On Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 6:00 p.m., the Helena Modjeska Club invites you to the presentation of its annual H. Modjeska Prize for achievements in the field of acting. Danuta Stenka and Piotr Adamczyk are the current winners of the award granted for the year 2024, ex aequo. Unfortunately, Mrs. Stenka cannot come to receive the award in person and that presentation will take place in Poland in the fall.
Now, however, we are honored that Mr. Piotr Adamczyk will personally receive the award in April. During the ceremony, he will perform, together with Katarzyna Smiechowicz and other actors from California, in the presentation of the book "Chopin's Heart" by Jerzy Antczak, in the presence of the author. The ceremony will take place at the residence of Mrs and Mr Kolodziey, Beverly Hills and is partly sponsored by the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles.
An artist should not seek easy applause. Their goal must be truth – the truth embodied by the character, and the truth that the audience is meant to discover within themselves.
— Helena Modjeska
My favorite word related to acting is authenticity. I want the viewer to believe in the character I play – to feel their emotions, follow their truth, and through that, reach their own truth. Preferably – the uncomfortable one. — Piotr Adamczyk
Piotr Adamczyk is one of the most versatile and recognizable Polish actors of his generation. A graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw and the British-American Drama Academy in London, he has successfully combined a career in theatre, film, radio, and voice acting with international film and television work. With impressive ease, he crosses linguistic and cultural borders – making him a spiritual heir to Helena Modjeska. He gained international recognition for his portrayal of Karol Wojtyła in the international production Karol: A Man Who Became Pope. This role, grounded in authenticity and profound spirituality, reached an audience of over 800 million viewers worldwide.
In Jerzy Antczak’s film Chopin: Desire for Love, he portrayed Fryderyk Chopin, revealing both the genius and the fragile, complex humanity of the composer. He is a recipient of numerous international awards granted by juries abroad, as well as multiple audience awards in Poland.
Modjeska Prizes for Danuta Stenka and Piotr Adamczyk
When: Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: residence of Mrs and Mr Kolodziey
RSVP: beata.j.czajkowska@gmail.com
by 4/20/25
Entry fees - $20 per member and $40 per person for guests.
Paypal to prezes@modjeska.org by 4/20/25
We have 100 spots for this event, please register quickly.
Please bring drinks.
In recent years, Adamczyk has successfully expanded his career abroad, appearing in American series such as Hawkeye(Marvel), For All Mankind (Apple TV+), and Night Sky (Amazon Prime), becoming one of the few Polish actors with a recognizable presence in American productions. With the rise of premium series, he has created dramatically different characters in productions such as A Simple Case(Canal+), Klara (TVN Player), Lead the Way, Brother (Netflix), and most recently: Project UFO (Netflix).
For his overall artistic achievements, he has been awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. He is especially proud of the “Little Sceptre” award, presented to him by Janusz Gajos.
“Piotr Adamczyk receives the Helena Modrzejewska Award for his outstanding acting achievements, his ability to combine artistry with accessibility, and for transcending linguistic and cultural boundaries in the spirit of universal values. Just as Modrzejewska – an ambassador of Polish theatre around the world – brought Polish sensibility into international dialogue, so too does he. This award honors not only his body of work but also his consistency, passion, and artistic integrity.”
—Katarzyna Śmiechowicz
Danuta Stenka (b. 10 October 1961 in Sierakowice, Poland) is a Polish actress. She made her stage debut in 1984 and since then acted in many productions receiving theatre awards for her performances. She made her big screen debut in 1995 and appeared in more than 60 films since then. Stenka received two Polish Film Awards for her roles in Jerzy Antczak’s Chopin: Desire for Love (2002) and Andrzej Wajda’s Katyń (2007). From 1991, she spent a decade working at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw, then at TR Warszawa. She earned critical acclaim for her distinguished roles in plays directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski's (Electra, The Taming of the Shrew, Krum, Angels in America and (A)pollonia). In 2003, she joined the ensemble of the National Theatre in Warsaw, taking on roles with many renowned directors, including Robert Wilson (Lady from the Sea), Grzegorz Jarzyna (Giovanni), Maja Kleczewska (Phaedra, Marat/Sade, Oresteia) and Jan Englert (King Lear). She played in many films and TV series and won over 30 awards for her theatre and film work, including the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture‚ Gloria Artis, from the Polish Ministry of Culture.
