2024

One of them is Przemyslaw Pilarski – playwright, screenwriter, dramatist and journalist. He is the author of numerous theatrical plays, screenplays for short films, television programmes and series, and recently also of prose. He has performed his own stand-up comedy monologues on HBO and Comedy Central, among others. Pilarski is also the co-author of bestselling books on male sexuality.
Stage productions of his texts have been presented, among others, in Prague, Bologna, Milan, Tbilisi, Berlin and in theatres all over Poland.

Anna Fam-Rieskaniemi is an interdisciplinary artist, award-winning director, and screenwriter of Vietnamese origin, living between Poland and Finland. She is a laureate of the “Young Poland” programme (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage) in the Film category. She has represented Poland as an ambassador at international industry events. She honed her craft by participating in prestigious programmes such as EAVE, Eurodoc, ACE Producers, and Wajda School & Studio, which allowed her to gain valuable experience and strengthen her perspective on audiovisual art. She is a member of the Polish Filmmakers Association. In her work, she often explores the phenomenon of social entropy and engages in intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.

As part of her fellowship at Villa Decius in September, she worked on “K!”, a musical about the controversial phenomenon of “whitewashing,” which can take surprising forms, showing that lies definitely have short legs—especially in Vietnam.

In October, we welcomed several artists, including Marcin Miętus, who works at the intersection of theatre and dance. He is the author of plays and original performances. As a dramaturge, he has collaborated with, among others, Studio Theatre in Warsaw, the Contemporary Theatre in Szczecin, the Kraków Choreographic Centre, and Scena Robocza in Poznań. Together with Katarzyna Sikora, he created the choreographic performance “Your Majesty” at Komuna Warszawa, in which he also performs.

He is a laureate of the “You Will Never Walk Alone” competition organised by TR Warszawa. His play “Apartment for Rent” reached the semi-finals of the Gdynia Drama Award.

During his fellowship at Villa Decius, he worked on the play “Profession: Hairdresser”, inspired by the life of Antoni Cierplikowski, the world-famous hairdresser known as Antoine de Paris. It is an adventure-filled and absurd comedy that, on the one hand, satirises the contemporary art scene, and on the other, critiques the precarious working conditions in which passionate people most often find themselves.

Natalja Althauser studied Slavic studies and philosophy in Freiburg and performing arts in London. She also completed a creative writing programme at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. She has worked as an actress and director. Her play “Gottlos” was published by Deutscher Theaterverlag and staged in theatres in Freiburg, Winkelau, and Berlin. In 2025, her debut novel will be published by PIPER.

During her October stay at Villa Decius, Natalja worked on the play “Die Menschenfresserin” — about power relations in a workplace where there are no longer any states, but one vast corporation.

Giorgio Ferretti is a writer and editor living in Leipzig, where he works for the literary magazine Edit. He is the winner of the Exil-Dramatiker*innenpreis, as well as the recipient of the SchreibZeit programme of the Lower Saxony Foundation and the Styria Artist-in-Residence in Graz. His prose, poetry and essays have been published in various magazines, and his first play premiered at the Schauspiel Leipzig in 2023.

At Villa Decius, he worked on the play ‘America’, which tells the story of a person with one goal: the search for America. But what does ‘America’ mean? The characters in the play face life’s challenges, encountering numerous difficulties and barriers, including language, along the way.

And on 15 December, on the stage of the Machin House of the Theatre in Krakow – Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, artists and the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow presented a mini marathon of productions based on the texts of six residents, which were created in autumn as part of the Polish-German scriptwriting scholarships at Villa Decius.