Background
TOMASZEWSKI, Henryk was born on November 20, 1919 in Poznan.
choreographer ballet master and mime
TOMASZEWSKI, Henryk was born on November 20, 1919 in Poznan.
He settled in Cracow in 1945 to study theatre after the end of World World War II during which he studied at Iwo Gall"s Theatre Studio from 1945 to 1947 and ballet under Feliks Parnell.
Process (from Kafka) 1966, Gilgamesh 1968, Klatwa (by Wyspiariski) 1969, Odejscie Fausta 1970, Menazeria Cesarzowej Filissy (with F. Wedekinda), Peer Gynt 1974, Ksiczniczka Turandot (by C. Gozzi) 1974, Przyjezdzam jutro 1974, Gra w zabijanego (by Ionesco) 1975, Sceny fantastyczne z legendy o Panu Twardowskim 1976, Spdr (by Pierre de Marivaux) 1978, director Hammerman and Baker (film for Norwegian television) 1978, Equus 1978, Hamlet Ironia i 2a!oba 1979, Historia konia 1981, Rycerze Krbla Artura 1981, Pericles (Shakespeare) 1982, Syn mamotrawny (based on Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress) 1984, Action—A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1986.Tomaszewski left Parnell"s company in 1949 and resettled in Wrocław, where he taught ballet and began to develop his concepts in mime. In 1956, Tomaszewski"s Mime Studio had its premiere performance at the Polski Theatre in Wrocław. In 1958 the Mime Studio was renamed the Wroclaw Mime Theatre and was granted the status of State theatre in 1959.
Tomaszewski ceased performing in the mid-1960s but continued to direct, train, and choreograph the ensemble and all productions.
Tomaszewski"s conceptions of mime technique are modern much in the same way as Etienne Decroux"s or Jacques Lecoq"s but developed along different lines owing to the differences in Polish and French theatre traditions. Little reference is made to commedia dell"arte traditions.
Tomaszewski"s early work is documented in English in "Tomaszewski"s Mime Theatre" by Andrzej Hausbrandt (Poland: Interpress, 1975). Between 1960 and 1966 he collaborated with the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (State Counterintelligence Service), reporting on the activities of his friends and colleagues.
He did not receive payment for these activities and Doctor Sebastian Ligarski, the researcher who discovered the dossier on Tomaszewski in the archives of the Wroclaw National Polytechnic Institute (Institute of National Remembrance), conjectures that the service blackmailed him either because of his known homosexual tendencies or with the threat of a ban on foreign traveling
The service believed that Tomaszewski, while traveling abroad with his colleagues in the Pantomime Theatre, might discover any contacts with foreign intelligence services.
Notable students and members of his company include Stanisław Brzozowski, Ewa Czekalska, Leszek Czarnota, Danuta Kisiel-Drzewinska, Jerzy Kozlowski, Krystyna Marynowska, Stefan Niedzialkowski, Janusz Pieczuro, Paweł Rouba,and Andrzej Szczużewski.