Jerzy Antczak (born 25 December 1929 in Włodzimierz) is a Polish television, theatre and film director and actor. He graduated from the Leon Schiller Academy of Dramatic Art in Łódź in 1953.He made his debut as an actor on the stage of the Powszechny Theatre in Łódź; later he also directed, and from the end of the 1950s he was active only as a director. In 1957 he was the director of the "715" theatre in Łódź, in 1959 the chief director of the Łódź Television Centre, and from 1963 the chief director of the Warsaw Television Centre. In the years 1963–1975 he was the chief director of the Television Theatre. He personally directed J. Słowacki's m.in. Kordian, Chekhov's Three Sisters, T. Williams' The Glass Menagerie; also important performances of the Theatre of Fact (Nuremberg Epilogue). In 1977, his film Nights and Days was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Since 1979 he has lived in the USA, where he is a lecturer (with the title of professor) at the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles, at the Department of Film and Television. In the early 1990s, he made two films in Poland: The Lady of the Camellias and Chopin. Desire for Love. He directed two TV theatre performances: Caesar and Pompey and Paths of Glory. On September 14, 2013, he received the Platinum Lions for lifetime achievement at the 38. Gdynia Film Festival. From 1956 until the death of his wife in 2024, he was married to actress Jadwiga Barańska, with whom he has a son, Mikołaj (born 1964).
Antczak has been a Honorary Member of the Modjeska Club for many years and in 2024 received the Club’s first Golden Award for lifetime achievement as film and theater director. Among the multitude of his honors are: Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; Knight's Cross of the Order of Artis Polonia Restituta; and Gold Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis.
Helena Modjeska Club invites its members and friends to an original event entitled "Major and the Orange Alternative" at the Vienna Woods Gallery. The guest of honor will be Waldemar "Major" Fydrych, an artist, surrealist and famous anti-communist activist, creator of the Orange Alternative movement. The program includes an interview, a documentary, a conversation with the artist and orange hats for the first 50 guests.
Waldemar "Major" Fydrych
Painter, writer, happener. Waldemar "Major" Fydrych was born on April 8, 1953 in Toruń. He holds a master's degree in history (1980) and art history (1987) from the University of Wrocław. In 2012, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled. "Happening as an integrative, healing operation transforming art and reality" under the supervision of Prof. Stanisław Wieczorek.
He is known internationally as an organizer of mass happenings and author of books and graffiti dwarfs. He began his independent activities in the 1970s. After August 80, he created "the Movement for a New Culture" in Wrocław. Soon after, in 1981, he published the "Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism" and launched the Orange Alternative movement. During martial law, Poles became more familiar with Major's activities through graffiti dwarfs painted on spots covering anti-regime slogans. In total, there were more than a thousand of them in various Polish cities. Beginning in 1986, he began organizing a series of happenings that continues to this day - more than sixty by 2006 - which have gone down in history as the Orange Alternative.
Waldemar Fydrych is the author of five books, including the drama "Don General," and a painter, creating distinctive works with images of dwarfs. His book "Lives of the Orange Husbands" in July 2014 was published by the London-based Minor Compositions publishing house in English with a foreword by the famous activist duo The Yes Men and the well-known American journalist Anne Applebaum.
In 2013 he was recognized in the book "Surrealism - 50 works You should know" by Brad Finger, published by Prestel Publishing, a publishing house owned by the Random House publishing concern, as one of the most prominent representatives of Surrealism in the history of this trend alongside such artists as Picasso, Dali, Duchamp, Artaud, among others.
