"From Recitation to Puppet Plays: Different Forms of Theatrical Activities of Prisoners in Death Camps”
Professional Background
Ms. Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel is a PhD candidate in theatre at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (Poland). She possesses language skills in Polish, English, German, and Spanish. While in residence at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel conducted research on her project, "From Recitation to Puppet Plays: Different Forms of Theatrical Activities of Prisoners in Death Camps”.
Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel has published a number of works in Polish, including Świat artystyczny i literacki w karykaturze Stanisława Jerzego Kozłowskiego [Artistic and literary world in caricature Stanislaw Jerzy Kozlowski] with Monika Chudzikowska (Warszawa, 2014), Art déco w jenieckich pracowniach rzeźbiarskich. Od małych form po plastykę sakralną [Art déco in P.O.W.'s Sculpting Studios during WW2. From small forms to the religious art] in Polskie Art Deco, Vol. V (Płock, 2015). She was awarded a scholarship for young researchers from Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany for 2014, as well as working for The Theatre Museum of Warsaw and is co-worker of The International Buchenwald-Dora Committee.
Fellowship Research
For her J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellowship, Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel researched the different forms of theatrical activities of prisoner death camps, and further expound on the role of performing arts in the prisoner’s life and the impact on international contacts between different groups of prisoners. By using archival material and oral histories to explore the existence of performance within the death camp arena, Ms. Modarska-Ogidel examined plays, songs, and puppet shows as they existed within the camp system.
Ms. Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel was in residence at the Mandel Center from May 1 to July 31, 2016.