Name: Katarzyna LechHome town: Szczecin, PolandWhere do you live now: Sturry, KentTheatre work:Morderstwd (Directed by Gabriel Gietzky)Chess Laugh Mewash (Directed by Gietzky Anna Wolf)Delta Phase (Directed by Lianne O’shea)
What link do you have with the university?For the past year I have been a Performing Arts lecture and I am now also the Equality and Diversity Officer.
Why did you move to the UK?Well at the time I was performing in a television programme called Cyber Mouse which aired live on a Sunday morning. In Poland all the theatres close over the summer and Drama school had been so stressful with no breaks. So, I had a friend in Ireland and decide to visit for the summer. Living and working in Ireland was such a different experience and I loved it. When it came to the end of summer I phoned my director in Poland and when I told him I didn’t want to return he said I would always have a job to return to. This put my mind at ease as I knew I could always return home and get work. For two years I worked and had fun with my friends but I started to think what I wanted to do with my life and career. So I set up the Polish Theatre Company Ireland with my friend and also completed my PHD at UCD.
What was your inspiration for performing?I never really had an inspiration to be honest because I never wanted to perform. I wanted to be a prosecution lawyer and before that a volleyball player but I was too short! As a child I would read, play dress up and act out games as a princess but it was never something I wanted to pursue. In my 3rd year, my literary teacher persuaded me to enter a poetry competition which was a brilliant experience. I had written a poem based around the French painter Renoir from the point of view of one of the females in his painting. After that I got a good grade and she said I should think about drama school. I said no because I wanted to be a lawyer but I went to some classes she had suggested. Through these classes I realised that maybe drama school was something I could do but I was unsuccessful the first time round. I was very upset because I had only applied to one school and they had rejected me. However my friend told me to apply for law school and I got in. After one year of law school and applied again for drama school and this time I was successful even though on the day of the audition I was ill!
You are very persistent, where does that come from?I am a very stubborn person. I think something that also helped was on the day of the audition I didn’t think I was going to get in so I was very chilled. Also, that day I met a man on the train journey there and started talking to him. He said he was certain I was going to get in and when I asked him why he said “My name is Victor and Victor means victory!” That stuck in my head and gave me a kind of confidence. I think my grandma also gave me a lot of confidence. I was so scared of telling her I was dropping out of law school to go to drama school because she was an accountant. When I told her though she said “Whatever makes you happy!” She had wanted to become a vet but the school was too far away from her mother, she understood my situation.
What is your favourite career moment so far?Performing Bubble Revolution. I have had the chance to perform it in English and Polish. Also because of the nature of the piece and the fact it is set in the 1980’s and 1990’s people often come up to me after the show crying. They say “That was me! You were talking about me!”
Tell us about Bubble Revolution.It’s fun! It’s about a women who is growing up in Poland in the 80’s and 90’s and the effects on that generation. It talks about communism and the early democracy years as a child but also dealing with the trauma of that time.
Do you have any advice for the students of CCCU?Don’t drink too much. Take all the opportunities you can because they won’t be there after university. Also the metaphor ‘If you can’t swim, don’t jump into the deep end!’
Have you got any other future projects?I am currently turning my thesis into a book. I also have a lot of new pieces of secret work in the pipe line so watch this space!
Thankyou Kasia! Do you have a suggestion for campus celebrity! Then tell us at @HerCampusCCCU