The most famous happenings by Waldemar "Major" Fydrych are:
1. Tubes, or smokestacking the city (April 1, 1986);
2. Potluck Festival (April 1, 1987);
3. Dwarfs on Świdnicka Street (June 1, 1987);
4. Down with the U-Pals (July 1987);
5. Anti-War Action (September 1, 1987);
6. Toilet Paper - the so-called first handout (October 1, 1987);
7. Militant Day (October 7, 1987);
8. Terrorist Day or Al Fatah (October 11, 1987);
9. Army Day or Maneuvers Melon in Mayonnaise (October 12, 1987);
10. Who's afraid of Toilet Paper? - The so-called Second Hand (October 15, 1987);
11. Eve of the October Revolution (November 6, 1987); (1000 participants)
12. Referendum on Świdnicka Street (November 27, 1987); (1500 participants)
13. Santa Claus Day (December 6, 1987); (2000 participants)
14. RIO-bot Carnival (February 16, 1988); (5,000 participants)
15. Secret Service Day (March 1, 1988);
16. Women's Day (March 8, 1988); ended with the arrest of Major Waldemar Fydrych "on a summary basis" for 2 months of absolute detention.
17. Major's trial (March 29, 1988); - appeal trial, after which Major was acquitted and released
18. Dwarf Revolution (June 1, 1988); (15,000 participants)
19. Brotherly Aid Forever Alive (August 19, 1988) (near Snezka near the Polish-Czech
border, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact troops'
intervention in Czechoslovakia);
20.Resident on Świdnicka Street (October 21, 1988);
21. October Revolution (November 7, 1988);
22.The eve of the great anniversary (December 12, 1988) of martial law.
23.Carnival or Herring on Świdnicka Street (February 7, 1989);
24.Stalin's Funeral or Funeral for Yourself (March 21, 1989)
25.FSO, or Festival of Present Art (June 1, 1989) concluded with a concert by the bands Kormorany, Big Cyc and Kult;
He has received numerous awards for these activities: including the 1988 Solidarity Award from the Puls Publishing House in London, and the Polkul Awards in Australia. He and the Orange Alternative, which he led, are the only winners to date of the Ashes and Diamonds Award established by director Andrzej Wajda, which was awarded in December 1988.
"Rewarded" he also received special attention from the regime's Interior Ministry in Poland, which kept an eye on Major Fydrych and his activities. In March 1988, during a happening in which he handed out sanitary pads on the street - a product in short supply at the time - Waldemar Fydrych was arrested and jailed for three months. In the face of mass protests, however, he was soon released.
Major and the Orange Alternative - at the Vienna Woods
When: 22 March 2025 at 6 pm
Where: 351 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP: prezes@modjeska.org
Please bring drinks and homemade delicacies.
Members - free admission;
guests - $20 per person, cash at the door.
Happenings after 2000:
• 2001: Celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Orange Alternative in Wroclaw.
• 2001: Celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Martial Law "Descent to Underground", in Glogow, with Kreatura Theatre
• 2002: Dwarf President - "Merrier and Competent Warsaw" Election Committee: Waldemar Major Fydrych is running for President of Warsaw.
• 2004: Happenings "Stereotypes" i" in France:
December 2003 - April 2004 - work with students at the Université d'Artois in Arras, happenings in Arras, Paris and Lille (program awarded by the European Union);
April 2004 - May 2004 - work with students at the Université de Nancy culminating in a happening on May 1, 2004 on the occasion of the Traverses Festival in Nancy; June 2004 - work with students from the Université de Nancy culminating in a happening on June 6 in Metz)
• 2004: Happenings "Kyiv Warsaw - Common Cause" ; Major Fydrych takes an active part in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine with happenings in Warsaw, Lublin, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnitsa and Kyiv.
• 2006: Warsaw: "Gammons and Dwarfs" Voters' Committee - Major defeats candidates of two of the three parties co-founding the ruling coalition.
• 2007: Warsaw: 6 "Educators in Action" happenings during the Sejm election campaign.
• 2009: series of happenings as part of the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Communism in Central Europe
Books authored or co-authored by Major Fydrych:
• "Hokus Pokus" - Annex Publishing House, year 1990, 150 pages
• "Lives of Orange Husbands".- Orange Alternative Publishing House, 2001, 300 pages
• "Dwarves and Gammons". - Orange Alternative Publishing, 2006, 247 pages
• "Orange Alternative - Revolution of the Dwarfs". - historical photo album - Orange
Alternative Publishing House, 2007/2008, 310 pages
• "Don General" - Drama in three acts, 2010, 60 pages.
