Antonina Hoffmann

Against the wishes of her family, she decided that she wanted to go on the stage; in 1858 she began taking private acting lessons from Jan Królikowski, in the same year becoming a student at Józef Rychter's School of Drama in Warsaw.

She was a co-worker and lifelong companion of Stanisław Koźmian [pl] (this relationship lasted until her death, but it was not formalized in marriage)[2] and became an exponent of his 'Kraków School' of acting, which involved a deeper analysis of the text of the play.

Apart from a few short interludes Hoffmann worked exclusively in Kraków until 1893, at first under Pfeiffer's direction and later under that of Adam Miłaszewski (1863–1865), whose period as director ended in fiasco and in the breaking up of the entire company.

She also appeared in the title role in Jean Racine's tragedy Phèdre, played Suzanne in Pierre Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro and Camilla in Alfred de Musset's No Trifling with Love.

She played a number of roles from the Polish repertoire, including Clara in Aleksander Fredro's Śluby panieńskie (Maidens' Vows) and Gulda in Joseph Conrad's Cyganie (The Gypsies).