A year has passed since Professor Jerzy Limon had passed away leaving his lifework – his theatre, but the scope of his academic work and artistic creation was so broad that the international conference is being organised, dedicated to the memory and life achivements of the late Professor entitled Jerzy Limon: Inspiration – Dialogue – Polemics.

The aim of the conference is to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion, gathering distinguished scholars, artists, critics, curators, and culture animators who would like to respond to Jerzy Limon’s achievement and ongoing influence. Accordingly, the meeting will consist of six panel discussions: Shakespeareana, Archives, Theories, Narratives, Translations, and Actions.

More about the panel topics:

• Shakespeareana: Shakespearean subject matter in Jerzy Limon’s research on theatre and drama;
• Archives: Jerzy Limon’s use of historical sources, his findings in the field of theatre history and his vision of time and history;
• Theories: theatre theory as formulated by Jerzy Limon;
• Narratives: Jerzy Limon’s literary output;
• Translations: Jerzy Limon’s translations of dramatic texts and their stagings;
• Actions: Jerzy Limon’s activities in the field of cultural animation, including the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival, performances in the space of the theatre, and other performative activities he inspired.

The conference organizers are the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, Theatrum Gedanense Foundation and the University of Gdańsk, in cooperation with the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and Adam Mickiewicz University. The Organizing Committee members are: Jacek Kopciński, IBL PAN (General Chair); Marta Gibińska, TEU; Jacek Fabiszak, AMU; Zbigniew Majchrowski, UG; Agnieszka Żukowska, UG and Marta Nowicka, GTS.

The conference will be held in English and Polish with simultaneous interpretation, and streamed online.

Conference Programme

Links to an online streaming:
DAY 1
DAY 2

This is a call for new work, from the world theatre community.

The European Shakespeare Festivals Network (ESFN) is now 10 years old and brings together 10 key festivals across Europe who present Shakespeare from an international perspective. We encourage collaboration across the various festivals, develop new opportunities and possibilities for theatre and performance makers who want to work with Shakespeare.

The ESFN are delighted to announce a world-wide competition call for a for a small-scale production for 2022.

The winner will be invited to four member festivals during the year:

Craiova International Shakespeare Festival (Romania) 19 – 29 May, 2022

Itaka Shakespeare Festival (Serbia) 30 June – 6 July 2022

Gdansk Shakespeare Festival (Poland) 27 July – 7 August 2022

Shakespeare Festival at Hamlet’s Castle  (Denmark) 29 July – 7 August 2022

To apply, you must be available to perform at all four festivals.

For details please refer to ESFN website

At 24th November 2021 the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre has joined the European Festivals Association!

The EFA Network, founded in 1952, connects about 100 festivals and festival associations in 40 countries. EFA members are the core element that make the Association an open, influential, international place for any festival that wants to be part of a bigger festival community. The European Festivals Association’s mission is to unite and represent its member festivals across Europe and the world by contributing to the artistic life of Europe.

The Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival’s representatives: Agata Grenda, the new director of both the Festival and the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre and Festival’s coordinator Joanna Śnieżko-Misterek took part in the Arts Festivals Summit on 22 – 24 November 2021 in Galway, hosted by AOIFE – the Association of Irish Festivals and Events. It was during this event that the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival has been admitted as a new EFA member.

EFA’s Arts Festivals Summit was a moment of connection, exchange, networking and togetherness for the festivals community in the vibrant city of Galway. 110 delegates from all over Europe and beyond as well as 50 online delegates came to Galway or joined through zoom or livestreams from 22 to 24 November 2021. Hosted by the Association of Irish Festivals and Events (AOIFE), the Summit was also the occasion to meet the Irish festivals, to speak about potential collaborations and co-production projects, to dive into the Irish culture with “Walk and Talk tours”, to listen to showcases by local artists, and to discover the beautiful landscapes of Galway Bay.

On the occasion of the 69th General Assembly, EFA members – among them many that have joined the association since the beginning of the pandemic – voted in ten new festivals from various art disciplines (music, dance and theatre) and countries to be part of the community. They reinforce and enlarge EFA’s wish for more diversity, inclusion and relevance on a geographical and artistic level. Among these new members, there is: BITEF – Belgrade International Theatre Festival (Serbia), Campania Teatro Festival (Italy), Castleknock Music Festival (Ireland), Gdansk Shakespeare Festival (Poland), Helsinki Festival (Finland), Khachaturian International Festival (Armenia), Klanglichter Festival (Switzerland), Machol Shalem Dance House (Israel), North Cyprus International Bellapais Music Festival (North Cyprus), and Norway Festival (Norway).

See the festivals joinig EFA network, together with the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival:

On the picture above, from the left:
Joanna Śnieżko-Misterek – The Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival Coordinator
Agata Grenda – Direcror of the The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre and Festival
Anna Kiselyova – Castle Knock Music Festival
Kathrin Deventer – EFA Secretary General
Jan Briers – EFA President
Bartosz Szydłowski – Artistic Director of Łaźnia Nowa Theatre and Boska Komedia Festival in Krakov

We take part in the EFA Arts Festivals Summit 2021 in Galway / Ireland, held on November 22 – 24 organized by: European Festivals Association (EFA), Aoife FestivalEvents and Galway – the European Capital of Culture 2020.

Agata Grenda, the GST Director and Joanna Śnieżko-Misterek, the coordinator of the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival, were invited to co-create an important initiative, namely the development of European festivals.

Agata Grenda also took EFA’s invitation to EFA’s 70-Years-On Thinking Group – a group of 20 festival leaders dealing with the subject of sustainable development. The tasks of Thinking Group will include building the program of next year’s Arts Festivals Summit on May 2-5 in Yerevan and co-creating the European Festivals Alliance.

The jubilee edition of the festival was opened on Friday with “The Tempest” directed by Szymon Kaczmarek – a production by the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre. During the first festival weekend we would also see two finalists of the Golden Yorick competition, namely performances: “Der Szturem. Cwiszyn / The Tempest. Between”, directed by Damian Josef Neć from Jewish Theatre in Warsaw (Saturday) and “King Lear”, directed by Anna Augustynowicz, a co-production of the Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole and the Helena Modrzejewska Theatre in Legnica (Sunday). For the third play selected for the final of the Golden Yorick Competition i.e “Hamlet” directed by Bartosz Szydłowski from Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow, we need to wait until next Friday (6 August).
The ShakespeareOFF stage on Saturday and Sunday will present three of the four plays selected as part of the ShakespeareOFF Productions competition: “My Anxiety is Your Anxiety” Theatre Zakład Krawiecki/ Paweł Palcat, “Shakespeare: Mock-up”, blisko Girls’ Collective/Anna Rogóż and Mira Mańka, and the play selected last year: “Ophelias”, Womenstate Collective. For the fourth performance, “Mist” – h.art company/ Artur Grabarczyk, we will have to wait until the last day of the Shakespeare Festival. During the festival, the second contest of the alternative stage will be awarded, which is ShakespeareOFF Presentations. On the first weekend we will see the first show of this contest, the performance “After Othello” by Strefa Otwarta Theatre. Whereas on Monday the first international show will be presented: the performance of one of the most fascinating directors of contemporary theatre, Tiago Rodrigues, “Antony and Cleopatra” prepared at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon.

See you at the Festival!

Tickets are available ONLINE and at the theatre’s box office, open daily from 1pm to 7pm.