• "Major" - autobiography, National Cultural Center, 2013, 320 pages
Exhibitions of Major Fydrych's artwork:
• "Images" - Exhibition of paintings at Ostrow Tumski in Wroclaw, 1988.
• "Dwarfs and the Orange Alternative" - exhibition of drawings, Art New Media Gallery, Warsaw, 2002.
• "Thousand Dwarfs" - exhibition of drawings, Theatre of the Eighth Day, Poznań, 2002.
• "Souvenir for Wroclaw" - exhibition of drawings as part of a group exhibition, BWA Gallery, Wrocław, 2003
• "1000 dwarfs for Warsaw" - watercolor exhibition, Traffic Gallery, Warsaw, 2006.
• "Waldemar Major Fydrych - dialectical art of great social forms". - watercolor exhibition, YIA Art Salon in Paris, Third District City Hall Headquarters, 2014.
• "Waldemar "Major" Fydrych - Painting". - exhibition of acrylics, Gallery "Orangery in Jablonna, 2019.
• "Waldemar "Major" Fydrych - Yesterday and Today - Fragments". - An exhibition of acrylics and photographs from the artist's happenings, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw, 2020.
Major foreign exhibitions about the Orange Alternative since 2000:
• 1989: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition entitled. "Les Utopies: Europe des
Createurs," Grand Palais, Paris, France.
• 2005: Exhibition on Orange at the European Parliament in Brussels
• 2005: Exhibition on the Orange Alternative in Ukraine (Donetsk, Lviv,
Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv), including over a month at the Kyiv-Mohyla
Academy, Kyiv Center for Contemporary Art
• 2009: A series of six street exhibitions in the country and one in Berlin as part of the
20th Anniversary of the Fall of Communism in Central Europe
• 2009: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition entitled. "Performing Revolution -
Revolutionary Voices from Central and Eastern Europe in 1980s" organized by The
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York, USA.
• 2011: Exhibition "L'Alternative Orange - La Revolution des Nains," Gallery Centre 59
Rivoli, Paris, France.
• 2011: Exhibition "La Alternativa Naranja - La Revolucion de los Gnomos", Main HallDepartment of Sociology and Political Science, Universidad Complutense de Madrid,
Madrid,Spain.
• 2011: "Happening into Communism" exhibition, International Cultural Centre, Kraków
• 2012: "The Major and the Orange Alternative" exhibition, Sarajevo War Theatre, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 2014-2015: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition titled. "Disobedient Objects," Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
Some of the documentaries on Major Fydrych's activities:
• "Orange Alternative", 24 min., directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 1988, awarded in 1989 with many awards including: Main Prize in the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany; Bronze Lajkonik in the National Short Film Festival in Krakow.
• "The Major or the Revolution of the Dwarves," 30 min. directed by Maria ZmarzKoczanowicz, 1989.
• "Dwarf President," 37 min, directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 2003.
• "Dwarfs go to Ukraine", 55 min., directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 2005, Audience Award at the National Independent Documentary Forms Review in Kielce.
• "Fearless Conquerors of Absurdities," 50 min., Discovery Historia, 2012.
Valentine's Day Ball - the fundraiser for Polish school in los Angeles, on 8 February 2025 at the Polish church on Adams Blvd. During the event, the Club will present Tomasz Sobania who will conclude his run across the U.S. on 26 January 2025 in Santa Monica.
Tomasz Sobania at the finish of his Run Across the US
Tomasz Sobania, a Polish ultramarathoner and motivational speaker, is in the midst of a unique run across the United States. He started on September 15 in New York and has already completed 2/3 of the entire route. On February 2, 2025, after covering 5,200 kilometers in 140 days by running, he will reach Santa Monica, California, where he will finish his remarkable expedition.
This will be a truly exceptional feat for a Polish athlete. However, this is not just an athletic challenge - Sobania's goal is to inspire others to action. That's why he's running across the US with the slogan “You can do more than you ever thought possible” on his T-shirt, making media appearances and holding community meetings to talk about his experiences and encourage action. His trip also provided an opportunity for an American film crew to create a documentary to show the diversity and spirit of the United States in 2024 from the East Coast to the West Coast.
