For Immediate Release: October 11, 2006
Contact: Marsha Mullan
(610) 328-8535

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Wroclaw Puppet Theatre of Poland to Perform at Swarthmore Oct. 28

The Wroclaw Puppet Theatre of Poland will present "Ostatnia Ucieczkai" (The Last Escape) at Swarthmore College on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. in the Pearson-Hall Theatre, Lang Performing Arts Center.  Members of the company will also conduct puppet design, performance, and directing workshops over the weekend.  All events are sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation and the Department of Theater and are free and open to the public.

The "Ostatnia Ucieczkai" performance mixes human actors with puppets, successfully translating the work of Bruno Schulz (1893-1942) as human actors alone could not.  A pensioner named Jozef, trying to escape his isolation, discovers a corner of his room where the normal laws of time and space don't apply.  His trips back into his mythical childhood memories and dreams are presented in a fantastical and sometimes explosive manner.

Bruno Schulz, an avant-garde Polish writer and artist of the 1930s and '40s, while influenced by Kafka, tended to mix surrealistic humor with realistic details, giving his work more of a sense of everyday life.  Although he is one of Poland's most important writers for the stage, he is perhaps best known for his collection of short stories, The Street of Crocodiles.

Schedule of workshops:
• Friday, Oct. 27, 1 p.m.  Puppet design class.  Lang Performing Arts Center, Frear Ensemble Theatre.
• Saturday, Oct. 28, 11 a.m.  Puppet performance workshop, Lang Performing Arts Center, Frear Ensemble Theatre.
• Sunday, Oct. 29, 1 p.m.  Puppet theater directing class led by Aleksander Maksymiak, artistic director of Wroclawski Teatr Lalek and director of Ostatnia Ucieczka, Lang Performing Arts Center, Pearson-Hall Theatre.

For more information, please call 610-957-6164.

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