Director, pedagogue, and translator
Graduate of the Actor Department of the Krakow Higher Theater School (1952) and Director Department of the State Institute of Theater Arts in Moscow (1957)
The name of Jerzy Jarocki, starting with his very early director’s experiences, has always been inextricably intertwined with the 20th century Polish drama. He was the first one to direct plays of debutant dramatists Ireneush Iredynsky (“Excruciation with Fitting,” 1960), Yan Pavel Gavlik ("A Portrait," 1962), Helmut Keiser ("Admonition,” 1970). Jerzy Jarocki was one of the first to address the creative works of Slavomir Mrozhek (“The Police,” 1958). Many Polish dramatists entrusted Jarocki with the right of first direction of their plays, including Tadeush Ruzhevich: “Left the house” (1965), "My Daughter" (1968), "An Old Lady Sitting Out” (1969), "On All Fours" (1972); Slavomir Mrozhek: "The Massacre" (1975), "The Crouchback" (1975), "On Foot" (1981). In 1960, Jarocki directed “The Church Wedding” by Vitold Gombrovich in a specially created for this purpose Student Theater in Gliwice (this performance was banned by censorship after the first four presentations), and in 1964, “The Mother” by Stanislav Ignacy Vitkevich (“Old Theater” in Krakow). “The Church Wedding” was first directed on the professional stage only 10 years later – in 1974 at Teatr Dramatychny in Warsaw. Jerzy Jarocki was one of the first in the Polish theater to get interested in the modern American and West-European literature. Among his first directions were: “Look Back in Anger” by J. Osborne (1957), “Long Day’s Journey into Night” (1961), «A Swedish Castle» F. Sagan (1961), “Orpheus Descending” by T. Williams (1962).
Since 1962, Jerzy Jarocki permanently worked at “Teatr Stary” (“Old Theater”), where he implemented many of his best performances and up until the 1990s had been moulding the modern dramatic repertoire of this stage (including S.I. Vitkevich’s “Mother,” 1964 and 1972; S. Mrozhek’s “Tango,” 1965; I. Babel’s “The Sunset,” 1967; S.I. Vitkevich’s “Shoemaker,” 1971; F. Kafka’s “The Process,” 1973; “Dream of a Sinless” after S. Zhromsky, 1979; T. Eliot “Murder in the Cathedral,” 1982; P. Calderon’s “Life Is a Dream,” 1983; S. Mrozhek’s “A Portrait,” 1988; V. Gombrovich’s “The Church Wedding,” 1991; Y. Slovatsky’s “A Silver Dream of Salomé,” 1993; “The Third Act” after S. Vitkevich, 2002).
As a guest-director, Jarocki worked at “Teatr Dramatychny” in Warsaw in 1972-1982, where he had directed: "On All Fours" by T. Ruzhevich, 1972; "The Massacre" by S. Mrozhek: 1975; W. Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” 1977; T. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral,” 1982, etc. He also worked in Wroclaw in 1958-1971 and 1988 at the Wroclawski Teatr Wspólczesny (“The Bug” by V. Mayakovsky, 1967; “Admonition” by G. Keiser, 1970; “Self-Murderer” by N. Erdmann, 1988), and in 1992-2000, he worked at the Theater Polski (“Platonov” by A. Chekhov, 1993; “Kethlen of Gebrona” by Heinrich von Kleist, 1994; “The Story of PPR” by S. Mrozhek, 1998).
In 1970, Jarocki began to work at the theaters of Western Europe: Nederlandse Komedie in Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus in Zurich (1972, 1973, 1984), Kammerspiele in Munich (1975), and later, in Wuppertal, Nurnberg. In 1996, at Kammerspiele Bad Godesberg in Bonn he directed “The Portrait” by S. Mrozhek. Besides that, he worked in Belgrade and Novi-Sad in Serbia and in Chelyabinsk. He had been primarily directing writings of Polish authors: Gombrovich, Vitkevich, Mrozhek, Yasensky (the first Russian production of the “Ball of Mannequins”), as well as A. Chekhov, I. Babel, etc. He received the Grand Prix at the Belgrade BITEF festival for his direction of I. Babel’s “The Sunset” at Jugoslovensko Dramsko Pozorište (1980).
His translation of A. Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” made in 1975 for his production at the Old Theater in Krakow is in active use at other theaters, including Teatr Narodovy (director Machei Prus, 2000). Jerzy Jarocki is the author of the libretto to the “King Ubu” in German (along with Krzysztof Penderetcki), which he had later translated into Polish.
In 1964, Jarocki started to teach at the State Higher Theater School in Krakow. Some of students’ diploma performances were matched up to his best directions at the professional stages and participated in festivals abroad; this included the “Acts” (his own scenario) in Washington (1972), “On Foot” by Mrozhek in Koln (1981), “Self-Murderer” by Erdmann in Bratislava (1988). Since 1991, he is professor of the theater arts, and since 1994, Full Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2000, he became Honorary Doctor of the Yagellon University in Krakow.
Jarocki is recipient of all major Polish awards in the field of culture, including: Sheller Award (1967), Boy Award (1970), Ministry of Culture Award (1971, 1997), Swinarsky Award (1977), Krakow Voyevoda Award (1998), Honorary Award of the Polish Fund of Culture (2000), Honorable Ludwig Award (2002), Honorary Award of the Opolie Polish Classics Theater Festival for the outstanding direction of Stanislav Vitkevich’s plays on the Polish stage in 1964 – 2003, Honorary Award of the Opolie Polish Classics Theater Festival for the effort to synthesize compositions of Vitold Gombrovich in the performance “Wandering” after the motive’s of Gombrovich’s writings at the Narodovy Theater in Warsaw (2005). Twice he was honored with Felix Award in Warsaw for the performances “Wandering” (for the 2003/2004 season) analysis “Cosmos” (for the 2005/2006 season). In 2006, Jarocki was honored with the Grand Award of the Cultural Fund and of a Special Award of the Theater monthly magazine. In 2006, Jerzy Jarocki’s performance “Cosmos” was honored with the major award - the Direction’s Prize – of the Baltiisky Dom International Theater Festival.
At the Narodovy Theater, Jerzy Jarocki directed performances “Wandering” (2004) and “Cosmos” (2005), both by V. Gombrovich; “Love in the Crimea” by S. Mrozhek (2007) and the “Tango” by S. Mrozhek, which will be presented in the program of the Fifth International Alexandrinsky Theater Festival on September 18 and 19, 2010.