Polish-American Migrant Theatre: Teatr NASZ From Chicago On Tour In Florida

As of 2023, Polish Americans amounted to over eight million people, i.e., 2.46% of the US population according to the US Census Bureau^[1][Polish-American Heritage Month: October 2023, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/polish-american-heritage-month.html, accessed: 27.12.2024.. Since October 1986, celebrations of the Polish American Heritage Month have been organized nationwide. The state of Illinois, alongside New York, serves as one of the primary hubs for American Polonia. Chicago is often referred to as the world’s second-largest Polish city, surpassed only by Warsaw, Poland’s capital. In 2023, people of Polish ancestry in the broader Chicago metropolitan area constituted 6.16% of the city’s population^[2]United States Census Bureau. https://data.census.gov/table?t=Ancestry&g=310XX00US16980, accessed 27.12.2024.. Notably, Chicago Polonia is by no means a homogenous community: “Illinois and especially Chicago do not have a single ‘Polonia,’ but rather several Polonias divided by era of immigration, culture, and location. … These dense networks of association helped immigrants adjust to life in a new reality and meet the changing spiritual, social, cultural, and economic needs of a changing population.”^[3]John Radzilowski, “Poles in Illinois: a Brief Historical Outline.” Studia Polonijne 43/2022. DOI: 10.18290/sp2243.8s. Among the numerous Polish American organizations in the Windy City, there is a rich network of theaters and theatrical groups.

Teatr NASZ was established in 2018 by Andrzej Krukowski and eleven actresses (Aldona Olchowska, Gosia Duch, Elżbieta Kasińska, Sara Krukowski, Marzena Liskowicz, Agnieszka Lubowicka, Magdalena Miśkowiec, Agnieszka Sarrafian, Iwona Szewczyk, Lilianna Totten, and Katarzyna Żytkiewicz), who had previously collaborated with Agata Paleczny (“Little Stars” workshops) within the framework of a theatrical group called “Feisty Women” (“Ryczące Czterdziestki”).

Teatr NASZ, based in Chicago, collaborates with a wide range of Polish-American associations, media representatives, entrepreneurs, the Polish Museum of America, local artists, and other long-established theatrical groups that have played a significant role in the city’s cultural landscape. Many of their actors worked for such artistic initiatives as Proscenium Theatre and Bocian Theatre (created by Bogdan Łańko), Teatr przy Stoliku im. Alicji Szymankiewicz (led by Monika Kulas), TrapDoor Theatre (led by Beata Pilch and Nicole Wiesner), theatrical workshops “Little Stars” (run by Agata Paleczny), etc.

Since its inception, Teatr NASZ has staged numerous productions, featuring adaptations of works by Polish writers, such as Julian Tuwim (Bal w operze, 2018), Bogusław Schaeffer (Kwartet dla czterech aktorów [Quarter for Four Actors], 2020), Witold Gombrowicz (Opertta Kicz Gomborowicz, 2019), Aleksander Fredro (Zemsta [The Revenge], 2021), Jan Brzechwa (Pchła Szachrajka [The Cheating Flea], 2022), and poets, among others, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (Najdroższa [Beloved], 2021), Zbigniew Herbert (Proces Pana Cogito [The Process of Mr. Cogito], 2022). They also used texts by contemporary migrant writers, such as Grażyna Skoczeń’s Ten zapach miał kolor niebieski (The Scent Was Blue), which tells multiple stories of migrant experiences of Polish women (first staged in 2023). The theater’s most recent production was an adaptation of Nikolai Kolyada’s Gąska, which premiered in 2023.

In the spring of 2024, Teatr NASZ was invited to tour Florida with the play Gąska, performing for the Polish-American diaspora. In April they visited three cities: Clearwater (April 19th, Polish Center of John Paul II), Hudson (April 20th, American Social Club of Pasco County), and Sarasota (April 21st, Polish Heritage Society Sarasota).

Gąska is a farce echoing a famous sentence from Nicolai Gogol’s General Inspector: “What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself!” This is the type of repertoire that truly resonates with Teatr NASZ.

Gąska tells the story of a group of provincial actors from a small theater in Dechovsk, Russia—three women and two men—who are entangled in a dramatic love affair. The audience observes their complicated intimate relationships and conflicting emotions, accompanied by an atmosphere of deception, falsehood, and betrayal. Nona—a young, attractive actress—seduces the male protagonists, irritates and provokes envy among other women, thereby destabilizing the musty, petty-bourgeois order and disrupting the convenient yet a little stiff existence of the theatrical group.

At first, Gąska delights audiences with its tear-inducing humor, witty dialogues, dynamic plot, expressive and comical characters, situational jokes, and colorful, exaggerated scenography and costume design. Gradually, however, the black comedy transforms into a tragifarce—laughter through tears gives way to tension, as Nona’s presence is no longer amusing, and hostility and violent attitudes begin to grow among the actors on stage. The feelings of helplessness, sadness, self-reflection, affection, and disillusionment are slowly replacing the initial amusement. One realizes that we are not looking at a group of artists; we are looking at ourselves, which becomes clear in the final powerful scene when Nona holds up a mirror, revealing the viewers’ own reflection.

The audience’s image in the mirror and “the reflection on the actor’s profession is allegory for everyday hardships of life and difficult choices, which each of us sometimes has to make in the face of radical life changes.”^[4]Marta Joanna Rawicz, “Chicagowska Gąska poleciała na Florydę.” Super Express Chicago 26.04-2.05.2024, p. 9. In this way Gąska offers a multilayered, ambiguous, and ultimately bitter commentary on human desires, fears, and never-ending drive for happiness, love, and intimate relationship. As Tomasz Obara contends, “This is a play about people’s dreams that cannot be fulfilled. Our protagonists are stuck in some horrible, provincial place which makes you want to die.”^[5]Tomasz Obara, „Gąska, czyli gwiazda,” Encyklopedia Teatru Polskiego. https://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/321585/gaska-czyli-gwiazda, accessed: 17.09.2024.

Gąska was enthusiastically received by audiences in Florida. One viewer in Hudson wrote in their review that the production offered a unique artistic experience, leaving the audience moved, deeply engaged, and reflective. The actors of Teatr NASZ succeeded in engaging the viewers, drawing them into the complex, bittersweet narrative and the dramatic love story. The audience sympathized with Nona’s journey, from being adored and loved to ultimately being condemned and rejected. Their performance was professional, authentic, and emotional, captivating viewers on many different levels. Importantly, “the stage confirmed that art can be a bridge connecting different communities and cultures and building mutual understanding and the feeling of connectedness. … By showing this play in the Polonian environment, Teatr NASZ not only promoted the values of transnational literature and theatre, but also emphasized the universality of human experiences and emotions that transgress cultural boundaries.”^[6]Leszek Zieliński, “Recenzja sztuki Gąska w Polish American Club in Hudson, FL.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/polacywtampabayinaflorydzie/permalink/7562679020441957/, 24.04.2024, accessed: … Continue reading

Teatr NASZ fulfilled its ambitious plans in the 2024 fall season: from co-organization of the Congress of Polish Theaters in Chicago (September 19-22, 2024), followed by participation in the International Theater Festival MonoWschód^[7]https://www.teatrstudio.lt/category/festiwale/wilenskie-spotkania-sceny-polskiej/. in Vilnius, Lithuania (November 12-17, 2024), and concluding with the XXII Festiwal Interpretacje[8] in Katowice, Poland (November 18-24, 2024).