WACHOWICZ/FRET STUDIO
Jarosław Fret is a founder and leader of Teatr ZAR, theatre director and actor. He is Director of the Grotowski Institute, lecturer at the PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków (Branch in Wrocław) and President of the Board of Curators of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 and Curator of its Theatre Programme. In 1999–2002 he organized a series of expeditions to Georgia, Armenia and Iran, conducting research into the oldest forms of religious music of Eastern Christianity. In the following years, together with members of Teatr ZAR, he led expeditions to Mount Athos in Greece, Sardinia, Corsica, Armenia, Turkey and Israel. He has directed four performance pieces with Teatr ZAR. Teatr ZAR’s Gospels of Childhood triptych has been seen in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Athens, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Florence, Madrid, Paris, Sibiu, Cairo, New Delhi and Seoul. In November 2013 he completed work on Armine, Sister, for which he developed an original musical dramaturgy and special stage architecture. He lectures and leads work sessions in Poland and abroad. His awards and honours include: Best New Music Theater for Teatr ZAR from Los Angeles Times (2009); Wrocław Theatre Prize for the Gospels of Childhood triptych (2010); the prestigious Total Theatre Award for Physical/Visual Theatre and the Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2012). He has originated and coordinated numerous Polish and international projects of the Grotowski Institute, including the Grotowski Year 2009, Masters in Residence, the International Theatre Festival The World as a Place of Truth and the Theatre Olympics 2016 in Wrocław. His efforts led to the opening of new locations of the Grotowski Institute: Na Grobli Studio (2010) and Centre of Performing Arts (2019).
Monika Wachowicz is an actress and educator who heads the Body and Emotion Studio (Studio Ciała i Emocji) based in Katowice, Poland. She graduated in philosophy from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Silesia and trained as an actress at Lart Studio in Kraków (2003–2004). In 1998–2002 Monika Wachowicz worked for the Teatr Treści Przenośnych, Będzin, and performed in the productions of Teatr Cogitatur, Katowice (2004). In 2009, together with actresses Karolina Pietrzykowska (Kraków) and Ewa Balzer (Berlin), she founded the KoME Women’s Theatre Group, which was a company in residence at Cantabile 2 Theatre, Denmark, for several months as part of an international project, supported by the Danish Ministry of Culture, called DNA. In 2004 Monika Wachowicz joined Teatr A Part in Katowice, headed by theatre director Marcin Herich. In 2007 she began co-organising the A PART International Festival of Performing Arts Theatres in Katowice and directing the A PART Acting Studio (2016–2023). In 2011, she was awarded a Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and a Scholarship of the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship in the field of culture (the latter also in 2014 and 2020). She managed the international project The Last Days of Mankind in Katowice as part of the A PART International Performing Arts Festival (2019). In 2019, Monika Wachowicz became president of the Marta Paradecka Art for Life Foundation. In 2021, she started collaboration with Teatr ZAR creator Jarosław Fret. She has curated Interstices: Women in the Performing Arts since June 2021, and in October 2021 she began collaborating with the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków, Branch in Wrocław. In 2021, together with Jaroslaw Fret, Monika Wachowicz created Szeol | שְׁאוֹל, a theatrical séance, which premiered in December 2021. In autumn 2022, in collaboration with Jaroslaw Fret and photographer Joanna Nowicka, she prepared the performance/installation Kairos/καιρός (first shown in December 2022). Currently, as part of WACHOWICZ/FRET Studio, she is developing the performance S E V E N, which is due to premiere in December 2023.