Helena Kaut-Howson

Last updated

Helena Kaut-Howson
Born
Helena Kaut [1]

1940 (age 8384) [1]
OccupationTheatre director

Helena Kaut-Howson (born 1940) is a Polish-born British theatre director.

Contents

Early life and education

Helena Kaut-Howson was born (as Helena Kaut) in Lviv, a Polish city which was recently forcibly incorporated into Soviet Union. [1] She is a child Holocaust survivor. She grew up in Wrocław, Poland. [1] Her training as a director was first at the Polish State Theatre School and then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. [2]

Career

Kaut-Howson originally worked as an actor in the 1950s, at the Jewish Theatre, Warsaw. [3] She had to leave Poland after marrying a British man who was the son of an admiral working for NATO, and came to the United Kingdom then. [1] She worked in the 1960s in direction at the Royal Court Theatre. [3] She has directed in Israel at the Jerusalem Community Theatre, the Habima Theatre and Cameri Theater. [3] Other work as director outside the UK includes at Monument-National in Canada and the Gate Theatre in Dublin. [3] She has also worked with Scena Polska UK at the Polish Social and Cultural Association in London. [4] [5]

Kaut-Howson was artistic director of Theatr Clwyd in Wales between 1992 and 1995. [3] [6] The Board decided not to renew her contract, despite the financial and critical success Clwyd had under her leadership. [7]

There was disagreement between Kaut-Howson and the theatre management about her production of The Miser at the Royal Exchange, Manchester in 2009. [8]

Kaut-Howson has taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. [3]

Some of the plays she has directed are her own adaptations. [3] This includes Faithful Ruslan, which she adapted from the book by Georgi Vladimov. [9] [10]

Themes

Although Kaut-Howson does not call herself a feminist, her productions are often identified as feminist. [2] [11] [12] In her production of King Lear at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, later transferring to the Young Vic, the part of King Lear was played by a woman, Kathryn Hunter, a decision which was called "controversial". [2] [11] [13] [14]

Kaut-Howson values working with actors from the theatre company Complicité. [2] She believes that theatre is about a company performing, rather than individual actors. [2]

Kaut-Howson was instrumental in bringing the work of Bruno Schulz to the stage. [15] [9]

Awards

Bibliography

From 2017, Kaut-Howson wrote a column in Tydzień Polski , called "Notes from the wings".

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wardle, Irving (3 September 1994). "SHOW PEOPLE / A winner against the odds: Helena Kaut-Howson". Independent. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Schafer, Elizabeth (2000). Ms-Directing Shakespeare: Women Direct Shakespeare. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9780312227463 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kaut-Howson, Helena (1995). "Flowers Among the Ruins - Identity and the Theatre". Views of Theatre in Ireland 1995 (PDF). The Arts Council.
  4. "OPOWIEŚĆ ZE ŚMIETNIKA HISTORII". Tydzień Polski. 16 July 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  5. "TEATRALNY KRZYK POLSKOŚCI… "ŹRÓDŁO" W REŻYSERII HELENY KAUT-HOWSON". Tydzień Polski. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  6. Goodman, Lizbeth; de Gay, Jane (31 January 2002). The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance. ISBN   9781134707607 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. Pascal, Julia (2005). Women in Theatre 2#3. Routledge. ISBN   9781135305352. As we go to press it is revealed that, despite her success at Clywd, the Board is not renewing her contract
  8. Qureshi, Yakub (26 September 2009). "Top director 'fired' by theatre". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  9. 1 2 Totev, Borimir (27 August 2017). ""Faithful Ruslan" Flying After an Ideal: Interview with Helena Kaut-Howson". Theatre Times. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  10. Brennan, Claire (17 September 2017). "Faithful Ruslan: The Story of a Guard Dog review – a haunting experience" . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  11. 1 2 Parker, Patricia (2004). "Barbers and Barbary: Early Modern Cultural Semantics". In Masten, Jeffrey; Wall, Wendy (eds.). Renaissance Drama 33. ISBN   9780810121997 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  12. Ferris, Lesley (2009). "Lear's Daughters and Sons: Twisting the Canonical Landscape". In Friedman, Sharon (ed.). Feminist Theatrical Revisions of Classic Works: Critical Essays. ISBN   9780786452392 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  13. Senelick, Laurence (2000). The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre. Psychology Press. ISBN   9780415159869 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  14. Aston, Elaine (2005). Feminist Theatre Practice: A Handbook. Routledge. ISBN   9781134771516 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  15. Fox, Christie (2009). Breaking Forms: The Shift to Performance in Late Twentieth-Century Irish Drama. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN   9781443807739 . Retrieved 8 March 2022.

Further reading