Press Releases 2003

U.S. and Polish First Ladies Raise Funds for Gdańsk Theater

21 October 2003

Laura Bush and Jolanta Kwaśniewska, the First Ladies of the United States and Poland, attended a gala fundraising dinner in Washington on October 26 to help celebrate the launch of The American Friends of the Gdańsk Theatre Foundation, which plans to rebuild an ancient Elizabethan theater that stood in Poland’s port city of Gdańsk 400 years ago.

“We are thrilled that the two First Ladies have agreed to attend this dinner to help us raise money for the theater and to help launch our American Friends committee,” said Professor Jerzy Limon, president and founder of the Gdańsk Theatre Foundation. “Their presence and support for the Foundation will insure support from leading institutions, individuals and corporations in the United States. We are extremely grateful.”

“In all the years I’ve been in Washington, I can’t remember an event like this one, where the First Ladies of two countries came together in support of a cultural institution. This is a first -- an extraordinary sign of the importance which the United States attaches to our relationship with Poland and of the need -- and importance -- of building cultural bridges between our two countries,” said Charles Krause, president of the American Friends Committee.

“We expect this theater, originally constructed in the early 17th Century, to become a major performing arts center for Western culture in northern Poland once it is reconstructed within the next three to four years,” said Mr. Krause.

“With the First Ladies’ continued interest and with support from donors in the United States, Britain and Poland, we are certain of success,” said Professor Limon, adding that excavation work in Gdańsk has been completed and that an international architectural competition will be announced before the end of the year. The theater, which will be reconstructed on its original site in the center of Gdańsk, is expected to cost $6 to $7 million.

HRH the Prince of Wales serves as patron of the Foundation. He has taken a special interest in the project because the original theater, called the Fencing School, was built by the English colony which lived in, and traded from, Gdańsk during the 17th Century; troupes of players from London would travel to Gdańsk, performing Shakespeare’s plays in English a year or two after they first appeared in Britain. Today, the Gdańsk Theatre Foundation hosts an annual Shakespeare festival in Gdańsk and expects the rebuilt theater to provide a permanent home for the festival -- as well as presenting other theatrical and musical productions -- once the theater is reconstructed.

The Foundation’s Honorary Patrons include Sir Peter Hall and Oscar Award winning director Andrzej Wajda. In addition to Mr. Krause, other members of the Board of the American Friends Committee include Mrs. Barbara Kapusto of Washington; Mrs. Barbara Mowat of Washington; Dr. Izabela Roman of Chicago; and Frank and Kathy Cioffi of Princeton, N.J.

The October 26th gala dinner was held at the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. For more information, please contact Barbara Kapusto (202) 986-0246, basia1@mac.com.