Ewa Pilawska has been the director of the Teatr Powszechny in Łódź since 1995, artistic director of the International Festival of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant and President of the Union of Polish Theaters.
Under her management Teatr Powszechny underwent a major reform, both in terms of structure and content. It was thanks to her efforts that the Small Stage of Teatr Powszechny, for which the theatre had been striving for over 60 years, was built, When she took over Teatr Powszechny in the mid-1990s, it was in crisis and threatened with liquidation. Thanks to Ewa Pilawska's decisions, the theatre was reformed and gained a clear artistic image.
Ewa Pilawska, trained as a theatre scholar, has implemented various initiatives at Teatr Powszechny, including the International Festival of Pleasant and Unpleasant Plays; the only theatre in Poland that is also unique in Europe for people with visual impairment; the Polish Comedy Centre, which calls for contemporary Polish comedy and aims to initiate discussions on the place and status of comedy in the modern world. She also created the series "Dziecko w sytuacji" (Child in a Situation) - a project consisting of performances and workshops addressed to young people. They discuss topics such as violence, hate, depression, sexual initiation, transgenderism, loneliness and homelessness.
Ewa Pilawska follows the principle – Theatre should be close to the people. She is the originator and initiator of numerous initiatives aimed at meeting the audience's expectations and broadening their access to culture, such as: Spectacle for the unemployed, Spectacle for pensioners, Spectacle for students. He sees social revitalization as the theater's mission, which should first of all involve changing thinking and awakening a person's sense of agency.
She is a recipient of many awards and distinctions, including the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, the Gold Cross of Merit, the titles of Łodzianka of the Year 2001 and Łodzianin Roku 2017, the Pro publico bono medal named after Sabina Nowicka, the Golden Badge of Honour of the Polish Association of the Blind for creating the first "Readers Theatre for the visually impaired", for its continuation and artistic development, an award from the President of the European Blind Union of Lord Colin Low, for the "Readers Theatre" initiative, and the title "Łodzianin Roku 2017".
Mentor in the Mentorship project: 11th edition, 2023/2024
Meeting place: at the Mentor’s workplace
Number of mentees in this edition: 1
Language: Polish
Mentee support area:
- enabling people to get to know theater not only as a performing art, but also as the entire space that makes up the performance
- behind the scenes of theater creation
- what theater is and how it functions
- specificity of the institution - theatre
- substantive space
- the opportunity to learn about the specific work of individual departments; getting acquainted with the entire "theater machine", which allows you to learn how theater is created, which shapes a person's personality