"From WESELE to PAN TADEUSZ, 65 years of Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów a list of premieres from 1944 to 2009"
Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów celebrates its 65th anniversary. Its first managing director - Bogdan Proskurnicki - started the 1944/45 season with Wesele [The Wedding] by Stanisław Wyspiański, directed by Władysław Konarski. Whereas managing director Przemysław Tejkowski honoured the great jubilee of the Theatre, in the season of 2009/10 by staging Pan Tadeusz, by Adam Mickiewicz, adapted and directed by Irena Jun. Between those two titles, the stage at No.7, Sokoła Street held nearly 500 premieres!
In the Jubilee Season we would like to pay respect to numbers of artists and other staff members of "Siemaszkowa", whose talents and effort contributed to that remarkable output. Therefore, on the occasion of the World Theatre Day 2010 we are publishing "the small book" of Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre, which records all managing directors and their terms in office, all premieres, and their producers, as well as casts of all specific premiere performances. This huge task was executed by Ms Ewa Fudala.
In near future we are also planning to release "the big book" of the Theatre - complete with reproductions of bills, posters, stills, headlines and fragments of reviews, designs of decorations and costumes. In this endeavour invaluable help is provided by the National Archive in Rzeszów and the Voivodship and Municipal Public Library in Rzeszów.
We will also appreciate your help - all readers of this inconspicuous volume. We hope the little book will find its way to older, often retired members of the "Siemaszkowa" staff. It turns out, unfortunately, that a period of 65 years is an immense river with plenty of meanders and nuances. A great deal of names and information about those who created Our Theatre has vanished due to the incompleteness of archive holdings; many theatre photographs remain unidentified… Even this modest and absolutely essential volume requires corrections and filling in the gaps, particularly in the sequence related to the period from 1944 to 1956.
Therefore we would like to ask the Readers - long time Employees and Co-creators, our faithful Audience, our Friends - to join in the work of reconstruction and recording of all nearly 500 premieres of Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre .
Waldemar Matuszewski
Managing Director of Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów