47 Polish theatre directors

Karol Adwentowicz was a Polish actor and theater director. Adwentowicz fought in the Polish Legions in World War I, and upon the return of Poland's sovereignty, embarked on a hugely successful touring career across the country. During the Nazi occupation of Poland he was imprisoned in Pawiak. He died in Warsaw, two years after the Polish October.

Erwin Axer was a Polish theatre director, writer and university professor. A long-time head of Teatr Współczesny in Warsaw, he also staged numerous plays abroad, notably in German-speaking countries, in the USA and Leningrad (USSR). Laureate of Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award (1993).

Wojciech Romuald Bogusławski was a Polish actor, theater director and playwright of the Polish Enlightenment. He was the director of the National Theatre, Warsaw,, during three distinct periods, as well as establishing a Polish opera. He is considered the "Father of Polish theatre."

Richard Boleslawski was a Polish theatre and film director, actor and teacher of acting.

Moishe Broderzon was a Yiddish poet, theatre director, and the founder of the Łódź literary group Yung-yidish.

Józef Karol Cornobis was a Polish theatre actor and director. He was killed during the Second World War; he either was shot by German troops in Toruń in 1939 or died in Auschwitz concentration camp.

Kazimierz Dejmek was a Polish actor, theatre and film director, and politician. During his career he managed the New Theatre in Łódź, the National Theatre, Warsaw, and the Teatr Polski, Warsaw. From 1993 to 1996 he served as Poland's Minister of Culture. In 1984 Dejmek was awarded the Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award and in 1989 the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of his country's highest honours.

Edward Dziewoński was a Polish stage and film actor, and theatre director.

Jerzy Feliks Fedorowicz is a Polish actor, theatre director, poet, politician, a former member of the Sejm (2005–2009), and member of the Senate (2015–).

Piotr Fronczewski, is a Polish actor and singer.

Jerzy Marian Grotowski was an innovative Polish theatre director and theorist whose approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rzeszów, in South-eastern Poland in 1933 and studied acting and directing at the Ludwik Solski Academy of Dramatic Arts in Kraków and Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. He debuted as a director in 1957 in Kraków with Eugène Ionesco's play Chairs and shortly afterwards founded a small Laboratory Theatre in 1959 in the town of Opole in Poland. During the 1960s, the company began to tour internationally and his work attracted increasing interest. As his work gained wider acclaim and recognition, Grotowski was invited to work in the United States and he left Poland in 1982. Although the company he founded in Poland closed a few years later in 1984, he continued to teach and direct productions in Europe and America. However, Grotowski became increasingly uncomfortable with the adoption and adaptation of his ideas and practices, particularly in the US. So, at what seemed to be the height of his public profile, he left America and moved to Italy where he established the Grotowski Workcenter in 1985 in Pontedera, near Pisa. At this centre he continued his theatre experimentation and practice and it was here that he continued to direct training and private theatrical events almost in secret for the last twenty years of his life. Suffering from leukemia and a heart condition, he died in 1999 at his home in Pontedera.

Władysław Hańcza (1905–1977) was a Polish actor and theatre director. During World War II he joined an underground theater. After the war he was a lecturer at the State Theatre Academy in Warsaw.

Adam Hanuszkiewicz was a Polish actor and theatre director.

Gustaw Teofil Holoubek was a Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm, and a senator.

Stefan Jaracz was a Polish actor and theater producer. He served as the artistic director of Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw during the interwar period (1930–32), and within a short period raised its reputation as one of the leading voices for Poland's new intelligentsia, with groundbreaking productions of Danton's Death by Georg Büchner (1931), The Captain of Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer (1932), as well as popular Ladies and Husars by Aleksander Fredro (1932) and The Open House by Michał Bałucki.

Zofia Jaroszewska was a Polish film actress.

Krzysztof Jasiński is a Polish actor, TV and theatre director.

Janusz Józefowicz is a Polish director, choreographer, actor and dancer.

Tadeusz Kantor was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award (1989).

Krzysztof Marek Kolberger was a Polish actor and theatre director. His father's surname was changed from Kohlberger in the 1950s. He had a daughter, actress Julia Kolberger, with ex-wife Anna Romantowska.

August Marian Kowalczyk was a Polish actor, theatre, television and film director who was the last survivor of a breakout of prisoners from Auschwitz Concentration Camp on 10 June 1942.

Olga Lipińska is a Polish theatre director, screenwriter, and TV comedy producer, best known for her TV cabaret called the Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej.

Jan Henryk Machulski was a Polish theater director, as well as a film and theatrical actor. He appeared in more than 45 film roles and 70 theater roles throughout his career.