More information about the run and the campaign can be found on Thomas Sobania's official social media profiles.
Valentine's Day Ball
When: 8 February 2025
Where: Polish church on Adams Blvd
Tickets: 120$
The first event of The Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in 2025 will feature Dr Adrian Krupa, philosopher from Poland in a lecture "What is beauty? Philosophical lecture on art".
What is Beauty?
The question of beauty has accompanied philosophy since its ancient sources. During the lecture, aesthetics will be presented as a branch of philosophy that reflects on beauty. Philosophers constantly argue about beauty - some consider it a subjective experience, while others argue for its objectivity. For example, the Pythagoreans understood beauty as harmony expressed in numerical proportions, which they found both in music and in the structures of the cosmos. The Pythagorean concept of beauty will be discussed in relation to classical works of art that realize such an ideal. Then, subjective concepts of beauty will be presented, which recognize that it lies in the eye of the beholder. Modern aesthetics in particular sought beauty in the experiences and emotions of the recipient (David Hume).
Modern philosophers also described the category of sublimity, which expressed the human experience of the power and boundlessness of nature (Immanuel Kant). An important role was played by the artist, whose ideal was a genius creating his own forms of beauty. The lecture will also be an opportunity to reflect on the question of what art is. Ancient philosophers developed a classical understanding of a work of art, which was based on masterful imitation (Aristotle's mimesis and Plato's radical critique of mimetic art). In the 20th century, avant-garde art undermined the traditional understanding of a work of art, which will be discussed using the example of contemporary artistic trends (surrealism, abstractionism, conceptualism and performance). We invite you to listen to a story about the history of beauty, which will be illustrated by famous works of art!
Biography
Adrian Krupa – philosopher, graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). Scholarship holder at the University of Saarland (Germany). Currently completing his PhD at the Doctoral School of Humanities of the University of Warsaw in the field of philosophy. His doctoral dissertation is about posthumanism with particular emphasis on the concept of "the posthuman". As an educator, he popularizies philosophy in the form of meetings, lectures and workshops. Facilitator of the "Służewskie Forum Filozoficzne" at the Służewski Dom Kultury in Warsaw. Privately, a lover of ancient and modern Greece.
What is beauty? Presentation by Adrian Krupa
When: February 1st, 2025, at 4:30pm
Where: Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga CA (10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga, CA 91042)
RSVP: prezes@modjeska.org
A reception to follow, please bring some beverages and desserts. Free to members and guests.
The Annual Modjeska Club Christmas Caroling Party will take place at the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga (7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, CA 91042 ) on December 14, 2024 at 5:30 pm - dinner at 6 pm, carols at 7 pm. Christmas Caroling will be led by singer-pianist Olivia Kierdal.
The dinner of Polish traditional dishes will take the form of a potluck, coordinated by Kasia Ligwińska and Maria Łobodzińska. The menus will be sent later. To RSVP for the event, so we have a headcount, please reply to prezes@modjeska.org by DECEMBER 7th, with your choice of dishes.
The Modjeska Club will purchase two turkeys for a local caterer. Since there is no heating option in the now antique kitchen, bring your hot dishes in your own chafing dishes with fuel available. Joe DeCenzo will assist in decorating and setup for AV and dinner, but more volunteers are needed.
The signup for the dishes will be emailed separately.
The event will start from breaking the Christmas Wafer (Opłatek) and best wishes at 6:00pm, followed by holiday dinner buffet with traditional dishes. The caroling will start at 7 pm.
