The 11^th INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF

THEATRES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

"KORCZAK 2007"

Warsaw, October 1 - 6, 2007

The Idea behind the Festival

        The International Festival of Theatres for Children and Young People "KORCZAK 2007" is a presentation of professional and school theatres from Poland and different parts of the world, a place where people of Art meet with children and young people. All the activities, meetings and events are prepared for children, young people and teachers, and their purpose is spreading artistic education among the young generation of Poles as well as popularising the educational function of the Theatre.
        The Festival is held in honour of Janusz Korczak (1878-1942) – an outstanding Polish educator with enormous moral authority, who devoted his life and work to children. The moral strength of Janusz Korczak resonates across the society and artistic circles in Poland and all over the world. His ideas integrate adults in creating art for children and young people.
        Following Korczak’s ideals, the organizers of the Festival choose performances that deal with problems relevant to the child, support the fight for children’s rights, raise issues difficult for the child and discuss moral dilemmas.
        During the Festival the most interesting children’s theatre groups have a chance to perform on stage, together with professional theatres. Their personal expression during these ”artistic festivities” widens and enriches the artists’ way of thinking about plays for children and about their influence on the young audience. Each of the eight editions of the Festival (in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) became an important event in the field of children’s theatre on the international scale.
        For the seventh time in its history the Festival serves as the opening ceremony of the Year of Culture in Education. It is so because theatre symbolises these human values that only when combined with learning and knowledge result in educating a truly full-fledged person. The objective of the celebration is to draw the schools and educational authorities’ attention to the significance of theatre education.

The Aims of the Festival:

• to present Warsaw as the Capital of Poland pen to the ideals of Korczak, children-friendly city, encouraging the development of art for the young audience,
• to promote ideas which are of great importance in the development of the young generation in the times of European integration,
• to elevate the standard of theatre productions for young audiences, and to award theatres for high standards of theatre productions for children and young people,
• to promote the Polish theatre and plays for children and young people in the world,
• to present the achievements of school theatre groups, to promote the active participation of children and young people in the Art - a proper way of self-fulfilment, as opposed to aggression and violence,
• to disseminate the playwriting by children and young people.

• performances of professional foreign companies prepared for children and young people (the topics that are chosen by the organizers deal with important children’s problems and socially difficult situations of the young generation),
• performances of Polish theatres awarded by the Attesting Chapter,
• performances of Warsaw theatres,
• performances of children and young people theatre groups,
• theatre happenings before the performances and meetings with the artists after the performances,
• handing out PO ASSITEJ awards: 
      –  Jan Dorman Awards for an outstanding Polish children’s theatre artist; the award is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, 
      –  Jan Dorman Honorary Award for the outstanding foreign children’s theatre artist,
      –  an award for an outstanding critic specialising in children and young people’s theatre, 
      –  Attests – “Certificates of the Highest Quality and Artistic Level” for the most interesting Polish performances for children and young people,

The Festival Audience

        The Festival is for children and young people, parents, teachers, educators, drama specialists, journalists, critics, playwrights, the inhabitants of Warsaw, visitors from Poland and abroad.
Over the years the Festival has acquired a large young audience and considerable interest of the ASSITEJ Centres in different parts of the world. Favourable opinions about spectacles are sent from the Polish Centre of ASSITEJ to 70 world centres, bringing splendour to the Polish theatre for children.
In order to qualify for the Festival, please send a recording of the performance (CD, DVD) in the period of January – March. The description and photographs are not a sufficient documentation.

Conditions of participating

• Moreover, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that the following criteria are used in selecting performances for the Festival:
• The age of the audience – 1 to16 years of age;
• The production should be non-commercial;
• The organisers prefer ambitious, modern performances raising important, even difficult problems of children and young people;
• The organizers appreciate performances based on the works of Janusz Korczak;
• Admissible are mixed dramatic techniques (Actor theatre, puppet theatre, object theatre, plastic/visual theatre, or movement and dance theatre, but excluding folk presentations.);
• The organisers prefer performances with more images and action rather than words – because of the difficulty with understanding the play by the Polish audience (unless a suitable form of translation is considered);
• The Festival does not organise a competition nor gives awards.

• accommodation – 2 or 3 nights, (unless the theatre comes from a non-European country, in such a case we increase the number of nights),
• food for the company (2 meals a day),
• professional theatre stage with all the equipment,
• technical support,
• promotion/advertising of the performance,
• audience organisation,
• playbills, programmes and festival gadgets.

Honorary Director: Maciej Wojtyszko
Artistic Director: Elżbieta Socha
Organizing Director: Grażyna Karwowska-Winiarek

Our address (Festival Office):
Polish Centre of ASSITEJ (Polski Ośrodek ASSITEJ)
ul. Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warszawa
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it www.assitej.pl
Fax/Ph.: +(48 22) 851 00 40, +(48 22) 32 96 220