Teatr Scena STU, Kraków

Teatr Scena STU is a Kraków theatre on Aleja Zygmunta Krasińskiego with roots in Krzysztof Jasiński’s student theatre of nineteen sixty-six. Its pioneering productions helped place it within Poland’s alternative theatre movement, and it has continued as a municipal cultural institution since nineteen ninety-nine.

Teatr Scena STU occupies this building on Aleja Zygmunta Krasińskiego, at numbers sixteen to eighteen. Its story begins on the twentieth of February nineteen sixty-six, when Krzysztof Jasiński founded the student Theatre STU, originally called Student Theatre Uwaga. Before it settled into a permanent home, audiences encountered its work at the Pod Jaszczurami club, in a tent, and in a former synagogue on Kupa Street; this travelling phase continued until May nineteen eighty.

During the nineteen seventies, STU joined the international current of counterculture and theatrical dissent. Productions such as Spadanie, Sennik polski and Exodus shaped its particular artistic character and appeared at festivals in Poland and abroad. In nineteen seventy-five, it became professionally organised while preserving its independence and alternative-theatre energy.

Tent shows including Pacjenci, Szalona lokomotywa and Donkichoteria drew enormous crowds. The present Krakowski Teatr Scena STU has continued that legacy since July nineteen ninety-seven. It works without a resident acting company, and Kraków has run it as a municipal cultural institution since January nineteen ninety-nine.

Jasiński remains its artistic director. In twenty twenty-six, the theatre received the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis.