Anna B Sheppard

Polish costume designer. She was a costume desiger of about 50 feature films produced on 5 continents, over 10 of which were directed by Krzysztof Zanussi. Now she lives in London. She studied at the Department of Architecture but soon she became a great lover of the Movie in every form. Her career started with the costume design assistance in the following films: The woodpecker directed byJerzy Gruza, Columbuses by Janusz Morgenstern and Family Life by Krzysztof Zanussi. Costumes for Zanussi’s Behind the Wall(1971) were her first independent work.
Till today Anna B. Sheppard has been cooperating with the world’s outstanding film directors, such as: Agnieszka Holland, Steven Spielberg or Roman Polański. She has been twice nominated for an Oscar in the category of the Best Costume Design (Schindler's List in 1994 and The Pianist in 2003) as well as to BAFTA Award for Schindler's List and the Caesar Award for The Pianist. In 2003 Anna B. Sheppard won an Eagle – the Polish Film Award. Anna B. Sheppard has also been working at the films: The Ogre (1996) directed by Volker Schlöndorff, The Insider (1999) by Michael Mann, Around the world in 80 days (2004) directed by Frank Coraci, Oliver Twist (2005) by Roman Rolański, Breck Eisner’s Sahara (2005), Peter Webber’s Hannibal Rising (2007), and Inglourious Basterds (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Joanna Szczepkowska

Polish drama, film and television actress; writer and a columnist. After graduating from The Theatre School (currently The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy) she played in the film entitled Con amore (dir. J. Batory) and got the award for the most interesting film debut of 1976. Since 1975 Joanna Szczepkowska has been playing in various theatres in Warsaw. In 1994 she worked for one season in the Carouge Theatre in Geneva. Joanna Szczepkowska is the author of the collection of poems entitled People of a street and other pledges of love and of a cabaret recital Joanna Szczepkowska versus other instruments, and a monodrama The naked woman. Among her other professional activities there is a series of film miniatures Ladies Dressing Room. Since 1999, every two weeks, Joanna Szczepkowska has been writing her features for The High Heels – the supplement of one of the most popular Polish newspapers. The collection of her stories Episodes from the Life of a Mirror, published in 2003, became a bestseller.
Joanna Szczepkowska has been many a time awarded for her theatre achievements in a diverse repertoir, inter alia in 2001, when she was awarded a Felix – a prestigious actors’ prize – for the main role in Amy’s view a play of David Hare.

Antoni Libera

is a writer, translator and stage director, who has translated, among others, all Samuel Beckett's plays into Polish of which he has directed many. He was in the regular contact with the writer who called him “my deputy in Eastern Europe”. His productions have been presented at various international theatre festivals.
He has also translated works of other Western writers and published a number of essays. He cooperates also with opera theatres, translates librettos (among others Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten) and writes librettos for one of the most eminent Polish composers – Krzysztof Penderecki. In 1990 he made his debut as playwright at the Royal Court Theatre in London with his “Platonic dialogue” entitled Eastern Promises (published by Methuen).
In 1998 he published the novel Madame that was awarded the first prize for best novel by Znak Publishing House, and Kijowski Prize. The novel was on the lists of bestsellers and was translated into 20 languages, among other German (dtv), English (FSG, Canongate), French (Buchet Chastel), Italian (Longanesi), Spanish (Tusquets), and Swedish (Alfred Bonniers). In 2002 it was shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In May 2004 was nominated to Prix Litterature Europeenne in France.

Maciej Nowak

Polish journalist, publicist, theatre and culinary ciritic. His career started from publishing articles in „Teatr” monthly. In the years 1990-1992 he was the editor of „Goniec Teatralny, and between 1994 and 2005 he performed the same duties in „Ruch Teatralny”. Maciej Nowak was in the years 2000-2006 a general manager of Teatr Wybrzeże in Gdańsk. Since 2003 he has been occupying a position of the founder and manager of Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw. Maciej Nowak has also been writing his features for “Gazeta Wyborcza”, among others as a culinary critic. He is the foundator of Maciek Nowak non-cabaret. Maciej Nowak appeared as an actor in three movies: Segment 76, Homeless’ Playground, A Warm Heart.

Shai Bar Yaacov

Shai Bar Yaacov was born in 1958 in Washington, D.C., but moved to Israel as a child. He completed theatre studies, especially focusing on directing, at Tel Aviv University. He then did his second degree at London University, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, from which he graduated with distinction (1990). His MA thesis was a comparative study of the directing strategies of Tadeusz Kantor and Pina Bausch.
Shai Bar Yaakov is currently teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of Theatre Studies where he specializes in both practical and theoretical aspects of directing. He has also published articles on Israeli drama and theatre. Shai Bar Yaakov had worked for many years as an active director in various theatres in Israel and London, mainly staging works of contemporary Israeli playwrights, before becoming a full-time theatre critic. Since 2000 he has worked as a theatre critic for Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest circulation daily newspaper in Israel. He also writes reviews for Galei Zahal, one of the most popular radio stations in Israel. He has served on various prize committees and is a member of the repertory committee of Sal Tarbut Artzi, a government funded body that is responsible for evaluating theatre schools’ performances in Israel. Last year (2008) he acted as a member of the organizing committee of an important conference on “ Multi-Cultural Theatre in Israel” and is currently one of the editors of a book which is meant to be based on the materials and conclusions from the conference.