A History of Polish Theater, 1939-1989 Spheres of Captivity and Freedom

Subjects:

• The Arts » Theater
• Literature » Drama
• Multicultural Studies » Slavic Studies

Reviews:

• This historical survey offers a heartfelt tribute to the "theater people" of Poland who tried to save their culture from inside and outside the Soviet system. Braun, a noted expatriate Polish stage director who also ran several theaters, brings his particular insight, anecdotal knowledge, and informed understanding of noteworthy mise-en-scénes to bear on this general, modern history. Concluding encyclopedic sections--"Selected Issues" and "Selected Theater Artists"--drawn from the general texts, along with selected bibliographies in English and Polish, contribute to making this a very useful source book.
  —
  Choice
• ....as a primer to Polish theatre under Nazi and Soviet domination the book is excellent...the book provides a quite useful introduction to the intricacies of the Polish theatre scene since the beginning of World War II...as an introduction to the field and a convient chronology of some of the high points from 1939-1989, this book surpasses anything available today. It is the first comprehensive English-language introduction to Polish theatre of the period, and no other history of Polish theatre in English addresses the developments of the 1980's in the kind of detail found here, making this work the most up-to-date yet published.
  —
  Theatre Insight

• Endorsement From
  Tymoteusz Karpowicz
  Professor Emeritus, UIC: To this day, this is the most valuable reference book on contemporary Polish theatre and it generates great respect fot the competence, independence, and humanity of the author.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction
• A Concise History of Polish Theater 1939-1989
• First Period: 1939-1945: Theater in Time of War
• Second Period: 1945-1948: The Reconstruction of Theatrical Life
• Third Period: 1949-1955: The Apogee of Stalinism
• Fourth Period: 1956-1960: "Theatrical October"
• Fifth Period: 1960-1980: The Twenty "Captive Years"
• Sixth Period: 1980-1981: Solidarity Theater
• Seventh Period: 1982-1989: Theater of Martial Law and the Last Communist "Normalization"
• Epilogue
• Selected Issues
• Profiles of Selected Theater Artists
• The Lawgivers
• The Old Guard
• The "Polish Staging Theater"
• The "Polish Visual Theater"
• Polish Research Theater
• The Rationalists in "The Time Out of Joint"
• Community Builders
• The Most Prominent Actors
• Bibliography
• Indexes