Ludowy Theatre

The Ludowy quickly became known as the city's prime avant-garde stage thanks to collaboration of eminent artists, including the theatre theoretician and painter Józef Szajna,[1] Tadeusz Kantor (both from the Academy of Fine Arts), Lidia Zamkow, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, and others.

[3] It was placed in the centre of a socialist housing urban project for social and ideological reasons, to spread high culture among the working class population established during the past few years in the surrounding Nowa Huta industrial district and as a possible vehicle for workers' indoctrination.

However, thanks to the revolutionary vision of its first president, Krystyna Skuszanka, Teatr Ludowy became one of the most interesting theatres in the country, with Jerzy Krasowski as its first resident director and painter Jozef Szajna as its visionary set designer.

[1] The name Teatr Ludowy ('The People's Theatre') had a unique tradition in Kraków, in spite of its ostensibly state socialist, leftist or populist connotations.

Notable plays of the time included productions by Krasowski, such as the adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men (1956) with Franciszek Pieczka (as Lenny Small) and Witold Pyrkosz (as George Milton).

[6] His productions included Nikolai Gogol's The Inspector General (1963), Tadeusz Hołuj's Puste pole ('The Empty Field', 1965), Witold Wandurski's Śmierć na gruszy ('Death on a Pear-tree', 1965), and Franz Kafka's The Castle with memorable roles by Irena Jun and Józef Wieczorek (1966).

The audiences directed to attend performances through official channels, such as employee crews of state-run enterprises or public school students, stopped coming.