Festival of Student Theatre Off Productions PSTRO

What kind of theatre do Tricity students create? On 13 October 2023, the first festival of student performances took place at the Miniatura Theatre. Seven performances were shown on all stages, with an exhibition inspired by theatre in other spaces.

As part of their courses in the humanities at the University of Gdansk, students also carry out practical projects, which sometimes take the form of a theatre performance. In this way, many interesting artistic initiatives are created, and the university lecturers decided to bring them together and present them at one event.

• PSTRO – Festival of Student Theatre Off Productions is an initiative to support the environment of amateur student theatres and to create a space for the presentation and confrontation of various manifestations of student theatrical activity,” said Małgorzata Jarmułowicz, head of the Department of Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of Gdańsk. – The variety of forms and the multiplicity of topics undertaken shows that students want to comment on the surrounding reality and are very creative in doing so. The name of the project – PSTRO – is meant to emphasise this multicolourfulness. The festival refers to the tradition of student theatres, which in the second half of the 20th century accompanied social and political changes, having a real impact on the history and identity of our region.

• We are delighted to host a festival at Miniatura – this is another step in our cooperation with the University, which has been developing very well for several years. We hold classes for students, they do internships with us and write research papers on topics close to our hearts. We want the festival to be an opportunity for all participants to develop creatively, which is why the shows are followed by a discussion on the performances and students can take part in workshops led by our actors,” added director Michał Derlatka.

The performances were indeed varied. There were musical projects directed by professional theatre makers, such as “Songs from the Cabaret of Older Men” directed by Grzegorz Wolf or “Szymborska: a collage” directed by Piotr Biedroń. There were also many original performances written and directed by the students themselves, such as Priestess, written and directed by Aleksandra Knitter, a student of Management of Artistic Institutions, Moonrise, created by Marta Kurzacz and Karolina Wesołowska, students of Theatre Knowledge, as part of their diploma project, or Chłód (Cold), based on a script by Julia Szczepańska, a student of Russian Studies and, at the same time, chairperson of the theatre section of the Interdepartmental Students and Doctoral Students Scientific Association ‘Lustro’. We had also seen a project realised as part of the Theatre in Practice artistic classes conducted by Tomasz Kaczorowski as part of the Management of Artistic Institutions course – it was a staging of the award-winning drama Śmierć pracownika [Death of a Worker] by Michał Kmiecik, directed by Oliwia Kurlej. In turn, Zuzanna Kopeć, a student of Management and Communication in the Performing Arts, will show a choreographic etude of her own choreography.

The festival is organised by the University of Gdańsk, the Alternator Academic Cultural Centre, the Between.Pomiędzy Foundation, Professor Jan Ciechowicz UG Theatre Centre and the Miniatura Theatre. The festival is held under the honorary patronage of the Rector of the University of Gdansk and under the auspices of the Education for Culture programme. Gdańsk