ZAMEK Culture Centre

As JEST TAK JEST worked on their very first performance, there was a set of vital questions the actors and actresses asked themselves: Who am I? What do I feel? What do I like? What am I afraid of? What am I interested in? What do I find important? What do I want? What would I like to share with others? How could things be?

The answers presented during the performance assume a variety of forms: they are painted, written, played out, sung, or recorded. All these elements make up a composition which suggestively reflects on individual fates. Looking after the group, Graży­na Wydrowska is present on the stage as a guide, introducing the first-time performers into the world of theatre.

premiere: November 11th 2019

JEST JAK JEST company was established in 2019 and it was literally formed from scratch. Most of its members have never performed on stage before, while for some the work at CK ZAMEK is the first ever encounter with the world of performative arts. The group is composed of: the residents of two homes run by L’Arche Poland Foundation, participants of Occupational Therapy Workshops operating as part of the NA TAK Association,  as well as persons cared for by ISKRA Association for the Disabled and the Day Centre for Adaptation. Several of the actors tackle everyday barriers with the assistance of their family and friends. Despite the complexity of individual circumstances, a year’s work yielded an eleven-person group who showed their first performance twice in autumn 2019.
Director leading the group is Gra­żyna Wydrowska. As a co-founder of the legendary Teatr Wierzbak and long-standing author of socially-oriented workshops, she is perfectly conversant with the nature of the creative process which the actors and actresses of JEST JAK JEST will go through in the years to come.

Performance is a part of the COMMON THEATRE - authorial performative project realize by Zamek Culture Centre in Poznan, which brings us performances created by people from milieus facing social or disability-related exclusion. The eponymous “commonness” denotes first and foremost the universal need to find oneself in a creative process. It is also a token of our intentions and efforts to make theatre created by the disabled or persons facing social exclusion a fully-fledged artistic phenomenon.

The performances are also accompanied by educational activities and workshops. COMMON THEATRE aspires for an equally powerful effect on the active participants and the audience alike. The effort of overcoming barriers and stereotypes should be made by both.