The Annual Modjeska Club Christmas Caroling Party
When: December 14, 2024 at 5:30 pm - dinner at 6 pm, carols at 7 pm
Where: the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga (7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, CA 91042)
RSVP: prezes@modjeska.org by DECEMBER 7th, with your choice of dishes
Born in a Polish family in Sydney, Australia, Kierdal is a singer, classically trained pianist, songwriter and producer. She studied at Macquarie University in Sydney, receiving a scholarship to study abroad in California State University, Fullerton in 2014, and living in California since that time. She has over 2,000,000 viewers on Spotify where she posted over 20 songs. She led Caroling for the Modjeska Club twice already, presenting some solo carols and leading the members in sing-along caroling of heart-warming traditional music. She also sang National Anthems for the Polish Consulate and led Christmas Caroling for Polish American Congress, to mention just two examples of her community involvement. Link to a recent interview by Shoutout LA (February 2023) is below.
https://shoutoutla.com/meet-olivia-kierdal-songwriter-artist-and-producer/
Modjeska Club sings "Przybieżeli do Betlejem" Carol with Polish Consul Pawel Lickiewicz, Olivia Kierdal at the piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGhy9C-S7KQ&t=14s
The Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in cooperation with the Institute of National Remembrance invites you to a monodrama written by Polish actor, Sebastian Rys, entitled "Family War Stories: Zofia Rysiowna" and presented on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 6:30 PM at the Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory, 10931 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.
ABOUT THE PLAY. Family war stories: Zofia Rysiówna, presented by Sebastian Ryś
"With our thoughts, we reach memories as quickly as with our eyesight to the stars. Looking at the starry sky, we see the black dome of the Earth's firmament sparkling with diamonds. The stars are seemingly equally distant, but in reality they are separated, from us and from each other, by thousands of light years. Thought has a similar path to memories recorded in memory, although some lose their shine."
Let these thoughts accompany us, calling up from memory the recorded slides, which can now shine anew with the power of our hearts.
The heroine of our meeting today is Zofia Rysiówna. A woman from Nowy Sącz, a liaison officer, an actress, a mother and a wife, a strict but fair and dedicated person. She will open up the world of family memories of the Rysiów family from Nowy Sącz to us. Continuing the family saga, we will follow "Zosia" in this story, because that was her war nickname, and we will try to see the youth of Nowy Sącz, their activities and sports through her eyes. We will meet Rysiówna's school professors and try to recognize the character traits of the so-called Other Generation, with whom we have less and less in common.
Perhaps she will reveal to us the spherical reflection of Jan Karski's secret emissary, in which action she took part and reveal the later dramatic fates of the family and the inhabitants of this city related to it. I do not know if she will take us with her beyond the walls of the Camp, we cannot really expect that, but I think that at the end of the story Zofia Rysiówna will invite us in front of her beloved radio microphone and onto the stage of the theater. Her post-war life was hidden and here too let's not expect too effusive a report. What can we expect? Honest words, a warm heart and something on the border of a dream and intense experience.
The stage statement combines: the testimony of an indirect witness to history, archival radio recordings, poems with elements of a fictional narrative in musical accents. The whole thing was based on "Memories of May" by Wanda Straszyńska, remembered family relations and the book "On the Paths of Fantom" by Jacek Ryś.
Let this meeting be an engaging journey into the recesses of memory of living memories.
~ Sebastian Ryś
Sebastian Rys Presents a Play about Zofia Rysiówna
When: Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 6:30 PM
Where: Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory, 10931 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.
RSVP: Beata.J.Czajkowska@gmail.com
Free admission for club members, $30 per person for guests.
Payment by check made payable to "Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club" with note about the theater, to PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041, or paypal to prezes@modjeska.org.
Sebastian Ryś – born in Wrocław in 1986, graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw. Actor, sensitive interpreter of romantic heroes. He made his debut while still a student at the Nowy Theatre in Słupsk, in the role of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz in Andrzej Maria Marczewski's original performance "Witkacy jest do X-tej" with music by Marek Dyjak. He collaborated with the Old Town Theatre and the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. In the Płock Dramatic Theatre he made himself known as: S.B. in Szymon Bogacz's play "Trzech mamy w inne wiek" directed by Julia Mark, as well as the title role of W. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" directed by Marek Mokrowiecki. He was permanently associated with the Polish Theatre in Wrocław, where he played, among others: in Janusz Wiśniewski's "Imaginary Sick" and in Bartosz Wyszomirski's "Mirandolina".
