European honour for Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
19.09.2017 09:30
The Shakespeare Festival in the northern Polish city of Gdańsk is among five recipients of a European award for trendsetting arts festivals.
Photo: Instagram/gdański_teatr_szekspirowski
The winners of the 2017 Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe (EFFE) Award were announced at a ceremony during the Arts Festival Salon in Brussels on Monday.
The other winners are Portugal's FMM Sines-Festival Musicas do Mundo, Serbia's European Film Festival Palic, the Dutch Early Music Festival and Italy's Altofest International Contemporary Live Arts event.
A special award went to the Edinburgh International Festival.
Founded in 1997, the Shakespeare Festival is organized jointly by the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre and Theatrum Gedanense Foundation. It has hosted some of the finest Shakespeare productions from across Europe, as well as Israel, South Korea, the United States and Japan.
The history of the Shakespeare Theatre in Gdańsk goes back to the early 1990s, when Jerzy Limon, a theatre historian and scholar, discovered traces of a Shakespearean playhouse in the city which resembled the Fortune Theatre in London.
In the 17th century, Gdańsk was an important merchant centre and had a substantial British presence. Historical documents speak of more than 25 visits to Gdańsk by English actors.
The reconstructed Shakespeare Theatre in Gdańsk, designed by the Italian architect Renato Rizzi, opened in 2014. (mk/vb)