows for fully professional theatrical activities. The theater closely cooperates with many state theater institutions in Poland and Lithuania. Close cooperation agreements have been signed with many professional and national institutions, i.e. Theater them. Wanda Siemaszkowj in Rzeszów, with whom we jointly organize festivals, performances and theater productions; with the Theater Institute of Zbigniew Raszewski; with Polish Television and its branches, i.e. TVP Wilno, TVP Kultura, Teatr Telewizji Polskiej; With the Polish Radio in Rzeszów and Białystok, with the Vilnius Theater of OSKAR KORŠUNOVAS, the theater cooperates with the Trakai Castle or the Vilnius City Hall, etc. Since 2020, the Theater has been cooperating with Polish Television in the field of Television Theater and has already created 8 shows for the Polish Television Theater together with TVP Vilnius and TVP Kraków TVP KULTURA.