Krzysztof Szwaja Vened – actor, mime artist, dancer, teacher, writer.
Born 31 May 1952 in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. Grew up in Międzygórze, Dolny Śląsk (Lower Silesia).
He commenced his stage career in 1972 at the Teatr Muzyczny (Music Theatre) in Wrocław, where he studied and worked as a dancer. In 1974, he started work for the Wrocławski Teatr Pantomimy (Wrocław Pantomime Theatre), where he became an actor/mime artist. That was where his career really took off. He played the principal roles of gods, monsters and lovers. His renown was assured by the double role of Guest-Dionysus in Przyjeżdżam jutro, followed by Medium in Menażeria cesarzowej Filissy, Monster in Pan Twardowski, Paris and Homunculus in Odejście Fausta, Satyr in Herakles i Hebe, Boy II in Spór and Galahad in Rycerze Króla Artura. He also played Enemy in the Norwegian television production titled Smed (Blacksmith). In 1977 in Wrocław, he was awarded the Brązowa Iglica (Brown Spire) as the best performer.
He regularly performed abroad appearing at the most prestigious theatre festivals in the world. During the Wrocławski Teatr Pantomimy’s tour of Germany, martial law was declared in Poland on 13 December 1981. Protesting against it, the artist fled to the West. For two and a half years he lived in West Berlin, where he taught pantomime and made choreographies for the Transformtheater. His classes enjoyed huge popularity with students coming from all over Europe. In 1983, the artist founded the Bewegung Theater: Impuls (Movement Theatre: Impulse) gathering his pupils, and he also directed and choreographed Sechs Uhr Morgan, a choreodrama inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. It was staged at the Kreuzberger Tanzfabrik.
In 1984, Szwaja emigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where he taught at actors studios and created choreographies for a number of theatres.
In 1985, he received the Los Angeles Drama-Logue’s Critics’ Award for his exceptional achievements in the field of theatre as the choreographer of Voyage to Arcturus, presented at the Odyssey Theater. During the rehearsals he met his future wife, the actress Rebecca Robertson.
In 1987, the artist moved to Seattle and set up the Drama Studio, where he focused on teaching and delving into acting and movement techniques. He also directed Vaclav Havel’s Private View and Jean Genet’s The Maids. For the purposes of his classes he wrote A Character Chart and filmed Plastic Exercises (https://dramastudioonline.com/product/plastic-exercises/).
He subsequently described his methods in In Character: An Actor’s Workbook for Character Development published by Heinemann Drama in 2000. In 2024, he wrote the second edition of the book (product/in-character-an-actors-workbook-for-character-development/), extended and explaining its philosophy in more depth.
In 1994, he returned to Los Angeles, where he still lives with his wife. He taught the interpretation of character development and stage movement at UCLA also supervising productions of his students. He also conducted workshops at schools all over the United States. He continues to direct and choreograph for a number of theatres (e.g. Faust, Odyssey Theatre, Los Angeles 2003; Dracula, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Solana Beach 2007; Human Identity, Co Ho Theater, Portland 2013 / The Lounge Theatres, Los Angeles 2014; Infidel, Whitefire Theatre, Los Angeles 2018;) and at the OCSA Acting Conservatory (Greek Project, 2016; Pursuit of Happiness, 2017; Our Town, 2017; 3 Stories, 2019).
Szwaja has also written theatre scripts (Infidel, 3 Stories), the choreodrama Pursuit of Happiness and the pantomime-voice monodrama Human Identity, in which he has himself played since 2012. Eleven years later he wrote a new version of the monodrama as Quest for Human Identity. Additionally, he writes short stories (e.g. ‘Impossible Choice’, The American Bystander 2023) and essays (e.g. ‘Moja pierwsza pantomima’ [‘My first pantomime’], Miesięcznik Odra 2012; ‘Playing Dionysus’, The Polish Review 2012; ‘Jak stałem się aktorem pantomimy’ [‘How I became a pantomime actor’] Odra 2016; ‘Ucieczka na Zachód’ [‘Escape to the West’], Odra 2018; ‘Dionizyjska gra’ [‘Dionysian Play’], Format Literacki 2022; ‘Pantomima: sztuka milczenia’ [‘Pantomime: the art of silence’], Format Literacki 2023). He also wrote A Theatrical Memoir: An Interview with Myself dedicated to his work for the Wrocławski Teatr Pantomimy.
In 2021, he created the 6-episode podcast Theatrical Memoir: An Interview with Myself (produced by the Polish Theatre Institute in the USA). In 2024, he made a short film titled A Theater Manifesto of an Old Man, which was shown at the Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Krzysztof Szwaja Vened is a proponent of meaningful theatre. In his opinion, meaning has been lost in the postmodernist culture and it should be restored or rediscovered.
More information:
http://www.dramastudioonline.com
