Michał Mizera – Literary Director
Michał Mizera graduated with a Master's degree from the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University (2005), where he also studied Classical Philology and European Studies (PhD studies). In 2012, he defended his doctorate on the concept of a national theatre at the Faculty of International and Political Studies and the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University. He is a graduate of the Collegium Invisibile. He has been Literary Director of the National Theatre since September 1, 2025.
Phot. Marta Ankiersztejn / The Artistic Archive of the National Theatre in Warsaw
Mizera is a lecturer at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" at the University of Warsaw (since 2011) and at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw (since 2014). He has also been a guest lecturer at the Institute of Classical Philology at the University of Warsaw, the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw, the Institute of Theatre and Media Art at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and the Department of Dance Theatre in Bytom at the Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków. He is affiliated with the College of Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. He collaborates with the Gardzienice Center for Theatre Practices (employed as a playwright in 2014-2015) and regularly collaborates with Studio Grom. Since 1999, he has collaborated with the Zdolni Fund, co-creating a program for exceptionally gifted youth for two decades. He is the founder and coordinator of the "First Tutor" programme, a nationwide tutorial initiative for high school students. He also collaborates closely with the Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wrocław.
He has published in the periodicals "Teatr," "Dialog," "Ruch Muzyczny," and "Sedno." Since 2024, he has been a regular columnist for the monthly "Kraków i Świat." As an editor, he published an anthology of plays, "Mrok jak Światło" (Warsaw 2007) and "Selected Dramas" by Molière, translated by Bohdan Korzeniewski (Warsaw 2015).
Mizera was the Chair of the Artistic Committee of the 10th National Competition for the Staging of Early Works of Polish and European Literature "Klasyka żywa" (2024), a member of the Artistic Committee of the 9th National Competition for the Staging of Early Works of Polish and European Literature "Klasyka żywa" (2023), and on the Artistic Committee for the 26th National Competition for the Staging of Polish Contemporary Art (2019/20).
He had the idea for and founded the "Lamentations" International Theatre Festival (Warsaw 2025), he was the programme director of the "Gorzkie Żale" Festival (Warsaw 2009–2013), and collaborated with the "Pępek świata" Zakopane Artistic Presentations festival (Zakopane 2017–2019), with the "Dedications" International Theatre Festival (Krakow 2004–2006), and also the "Dramas of Nations" festival (Krakow 2005). Mizera has curated various theatre exhibitions, including ones devoted to the school years of great theatre artists (Theatre Museum in Krakow 1999), the stagings of Zygmunt Krasiński's dramas (Palace of Arts in Krakow 2005), the stagings of Karol Wojtyła's dramas (the Theatre Museum in Warsaw 2007), and stagings of Zygmunt Krasiński’s "The Un-Divine Comedy" (Nowy Theatre in Łódź 2012). He had the idea for the Lusławice School, devoted to issues relating to the Reformation, at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice. From 2015 to 2025, he led the Theatre Discussion Club at the Arnold Szyfman Polish Theatre in Warsaw.
Mizera is a member of the International Federation for Theatre Research, the Polish Society for Theatre Research, the Zdolni Fund Association, the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society, and the Lovers of Andrychów District Society.
