Professor Emeritus Kazimierz Braun Receives London Literary Award

Congratulations to THD Professor Emeritus Kazimierz Braun, who has received the London Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, with a focus on writing, theatre and science, by the Polish Writers' Union in the Undergrowth.

Braun is the author of 77 books, including: A History of Polish Theater, 1939-1989, Second Reform of the Theatre: People – Ideas – Events or My Father. He has published several hundred sketches in the field of history and workshop issues of theatre in Polish and English.  

Since his debut in 1961, Braun has directed more than 150 theatre and television performances in Poland, USA, Canada, Ireland, Germany. The director is also known for a series devoted to outstanding Polish women: Tamra Lempicka, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Karolina Lanckorońska.

Braun authored two plays about Ignacy Paderewski: The Paderewski’s Child and Paderewski is Back. Most of these performances were written for two actresses, Maria Nowotarska and Agata Pilitowska from the Poetry Salon, Music and Theatre in Toronto.

“Kazimierz Braun receives the London Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, with a particular focus on writing, theatrical and science activities after settling in the United States in 1985," stated Dr. Aleksandra Ziółkowska Boehm, a member of the jury.

Braun was born on June 29, 1936 in Mokrsko Dolny in south-central Poland, and is a graduate of Polish philology at the University of Warsaw. He obtained his doctorate at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 1971, and his degree in habilitated humanities with a specialty of theatre studies was awarded at the University of Wrocław in 1975.

The ambitious and consistently enforced scientific and artistic career plan was interrupted by the loss of his job and director’s position at the Wrocław Contemporary Theatre. Political authorities removed Braun for his opposition activities. In the 1980s a series of lectures at several universities in the United States allowed him to develop a new career. From 1989 until his professorial retirement, he taught at the University at Buffalo as a faculty member of the Department of Theatre and Dance.