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born in 1959 in Kraków, studied theatre and drama at the
Jagiellonian University and drama directing at the State Higher Theatre
School in Kraków (diploma in 1989). While still a student he started
working at the city’s Stary Theatre. His debut production was
Strindberg’s The Dance of Death (1988).
Stage adaptations of prose works (Herman Hesse, Susan Sontag, Anton Chekhov,
Ödön von Horváth) and poetry (Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud)
constitute a major strand in his work. His most acclaimed productions
include his own adaptation of William Wharton’s Birdy (in Kraków’s
Stary Theatre in 1989 and in Warsaw’s Dramatyczny Theatre in 1991),
Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell (the Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole,
1999) and Death Kit after Susan Sontag’s experimental novel (Rozmaitości
Theatre in Warsaw, 1995).
In 1996–98 Adam Sroka served as managing and artistic director of the
Theatre in Opole. An adaptation of Forefathers’ Eve by the Polish
Romantic bard Adam Mickiewicz was praised for its ‘direct appeal to
the audience, without the abused intermediary of historical references’
(Jacek Sieradzki, ‘Polityka’ 7/1998). The production won several
prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix at the ‘Polish Classics’
National Confrontations in 1998. In recent years, Adam Sroka became
interested in the work of the so-called ‘new brutalists’ (Feuergesicht
by Marius von Mayenburg (the Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, 2000) and Das glühend
Mannla by Kerstin Specht (the Jaracz Theatre in Olsztyn, 2000).
Since the 2001/02 season, Adam Sroka has been the artistic director of the
Powszechny Theatre in Radom. His recent productions include his own
adaptation of Gorky’s Lower Depths and Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. He designs his own sets and selects incidental music for many of his
productions.
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