The Theater of Great Actresses
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005On October 22, 2005, the Polish-American Cultural Center hosted a performance of a play “Helena – Thing About Modrzejewska”. Even now, while I write these words, I am unceasingly impressed by the magnificent one-person play. This particular perception was caused by two factors – the content of the play and a deep interpretation of the monodrama by Maria Nowotarska.
The author of this biographical play, Professor Kazimierz Braun, put into this text almost everything about the life and work of the diva of the Polish and American theatrical scene, Helena Modrzejewska, who used the name Modjeska (1840-1909) outside of Poland. The text of the monodrama described Modrzejewska’s earlier and later problems. She was an illegitimate child, a mother of an out-of-wedlock son, and a poor actress learning her trade in traveling troupes. In time, her work brought her great stardom and her marriage to an aristocrat, Karol Chlapowski, assured her social status. (more…)
