‘I liked what you did - what happened here today.’ said Bastien Fournier after the rehearsal. The writer and playwright, Bastien Fournier visited the school after accepting an invitation by Dramaeducation, the International Centre of the French Theatre in Poland. ‘My role ends at the writing stage. Then, the director can do with the written text what he wants – cut, change the order, fit it into a form. What I wished to say is already in the text, and nothing is going to change that. However, the words I have written need to pierce through actors on stage. The audience needs to feel it.’ said Swiss born, Sorbonne graduate, Bastien Fournier, who has been a successful novelist and playwright for the past ten years.

Reading the Polish version of Fournier’s Sur un pont par grand vent is just the beginning of an adventure in European drama for our young actors. ‘We plan to broaden our horizons by reading new texts, especially those by young authors to see what’s happening abroad.’ said the Vice-Dean of the Acting Department, Piotr Seweryński. The second-year acting students who participated in the reading rehearsal of Fournier’s play were: Marianna Zydek, Agata Turkot, Aleksandra Przesław, Katarzyna Janek, Dominik Ochociński, Wojciech Lato, Michał Styczeń, Piotr Choma, Cezary Kołacz, Jakub Głukowski and Karolina Sawka.

This reading is not the end of their adventure with French language authors, though. Jan Nowak, translator of Fournier’s text and a co-founder of Dramaeducation, who was also present at our meeting yesterday, declared his help in contacting other authors whose texts our students find interesting and would like to work on during acting classes.

photos: Michał Siarek