Theatre lifted them up

The subject of this article is a staging: “Something wonderful and more” which was created as a part of art workshops for adult amateur actors in Teatrownia – a place run next to Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole. The mentioned Teatrownia was established by „Kochanowski” Society, and the whole project is co-financed by the President of Opole. Cyclical meetings of this excellent group have been led for 5 years by the actors who work for the theatre: Grazyna Misiorowska and Maciej Namyslo. The group meets every week and works for 4 hours. Apart from obligatory warm-up exercises and basic acting tasks, the participants work on their studies which are used in a performance – a kind of a summary of an annual work – presented on a stage of the theatre. The project “Something wonderful…” is the 5th edition of such a cooperation of Teatrownia adult performers. I perceive this idea as a project of creative paratheatrical actions that activate this part of society which could soon be its margin. The elderly and the disabled are becoming such a margin. The theatrical group includes people of different ages and of different professions, but most of them are pensioners. Their meetings help to arrange both individual and collective experiences, or make friends. For many of them the theatre means fulfillment of a pensioner’s life, an adventure, a therapy, making dreams come true. The performances created by the group are an effective connection of movement, music, light and words. And, finally and most importantly, all texts are written by the amateur actors themselves, and producers let all these intimate confessions to be presented as universal values.