Helena Kaut-Howson

Last updated

Helena Kaut-Howson
Born
Helena Kaut [1]

1940 (age 82–83) [1]
Lviv, Soviet Union [1]
OccupationTheatre director

Helena Kaut-Howson is a British theatre director.

Early life and education

Helena Kaut-Howson was born (as Helena Kaut) in 1940 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]

Contents

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.

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