04.
12.
2025.
Department
Acting
Acting
We've just had a press conference on the latest graduation play by our acting students, THE TEMPEST, directed by Tomasz Fryzeł. The premiere on 5th, December at the Studyjny Theatre.
The director and acting students from the 2025/2026 graduation year met with journalists at a press conference.
"There are many interpretations of THE TEMPEST, and the tradition of staging it goes back centuries, so to have another one was a challenge. But it's also a wonderful adventure. What's important to us is that THE TEMPEST is a story about conscience, about how people confront their guilt and seek a way to forgive themselves and others," said Tomasz Fryzeł.
The director also explained the choice of William Shakespeare's play for the graduation show:
"THE TEMPEST is a great text for a graduation play, and I'm glad we chose it. It talks about issues important to people who are finishing their studies and entering adult life. Firstly, it's about identity and finding answers to the questions 'who am I' and 'who would I like to be'. (...) The second reason is that THE TEMPEST is a text about theatre. But not about theatre as an institution. It's about theatre as a vocation, a way of influencing the thinking of others."
Our acting students also talked about the show.
Dominik Nikitorowicz: "We can all agree with the director that in this drama, each character has their own goal to pursue and their own desires to fulfill. The interpretive key we have adopted can be an interesting way to find new meanings in characters who have existed in culture for hundreds of years."
Alicja Wieniawa-Narkiewicz: "Tomek said that we would create characters that would be distinctive and would show us to the fullest. That was the moment when we trusted him and decided that this was the diploma we wanted to pursue."
William Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST
translation: Stanisław Barańczak
Direction: Tomasz Fryzeł
Art direction and costumes: Anna Oramus
Lighting director: Klaudyna Schubert
Music: Nikodem Dybiński
CAST
Marcel Barra - Antonio
Julia Jaroszewska - Alonso
Bartłomiej Kotwica - Ferdinand
Jędrzej Matwijów - Prospero
Dominik Nikitorowicz - Stephano
Anna Pentz - Ariel
Krzysztof Świłpa - Sebastian
Kamila Tytło - Trinculo
Alicja Wieniawa-Narkiewicz - Caliban
Milena Zając - Miranda
Krystyna Zajkowska - Gonzalo
"The Tempest" is a story that unfolds over the course of several hours on an island far from any known land, during which all the characters are confronted with their sins, desires, weaknesses, and above all, their past and identity. The storm is the atmospheric phenomenon that initiates the action. It is also the state in which the characters find themselves throughout the action—as individuals and as a community. It is a state of heightened self-discovery. When the state ends, the storm subsides. The world, transformed, returns to normal. "The Tempest" is not only a story full of twists and turns about the characters' adventures, but also about the adventures of their consciousness, imagination, and conscience; a matrix of experience that opens up to the observer. It is a story about gaining self-awareness and finding ways to build relationships with a dynamic self, a dynamic world, and a dynamic identity.
And finally, "The Tempest" is a story about art: its power to transform all those involved. About its inherent ability to imagine those we are not, and that which has no physical form.
How do I play Ariel? How do I portray breath, thought, presence—words in action? How do I play Caliban, the one who situates himself beyond language? What does it mean to be the King of Naples? What makes him this character? And how, as a twenty-three-year-old actor, can I imagine myself as Prospero, ruler of Milan?
The show is co-financed from the budget of the Łódź Voivodeship Government.
photos: Krzysztof Szpryngiel
"There are many interpretations of THE TEMPEST, and the tradition of staging it goes back centuries, so to have another one was a challenge. But it's also a wonderful adventure. What's important to us is that THE TEMPEST is a story about conscience, about how people confront their guilt and seek a way to forgive themselves and others," said Tomasz Fryzeł.
The director also explained the choice of William Shakespeare's play for the graduation show:
"THE TEMPEST is a great text for a graduation play, and I'm glad we chose it. It talks about issues important to people who are finishing their studies and entering adult life. Firstly, it's about identity and finding answers to the questions 'who am I' and 'who would I like to be'. (...) The second reason is that THE TEMPEST is a text about theatre. But not about theatre as an institution. It's about theatre as a vocation, a way of influencing the thinking of others."
Our acting students also talked about the show.
Dominik Nikitorowicz: "We can all agree with the director that in this drama, each character has their own goal to pursue and their own desires to fulfill. The interpretive key we have adopted can be an interesting way to find new meanings in characters who have existed in culture for hundreds of years."
Alicja Wieniawa-Narkiewicz: "Tomek said that we would create characters that would be distinctive and would show us to the fullest. That was the moment when we trusted him and decided that this was the diploma we wanted to pursue."
William Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST
translation: Stanisław Barańczak
Direction: Tomasz Fryzeł
Art direction and costumes: Anna Oramus
Lighting director: Klaudyna Schubert
Music: Nikodem Dybiński
CAST
Marcel Barra - Antonio
Julia Jaroszewska - Alonso
Bartłomiej Kotwica - Ferdinand
Jędrzej Matwijów - Prospero
Dominik Nikitorowicz - Stephano
Anna Pentz - Ariel
Krzysztof Świłpa - Sebastian
Kamila Tytło - Trinculo
Alicja Wieniawa-Narkiewicz - Caliban
Milena Zając - Miranda
Krystyna Zajkowska - Gonzalo
"The Tempest" is a story that unfolds over the course of several hours on an island far from any known land, during which all the characters are confronted with their sins, desires, weaknesses, and above all, their past and identity. The storm is the atmospheric phenomenon that initiates the action. It is also the state in which the characters find themselves throughout the action—as individuals and as a community. It is a state of heightened self-discovery. When the state ends, the storm subsides. The world, transformed, returns to normal. "The Tempest" is not only a story full of twists and turns about the characters' adventures, but also about the adventures of their consciousness, imagination, and conscience; a matrix of experience that opens up to the observer. It is a story about gaining self-awareness and finding ways to build relationships with a dynamic self, a dynamic world, and a dynamic identity.
And finally, "The Tempest" is a story about art: its power to transform all those involved. About its inherent ability to imagine those we are not, and that which has no physical form.
How do I play Ariel? How do I portray breath, thought, presence—words in action? How do I play Caliban, the one who situates himself beyond language? What does it mean to be the King of Naples? What makes him this character? And how, as a twenty-three-year-old actor, can I imagine myself as Prospero, ruler of Milan?
The show is co-financed from the budget of the Łódź Voivodeship Government.
photos: Krzysztof Szpryngiel