Anna Dymna

She has worked with the best Polish directors, such as Andrzej Wajda, Konrad Swinarski, Jerzy Jarocki, Jerzy Grzegorzewski, Jerzy Hoffman, Kazimierz Kutz, Teresa Kotlarczyk, Barbara Sass and Jan Klata. Since 1990, she has worked as a teacher at the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków. Since 2002, she has also been the initiator and host of the Kraków Poetry Salon, a series of meetings held every Sunday in the foyer of the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. The meetings are characterised by their cosy atmosphere and the presence of outstanding artists and actors, who cherish the value and beauty of the spoken word. Thanks to Anna Dymna’s efforts, poetry salons are now organised in over ten locations in Poland and abroad.

Photograph: Bartłomiej Bujas

Anna Dymna combines her work on stage, in films and at the theatre school with her activities aimed at helping people with diseases and disabilities, which was appreciated by the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw that awarded Anna Dymna an honorary doctorate.

Since 2003, Anna Dymna has hosted a television programme called Anna Dymna – Spotkajmy się (Anna Dymna – Let’s Meet) on TVP2. She addresses the topics of love, acceptance, loneliness, happiness, faith and hope. She invites people with disabilities and critically ill people to her show, which received two nominations for the Andrzej Wojciechowski Award, granted to works of journalism that have an impact on the lives of people in Poland.

“Orestea” directed by Jan Klata, National Stary Theatre, photograph: Bartłomiej Sowa

State decorations: Silver Cross of Merit – 1989, Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – 2004, Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis – 2005, Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – 2014, Centenary of Regained Independence Medal – 2018.