A film, theatre and opera director, actor, poet and philosopher, he died of cancer at the age of 70. He was connected with Bolesławiec and lived here in the late 1950s. He took his secondary-school final examinations at the Bolesławiec high school. Zygmunt Brusiło presented his biography in the latest Bolesławiec Yearbook. It is worth reading for many reasons. Written from the heart and with flair, it portrays the colourful life of an outstanding artist while also constituting a piece of our local history.

Henryk Baranowski was buried on August 12 at Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery. At the initiative of Józefina Witas, an evening dedicated to the artist will be held in Bolesławiec, at the place Henryk Baranowski always called home.

Among those arriving at the Old Theatre on Saturday, September 7, to remember their friend will be actor Jerzy Janeczek (known for his role as Witia in “All Among Ourselves,” he performed on the stages of theatres in Wrocław, Kalisz, Koszalin and Warsaw), Jerzy Kalina (a Polish sculptor, creator of theatre and film set designs, stained-glass windows, animated and documentary films, and installations, as well as one of Poland’s first performers), Stanisław Szudek (an actor who worked with Henryk Baranowski in Berlin), Ewa Wojdyłło-Osiatyńska (a doctor of psychology and addiction therapist), and Wiktor Osiatyński (a Polish writer and lecturer, lawyer, and social activist).

The programme will include a fragment of an archival interview with Henryk Baranowski recorded by Bolesławiec television, a fragment of Kieślowski’s “Decalogue,” and a poetry programme. Admission is free.

Henryk Baranowski – a Polish theatre, television and opera director, as well as a radio director, screenwriter, actor and set designer. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw (1968) and the Directing Department of the State Higher School of Theatre in Warsaw (1973). As a director, he made his debut with Genet’s “The Maids” at Warsaw’s Ateneum Theatre. From 1980 to 1992, he founded and directed the Transformtheater in Berlin. His most important productions, of which there were several dozen, included: “Forefathers’ Eve” at the Jaracz Theatre in Olsztyn (1975), “Good Morning and Goodbye” (1976), “The Castle” (1976), based on F. Kafka, “Peepshow” (1992), and P. Glass’s exceptionally visual “Akhnaten” at the Grand Theatre in Łódź (2000). He received numerous awards in Poland and abroad, including: the main prize for directing “The Castle” by F. Kafka and the Northern Polish Festival Cup for the best production (1976); First Prize of the Small-Form Theatres for A. Fugard’s “Good Morning and Goodbye” (1976); the ITI Award for Promoting Polish Theatre Culture Abroad for “The Castle” (1991); the James Jefferson Award – Chicago 1992 – for the best production of the 1991/92 season for G. Tbori’s “Peepshow”; the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award for Outstanding Services to the Promotion of Polish Culture and Art Abroad (1992); the Golden Mask for best staging and direction and the Silver Boat for the best production of the 2000 season for P. Glass’s “Akhnaten”; and the All-Russian Opera Mask for the best opera production in Russia for A. Schnittke’s “Life with an Idiot” (2003), staged at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

(information: Grażyna Hanaf)