Waldemar Raźniak
Krakow, Poland
Director, actor, and teacher; He made his debut with Maxim Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova at Och-Teatr (with Krystyna Janda and Jerzy Trela in the starring roles, 2010); he has directed over twenty productions, including: Night of the Ravens (Polish Royal Opera 2022); Fake Opera (Warsaw Autumn 2021); Birdy, the opera set to music by Karol Nepelski (Tete a Tete Festival London 2019); Jakub Gawatowic’s Tragedy of Jan (2018) and A Study on Hamlets with Tomasz Rodowicz (Chorea Theatre in Łódź, 2017); Woman in the Mirror by Piotr Domalewski (WFDiF, 2016); The Tempest by William Shakespeare (Białystock Puppet Theatre, 2015); Othello by William Shakespeare (W. Gombrowicz Theatre in Gdynia, 2015); the opera Orlando Paladino by Joseph Haydn (Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw – UMFC and AT, 2015); The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Collegium Nobilium Theatre in Warsaw, 2015); The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Wiliams (Guliwer Theatre in Warsaw, 2014); Mad Joanna; The Queen by Jolanta Janiczak (W. Gombrowicz Theatre in Gdynia, 2013); Bordel Formidable! | Extravaganza based on Ionesco/Krasiński, Sawdust and Tinsel by Ingmar Bergman (Collegium Nobilium Theatre in Warsaw, 2012), Wet Weather Cover by Oliver Cotton (Powszechny Theatre in Łódź, 2013); Morphine based on Yelena and Mikhail Bulgakov (Roma Musical Theatre in Warsaw, 2011), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? based on Horace McCoy (WTT in Bytom, 2011), Script for Three Actors by Bogusław Schaeffer (W. Gombrowicz Theatre in Gdynia, 2010), The Idiot based on Fyodor Dostoevsky at the Collegium Nobilium Theatre (director’s diploma project, 2009); and an electronic opera of Solaris based on Stanisław Lem’s novel (Malta Theatre Festival in Poznań — New Situations, /Honorary Mention, 2008).
Apart from Shakespeare and Russian Literature, he is interested in physical theatre, devised & dance theatre, contemporary opera, and radio plays in the form of audiobooks (Solaris, Return from the stars, Fahrenheit 451 and Fall of the Giants for audioteka.pl). He has held acting workshops for students in the United States (UCLA, Emerson College), Germany (Festival Ruhrtriennale), China (Central Academy of Drama in Beijing), Mexico (UNAM), and Great Britain (Drama Studio London).
He has performed in productions at the Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow: The Green Goose directed by Marta Stebnicka, Twelfth Night directed by Jerzy Stuhr, Mozart’s Vision directed by Roman Gancarczyk, and Richard III directed by Jerzy Stuhr at the Ludowy Theatre in Krakow. He also performed in a series of Maciej Nowak’s Non-Cabarets at the Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk, and in films such as Janusz Morgenstern’s The Lesser Evil, Little Moscow, and 80 million, as well as Waldemar Krzystek’s The Photographer.
In 2016–2019 he served as vice-rector of the Theatre Academy in Warsaw (in 2015/2016 as dean, and in 2014/2015 as vice-dean of the Acting Faculty); he was a Waldman Professor in Theatre Arts at Emerson College in Boston (USA, 2019); lecturer at the Dance Theatre Faculty of Krakow’s PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts (Distance Faculty in Bytom, 2011–2014); he graduated from the Directing Faculty at the Theatre Academy (2010), completed acting studies at the Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow (2006), cultural management at the Jagiellonian University (2006) and the “Singing in the Theatre” course at the Conservatoire for Music & Theatre in Guildford (Great Britain); he also did a director’s internship at the GITIS Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow, and won a humanities scholarship from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
