MAJA KLECZEWSKA
Theatre director, known for her outstanding interpretations of plays by Anton Chekhov, William Shakespeare, and Elfriede Jelinek. She graduated in psychology from the University of Warsaw and in drama directing from Kraków’s State Higher School of Theatre Arts (now the AST National Academy).
Still as a student she collaborated with Krzysztof Warlikowski on a production of Sophocles’ Electra at Warsaw’s Dramatyczny Theatre. She was also an assistant director to Krystian Lupa at Kraków’s National Stary Theatre. She made her debut as director at the Słowacki Theatre in the latter city with Jordan by Anna Reynolds and Moira Buffini.
She has directed spectacles at, among others, the Norwid Theatre in Jelenia Góra (Chekhov’s The Seagull), the Kochanowski Theatre in Opole (Shakespeare’s Macbeth, von Horváth’s Tales from the Vienna Woods), the Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz (Büchner’s Woyzeck), the National Stary Theatre in Kraków (Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Narodowy Theatre in Warsaw (Phaedra after texts by Euripides, Seneca, Enquist, and Tasnádi), the Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz (Chekhov’s Platonov, Jelinek’s Shadow. Eurydice Says, Shakespeare’s Tempest), the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw (Hauptmann’s The Rats), the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg (Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians), the Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theater in Warsaw (S. Ansky’s Dybbuk, Kosiński’s Painted Bird – a co-production with Poznań’s Polski Theatre). Her spectacles have been presented at festivals in Venice (Jelinek’s Rage), Paris and Berlin (Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream), London (Shakespeare’s Macbeth), as well as Madrid (Cassavetes’ A Woman under the Influence).
Kleczewska was twice nominated for the ‘Konrad’s Laurels’ awards of the ‘Interpretacje’ festival in Katowice. In 2006 she received the ‘Polityka’ weekly’s ‘Passport’ Award. Her other accolades include the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award, the Silver Lion of the Venice Biennale, and the Konrad Swinarski Award of the ‘Teatr’ monthly. The artist is a lecturer at the Directing Department of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw.