Kent Academic to talk with Polish Director in Leverhulme Olympic Talks series

University of Kent Professor of Theatre and Performance, Paul Allain, will be in conversation with Polish Director, Grzegorz Jarzyna, in the final event in a series that explores different approaches to stage adaptation.

Taking place at the Barbican London on Thursday 1 November 2012, Professor Allain will discuss radical reinterpretations of classic drama, opera, novels, and contemporary plays by the Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna.

Grzegorz Jarzyna is General and Artistic Director of TR Warszawa, Warsaw’s most prestigious theatre, and is known for his stage adaptations which cut across various genres and media. He has directed productions based on a wide range of sources, from the plays of Shakespeare, to the novels of Mann and Dostoyevsky and the films of Pasolini. His adaptation of Nosferatu will be at the Barbican from 31 October to 3 November.

Professor Paul Allain, from the University’s School of Arts, specialises in performance theory, Eastern theatre forms, and Eastern European theatre. He published Gardzienice: Polish Theatre in Transition in 1997, the first book in English on this celebrated company's work. He has also published several edited collections on Polish director Jerzy Grotowski as part of the British Grotowski project. Most recently he has hosted Professor Richard Schechner at Kent for a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, and published the DVD/booklet Andrei Droznin's Physical Actor Training (2012). In 2009, he received a medal from the Polish government for services to Polish culture.

The Leverhulme Olympic Talks on Theatre and Adaptation series is part of Queen Mary, University of London’s 2012-inspired cultural celebrations, curated by Dr Margherita Laera. The series is sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, Queen Mary’s Drama Department and the Olympic Programme. This final event is co-sponsored by the University of Kent’s European Theatre Research Network and produced by the Barbican Centre.

The series has run since April 2012, welcoming major names from the contemporary theatre world, including artist and academic Lois Weaver; directors Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Rubén Szuchmacher, Peter Sellars and Emma Rice; Helgard Haug of director collective Rimini Protokoll; writers Colin Teevan, Mohamed Kacimi, Alexandra Wood and Dennis Kelly; and celebrated puppeteers Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler and Mervyn Millar of Handspring Puppet Company.

The event takes place in the Barbican Pit from 5pm to 7pm and is open to the public, but booking via the Barbican Box Office is required on 0844 243 0753. The event comprises of an informal conversation followed by questions from the audience.

For more information on the series, please visit: www.drama.qmul.ac.uk/news/leverhulmetalks or www.facebook.com/LeverhulmeTalks.

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 3:45pm 30 October 2012