Interview with Helena Rząsa and Iga Szubelak

  CASTING

director Mateusza Atmana i Agnieszki Jakimiak
Premiere 12 January 2024 Academy of Drama in Warsaw

Ahead of the premiere of the graduation play CASTING, directed by Mateusz Atman and Agnieszka Jakimiak, at the Theatre Collegium Nobilium, I spoke to its actresses: Helena Rząsa and Iga Szubelak

Tomasz Ostrowski: Czy jest jakaś metoda, żeby wygrać casting? 

Iga Szubelak: Właśnie, to jest to pytanie. Jak trzeba się zaprezentować, żeby taki casting wygrać? Myślę, że cały czas poszukujemy tej odpowiedzi, chociaż nie wiadomo, czy ta odpowiedź istnieje

Helena Rząsa: Istnieje takie przekonanie, że rzeczywiście jest jakaś reguła, że jest jakaś metoda na to, żeby wygrać casting, ale prawdą jest, że w większości przypadków nie jest to do końca od nas zależne. Szczególnie w produkcjach filmowych oraz w serialach. Są poszukiwane konkretne osoby do konkretnych ról i tak naprawdę liczy się bardziej nasza energia, to jacy jesteśmy, no i czy rzeczywiście pasujemy do scenariusza i czy pasujemy według reżysera castingu oraz samego reżysera. Myślę, że idealna prezentacja nie istnieje, warto jest po prostu być sobą za każdym razem.

Iga Szubelak: And that is why we, being ourselves, invite everyone to the premiere of our diploma. We hope that it is this energy and what we are trying, what we are doing by being ourselves in different assumed circumstances, that will attract the audience to come into this world with us for a while and take a half-joking, half-serious look at what is going on.

Helena Rząsa: To experience it with us, to be part of it, to be swept away. In our show, we invite the audience to judge us and we judge maybe a little bit of the audience at a certain point. We change roles, we judge each other, which gives us the opportunity to look at this casting from a broader perspective and dismantle it.

Iga Szubelak: Using Hamlet as an example, as each of us will present our Hamlet.
I don't know if there's anything more I can say, but I hope this is good encouragement.
Helena Rząsa: Nasz casting prowadzony będzie na tle słynnego monologu szekspirowskiego „Być albo nie być”.

To be or not to be at the casting.

Iga Szubelak: Yes, there are very many such connections here. That is why we have just taken to 'Hamlet'.

What is it like at the casting? I would like to learn a little bit from you. I know Helena that you are a mountaineer, you do mountain climbing, skiing, you are a ski instructor. I also know that in 2017, so still three years before you entered the Theatre Academy, you performed on the stage of the St. I. Witkiewicz Theatre in Zakopane. Witkiewicz in Witold Gombrowicz's "Operetka" directed by Andrzej St. Dziuk.

Helena Rząsa: Yes, I am a mountaineer and indeed it was at the Witkacy Theatre in Zakopane that I took my first stage steps.

How did you get there? 

Helena Rząsa: In Zakopane I attended a theatre club run by Emilia Nagórka. When the casting for the role of the thief was announced, I applied. They were looking for a boy of 18, it was such an idea for the role, and me being 15 and a bald girl at the time, I decided to give it a try. Additionally, I was encouraged to audition by my first teacher, who is a theatre actress. I won and that's how it all started. I then had the opportunity to see how such a performance is created and what it entails. And I think it really somehow encouraged me to explore the art of theatre further.

You Igo, despite still being a student, are already starring in a repertory production at the Współczesny Theatre in Warsaw: "Dolce Vita", directed by Marcin Hycnar. Was there a casting call?

Iga Szubelak: No, there was no casting. I just happened to be helped by luck and a very fortuitous coincidence. We had a class with Professor Marcin Hycnar, who, after the exam - I think it was a month at the time - invited me to play in a production of Dolce Vita. It was a huge shock for me. I never thought that I would be able to have my theatre debut already in my third year. It was and still is a very interesting adventure because I can see what this theatre world looks like from the inside. It turned out that it's not so scary at all, because I have the luck and pleasure to play with wonderful actresses and actors.

And be with the audience.

Iga Szubelak: Tak być z publicznością, co na początku było ogromnie stresujące. Ciekawe jest obserwowanie, jak bardzo każdy spektakl się zmienia w zależności od tego, jacy są widzowie i jak reagują.

What kind of journey did you go through at the school itself? Surely you had intermediate, inter-semester exams? What experiences have you gained?  