Juliusz Osterwa, born Julian Andrzej Maluszek, was a renowned Polish actor, theatre director and art theoretician active in the interwar period. He was the founder of Theatre Reduta, the first experimental stage in Warsaw following Poland's return to independence at the end of World War One. Osterwa began his Warsaw career at the age of 33 by staging the works of Poland's revolutionary dramatists including Juliusz Słowacki, Stanisław Wyspiański, Stefan Żeromski, Jerzy Szaniawski, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, and Cyprian Norwid. This team was commonly known as the actor's commune, resembling an ascetic monastery devoted to spiritual practice.

Roman Polanski is a Polish-French film director, producer, writer, and actor. Polanski is also a fugitive from the U.S. criminal justice system; he fled the country in 1977 while awaiting sentencing for unlawful intercourse with a minor.

Jacek Poniedziałek is a Polish film, theatre and television actor as well as a theatre director and translator.

Lech Raczak was a Polish theatre director and theatre practitioner.

Kazimierz Rudzki was a Polish stage and film actor, theatre director.

Zbigniew Sawan was a Polish stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 25 films between 1928 and 1984. Studied directing in Państwowy Instytut Sztuki Teatralnej.

Leon Schiller or Leon Schiller de Schildenfeld was a Polish theatre and film director, as well as critic and theatre theoretician. He also wrote theatre and radio screenplays and composed music. He was born in Kraków under the Austrian rule during the foreign Partitions of Poland, to a family of Austrian origin that had been ennobled by Empress Maria Theresa.

Ludwik Solski, born Ludwik Napoleon Karol Sosnowski, was a Polish stage actor and theatre director. From his stage debut in 1876 until his death he played in nearly a thousand roles. He was married to the Polish actress and director Irena Solska nee Poświk.

Włodzimierz Staniewski is a Polish theatre and film director, founder and director of the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices. Author of international programmes, actor training, essays, and plays.

Andrzej Tadeusz Strzelecki, was a Polish actor, satirist, theatre director, screenplay writer and rector of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw in the years 2008–2016.

Józef Szajna was a Polish set designer, director, play writer, theoretician of the theatre, painter and graphic artist.

Andrzej Szczytko is a Polish actor and stage director. Szczytko is the recipient of multiple theatre awards and honours, including the 2016 Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award. He was awarded the Decoration of Honor "Meritorious for Polish Culture" in 2012 for his contribution to Polish culture, and in 2017, the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

Arnold Szyfman was a Polish theatre director and stage director. Founder of the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. He supervised the construction of Teatr Polski in Warsaw which opened in 1913 with Zygmunt Krasiński's Irydion. One of the most beautiful playhouses in Europe, it was equipped with a revolving stage and up-to-date lighting, and was under Szyfman's management from 1913-1939, except for his two-year internment in Russia in the First World War. In hiding during the next war, Szyfman resumed management of the Polski in 1945, was fired by the communist authorities in 1949, and returned for a final time from 1955-1957. He was also manager of other Warsaw theaters and companies. At the Polski, he employed the best artists and directed numerous productions himself, including 22 Shakespeare plays.

Mariusz Treliński is a Polish opera, theatre and film director as well as the artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw.

Julian Tuwim, known also under the pseudonym "Oldlen" as a lyricist, was a Polish poet, born in Łódź,. He was educated in Łódź and in Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University. After Poland's return to independence in 1918, Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature, admired also for his contribution to children's literature. He was a recipient of the prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935.

Krzysztof Warlikowski is a Polish theatre director. He is the creator and artistic director of Nowy Teatr in Warsaw.

Tomasz Wójcik is a Polish graphic designer, stage designer, theater director and doctor of physical sciences. Creates posters for plays, films, festivals and cultural events and promoting public awareness campaigns.

Lidia Wysocka was a Polish stage, film and voice actress, singer, cabaret performer and creative director, theatre director and costume designer, editorialist.

Stanisława Wysocka (1877–1941) was a Polish actress and theatre director. Teacher of Państwowy Instytut Sztuki Teatralnej.

Krzysztof Zaleski was a Polish theater director and cinema actor.

Zbigniew Jan Zapasiewicz was one of the most prominent post-war Polish actors, as well as a theatre director and pedagogue.

Aleksander Zelwerowicz was a Polish actor, director, theatre president and a teacher. He received the Order of Polonia Restituta and is one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.

Mira Zimińska (1901–1997) was a Polish stage and film actress. She was the founder and long-time director of the Mazowsze folk group.

Feliks Żukowski was a Polish actor and theatre director. He worked in theatres in Warsaw, Vilnius, Lublin, Częstochowa and Łódź. Feliks was a manager of Stefan Jaracz Teatr in Olsztyn. He was also a soldier of Armia Krajowa, prisoner of Sachsenhausen concentration camp.