He has film and TV roles under his belt. In his search for theatre heroes, he reaches for radio theatre and his own short productions. In his monodrama entitled: "Zupa rybna w Odesie", he resurrects the unfinished story of the forgotten hero Jan Karski, winning numerous awards: Main prize at the Strzała Północy Festival in Koszalin. Main prize of the XLIII Tyskie Spotkania Teatralne Two Jury prizes - Solo Olsztyn OSTJA Grand Prix - Festival of Original Arts and Adaptations, WINDOWISKO, Gdańsk.
Ryś is a beneficiary of the "Kultura Polska na Świecie" programme of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. He took part in the international United Solo festival in New York, performing there with the English version of the monodrama "Fish soup in Odessa". He is a theatre instructor with pedagogical training and a supporting teacher. He organizes poetry concerts. With his vision he set the tone for the artistic expression of the radio play entitled: "Scars of Freedom". Co-creator of "Plam w Pamięci" - a production of the Polish Radio Theatre. Co-writer, director and actor in the spectacle about Jerzy Popiełuszko "Rozżarzone embers miłości".
On 28 September 2024 at 6pm, the Modjeska Art & Culture Club will have the pleasure of presenting a Polish writer, Piotr D. Siemion, a Warsaw-based novelist and translator, who also works as a corporate attorney. The event will be held in a private residence in Brentwood and will be open only to Club members and VIP guests of the speaker.
The interview will be conducted by Dr. Jerzy Kossek, specialist in Polish-American literature who teaches at University of California, Irvine and is a Modjeska Club member.
PIOTR D. SIEMION
Piotr D. Siemion is an accomplished novelist and essay author, writing in English and his native Polish. He was raised in the academic center of Wrocław (the pre-1945 Breslau) in Poland, where he studied English Literature and was, in his own words, "a bit of a counterculture figure." After his early debut as a literary translator, he spent his formative years in New York City. In 1988 he traveled to the United States as a Fulbright scholar, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject of American twentieth-century novels. Between 1988 and 2000 he moved between the US (New York) and Canada (Montreal), during which time he published a series of translations, among others, of Yeats' poetry and Tom Clancy's prose. He has translated Thomas Pynchon (the ingenious translation of The Crying of Lot 49, for which he won the 'Literatura na Świecie award), John Gardner and Robert Nye. He worked as a columnist and anecdote writer for the underground journal 'BruLion'. In 1997 he completed his legal studies at the University of Columbia and worked in Manhattan in the legal practice of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Since the summer of 2000 he has lived in Warsaw.
His return to Poland after twelve years abroad coincided with the beginning of his novelistic career. He lives just outside Warsaw, that the writer describes as "a zany, postmodern city, where one can, these days, fully experience the 21st century dynamics of intermingling languages, civilizations, and ideas, while remaining rooted in Europe’s difficult history." In fact, his artistic work has always been marked by cross-border but also cross-disciplinary influences. In the U.S. he received his Ph.D. degree in American fiction but also studied for a law school degree, both from Columbia University in New York. In the last three decades, Siemion has pursued a two-edged career of an international lawyer and a novelist, never being able to decide which path to abandon. In the end, he is still doing both things at once, writing novels and, in parallel, working on AI projects for a Warsaw-based publishing house.
In his early years, he used to translate into Polish the works of British, Irish, and American authors, including Thomas Pynchon, Robert Nye, and W.B. Yeats. In 2000, he published his first novel, Niskie Łąki (“Low Meadows”), which was hailed as the literary event of the year, and was subsequently translated into German, Hungarian, and Ukrainian. It was meant as a chronicle of his post-Communist generation, depicting the transition from the Cold War era to the new, chaotic, capitalist order of things. In 2004, his second novel, Finimondo, appeared, to good reviews but less publicity. It was a business thriller and, for a second novel, it had good reviews. In 2015, the book was followed by a personal, book-length biographical essay, The Year of the Snake. A Diary. In the meantime, he periodically published other literary translations (listed below), essays, and reviews.
