Zbigniew Ziembinski

Biography

Despite his European origin, Ziembinski is considered one of the top Brazilian directors, and his version of Nelson Rodrigues's 'Vestido de Noiva' (Wedding Dress) in 1943, is believed to be the beginning of what is called Brazil's 'Modern Theater' era. Since the age of 11, he was involved with the theatrical world. In 1926, He attended Jagielonska University as well as the School of Dramatic Art of the Municipal Theatre of Krakow, where he worked in more than twenty roles between 1927 and 1929. For two years, he worked as a director and hired actor at the Polski and Maly Theatres, both in Warsaw. In 1931, he moved to Lodz to act and direct at its Municipal and Chamber Theatres. He returned to Warsaw in 1932, working for five different companies until the beginning of World War II. During this period, he performed in almost one hundred plays, sometimes accumulating the functions of actor and director, in a predominantly commercial and conventional repertoire: light comedies, customs, psychological dramas, by Polish authors as well as consecrated classics of universal literature, such as Shakespeare, Chekhov, Gogol, Wilde, Shaw and Dumas Filho. At the age of 33, he fled World War II and moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where his career flourished for the next 45 years as an actor, director, and lecturer in over 100 pieces in theater, film, and television. In 1963, he would return to his native Poland, introducing audiences to Brazilian writers Nelson Rodrigues, with the play 'Boca de Ouro' in Krakow, and Jorge Andrade with the play 'Vereda da Salvação' in Warsaw. Ziembinski influenced an entire generation of Brazilian artists with his personal style and especially with the idea that a stage show is an authorial work made from the script, a task for which all the performers involved must prepare with technique and creativity. He was also a painter and photographer until he died.