Helena Rząsa: We are quite an interesting year of this school, because we happened to have a pandemic in our first year. That's why our education was a bit shortened, a bit hampered. Then there was the war in Ukraine and somewhere it all got in the way. But I still feel that we got a lot out of this experience. To be honest, I think I learned something from every professor. From Professor Jan Englert, and Professor Olga Sawicka, and in my case also from our tutor, Dean Marcin Perchut, but also from the rector, Wojciech Malajkat. From everyone I got something, some kind of treasure. I have the impression that acting is not a science from cover to cover. Now I suddenly hear it somewhere and it's all wrapped up for me.

Iga Szubelak: I tried twice to get into drama school, the second time I succeeded Really it's that from every professor we got some part, some weapon that we can use later on. I also think acting school, teaches you to be comfortable with yourself at a certain point. It got to me when I just had the individual mode in my third year, then when I attended rehearsals at the Contemporary Theatre, that I really learnt a lot of things in that school, but most of all I learnt myself.

There are 17 students in the drama theatre acting course. There are 7 participants in the play "Casting". Does that mean you won the casting?

Helena Rząsa: The funny thing is that all the time, somewhere in the back of your mind, it's a casting. This diploma is not such a first-rate performance, but the diploma itself has a casting function, when we leave the school, and it is the casting directors, directors, directors, people from the community who come to watch us.

Iga Szubelak: Helka you have summed it up perfectly.

And what is the selection of the graduation performance itself like? How did it happen that exactly this performance entered the graduation repertory of your year?  

Helena Rząsa: Pomysł nie wyszedł od nas, a od reżyserów.

Iga Szubelak: Agnes and Matthew came with a casting idea. We trusted them and went into it all together.

Helena Rząsa: Our biggest fears were at the beginning. We didn't really want it to be a show about us, so that it wasn't just about problems from the theatre world. But we understood that the phenomenon of selection is very universal.

Iga Szubelak: Tak, to jest zjawisko, które dla obu stron: i dla castingowanych, i dla castingujących bywa trudne i czasem warto się po prostu z czegoś pośmiać. Jak nie wiemy, co zrobić, to może się chwilę wszyscy razem pośmiejmy.

Helena Rząsa: Tak tu rozbieramy casting na czynniki pierwsze. Jest to i wzruszające, i śmieszne, czasem straszne.

Have you, as students, added anything from yourselves to the text?

Helena Rząsa: Tak, scenariusz został spisany, część napisali Agnieszka z Mateuszem, reżyserzy, ale też część wynika z naszych improwizacji, które się działy na początku prób.

Iga Szubelak: Wszyscy jesteśmy współautorami tekstu.

How long did the preparations take?

Helena Rząsa: Krótko!

Iga Szubelak: Siedem tygodni.

This is very brief.

Helena Rząsa: Jak na dyplom, to dosyć krótko. Jak na spektakl, to też wyjątkowo krótko. Proces, przez który przeszliśmy z Mateuszem i z Agnieszką, to chyba najcenniejsza rzecz, jaką do tej pory mogłam przeżyć. Zaufaliśmy sobie i z wielkim uśmiechem na twarzy codziennie poddawaliśmy się improwizacjom. Wchodziliśmy po prostu tak głęboko, jak tylko mogliśmy, z pełnym zaangażowaniem.

It is time to invite the audience to this performance.

Iga Szubelak: Serdecznie zapraszamy naprawdę wszystkich na nasz spektakl dyplomowy pod tytułem CASTING.

Helena Rząsa: Tak, to jest wieczny casting. Możecie wygrać casting. Możecie nas castingować.

Iga Szubelak: Można być Hamletem, albo nim nie być.

You can be, or not be.

Helena Rząsa: You can be or not be, but with us at CASTING we recommend being.

Thank you sincerely.

*

CREATIVES:
directing:
Mateusz Atman and Agnieszka Jakimiak
the script:
Emilia Florczak, Maciej Karbowski, Michał Kaszyński, Kamil Książek, Helena Rząsa, Iga Szubelak, Hanna Wojtóściszyn, Agnieszka Jakimiak, Mateusz Atman
choreography:
Oskar Malinowski
space:
Mateusz Atman and Nina Sakowska
costumes:
Nina Sakowska
musical development:
Marek Zawadzki
asystentury:
Aleksandra Bratkowska, Agata Krolow, Dominik Rubaj.
.
CAST:
Emilia Florczak
Maciej Karbowski
Michał Kaszyński
Kamil Książek
Helena Rząsa
Iga Szubelak
Hanna Wojtóściszyn