Siemion published his most recent novel, Bella, ciao, in 2022. A post-apocalyptic riff on modernity’s key philosophical issues, it coincided with Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. Accordingly, some critics read it as a fact-based report from the conflict. At any event, in 2023 Bella, ciao, was shortlisted for the Warsaw Literary Prize, as well as the Central European Literary Prize Angelus. At this time, Siemion is busy outlining a new work of fiction, but in parallel he concern myself with the rapidly changing Polish and English literary idioms. In fact, he enthusiastically embraced the chance to translate Solar Bones into Polish precisely because Mike McCormack’s novel intermingles the 21st century vernacular with strong echoes of grand literary traditions: an exercise in literary sleight-of-hand that is a challenge and a joy to its translators.
Writer Piotr Siemion
When: Wednesday, 28 September, 2024, 6 pm
Where: The event will be held in a private residence in Brentwood and will be open only to Club members and VIP guests of the speaker.
RSVP: prezes@modjeska.org
Dr Kossek is a Polish-American Americanist, Associate Professor writer, poet, literature and music critic, theater director, promoter and producer, radio host, Fulbright Professor at University of California Riverside, currently teaching creative writing at California MiraMar University in San Diego, Former Chair and Associate Professor at University of Bielsko-Biala, Poland.Former English and American Literature and Culture Professor at University of Occupational Safety Management. He holds MA in English and American Literature and Culture and Doctoral Degree in American Literature from University of Silesia, Poland. A recipient of several international research awards, he lectured in Europe and USA. In Poland under Soviet regime he organized and founded American Club Association in cooperation with American Consulate General in Krakow, Poland. His passion for American core music - Blues resulted in co-organizing the world's biggest blues festival - Rawa Blues Festival, Poetic Blues Café, Academic Blues Conference, Route 66 Seminar.
He is the founder and Director of Ethnic Studies Center and actively supported the efforts to organize the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. Dr Kossek is the author of many academic books on American Literature, Culture and Music. He is a singer/songwriter and poet. His first CD entitled The Blues Sharpener’s Daughter earned The best concept album status in 2014 at Polish-American Music, Folk and Arts Fest in Zywiec, Poland. Dr Kossek wrote and directed theatrical performances in Katowice and Bielsko-Biala and Los Angeles. He is an Academic Tutor and has 35 plus years of experience teaching English and related subjects at all levels. Recently he started the rendition of Blues Poetic Café in Los Angeles under the name of Blues and Jazz Poetic Café at historic Leimert Park location in Los Angeles. Jerzy George supports the local communities in LA, Riverside and Orange Counties with lots of volunteer work as the Director of Music, Culture and The Arts for Greater Los Angeles Fulbright Association and as Artistic Director for Barbara Morrison Performing Arts.
Dr Kossek has both qualifications and passion for teaching English as The Second language. He has been teaching English for over 35 years at all levels for students of all ages. He holds Master’s Degree in English Philology/ English Pedagogy Major ( fully accredited four year English studies) from State University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland certifying him to teach all English courses at all levels including higher academic levels. He also holds a Doctoral Degree from the same University in American Studies. Dr Kossek’s top professional knowledge and experience have their roots in pedagogy, psychology, strong background in English grammar and syntax, phonology and phonetics, Latin and practical knowledge of English. His professional mission as educator/tutor is to provide the highest quality of English language learning experience for students looking to achieve conversational or academic proficiency in order to live, work or study in English-speaking environment. His self created teaching curriculum focuses on life skill/professional development as well as cultural immersion to give his students the best English learning experience possible.
Kossek's passion for American core music (The Blues) resulted in many ventures. The most significant of them, co-organization of Rawa Blues Festival in Katowice, Poland. Over the years the Festival grew to the biggest blues fest status in the world under the roof and also one of the oldest. Most of the top blues personalities like Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Robert Cray, Keb' Mo', James Blood Ulmer & Vernon Reid, Otis Taylor performed at the Flying Saucer venue, a 60.000 spectators concert arena. The Festival is the recipient of the Keeping the Blues Award for the Best International Festival. To stress the role of text/lyrics/poetry/art in blues music and interdisciplinary character of blues culture Kossek founded The Poetic Café - a venue happening yearly alongside the Blues Fest gathering poets, songwriters, artists and painters, students and fans over workshops, seminars, competitions and artistic happening on and off the main stage. The Poetic Café, unlike the Blues Fest, is opened throughout the whole year, inspiring the wide audience all over the world.