Krystian Wieczyński is a film and stage actor, screenwriter, Director, culture pedagogue, and theatre and circus instructor from Toruń. He was born in Brodnica, but since 1994 he has been associated with Toruń. He graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
Since 1992 he has been co-creating one of the most-important alternative theatres in Poland – the Wiczy Theatre. Between 2006 and 2010 he cooperated with the Biuro Podróż Theatre in Poznań, and since 2011 he has appeared as a guest at the ‘Miniatura’ City Theatre in Gdańsk.
His cinema experience began in 2004, when he acted in Na scenie (On the Stage), an experimental movie by Piotr Matwiejczyk. A film which gained great recognition at festivals in both Poland and abroad was a short independent movie from 2005 directed by Waldemar Grzesik, Brat czeka na końcu drogi (The Brother Waiting at the End of the Road), in which Wieczyński played one of the main roles. He also appeared in another Grzesik movie, Najświętsze słowa naszego życia (The Holiest Words of Our Life) from 2007, which was awarded at many film festivals, including the International Film Festival Unicaí in Seoul.
However, Wieczyński worked the longest with another independent director from Toruń, Marcin Gładych. Among other projects they made an experimental tale by Leszek Kołakowski Gyom, Tat, E(eeee)tam in 2007, Trzy życzenia (Three Wishes) in 2009 based on a short story by Roland Topor, the étude Fire Woman, which is a loose adaptation of a short story by Hans Christian Andersen, and a documentary about the Wiczy Theatre play Emigranci (The Emigrants), (both in 2009).
Another step in the artiste’s cooperation was directing. In 2010 and 2011, Gładych and Wieczyński made four films together – Odrobina starości (A Little Old Age), Ostatni telefon (The Last Call), Hakerzy Wolności (Freedom Hackers), and Panopitkon. Freedom Hackers found great recognition in the eyes of film critics and audiences alike. It is a feature documentary about scientists from Toruń who were members of Solidarity and who “broke into” the screens of the communist Polish television station TVP in 1985.
Their last work created together was Smugi (2017), a documentary about the Smużny artistic family.
What’s more, the actor is an active organiser of cultural activities. He frequently conducts theatre, film, and circus workshops for children, teenagers and adults. He appeared at the Edinburgh Festival with the one-man-show Ja, dyktator (I, the Dictator), with the Wiczy Theatre.
Selected filmography
Selected awards and distinctions
Łódź Theatre Meetings – award for Best Actor; International Film Festival Tofifest- Mayor of the City of Toruń Award Flisak; the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship Marshal’s Award for theatre activity.