Thursday, September 23, 2021

Available in Polish - 50th Anniversary Album of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club

http://moonrisepress.com/album-50-lecia-klubu.html
Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej
Ed. by Maja Trochimczyk, Elzbieta Kanski and Elzbieta Trybus
ISBN 978-10945938-50-4. Color Hardcover, $164.00. 
ISBN 978-1-945038-51-1. Color Paperback, $55.00.
380 pages, large format 8.5 by 11 in. with color photos.

Modjeska Club members and guests after Maja Trochimczyk's lecture about Modjeska at 
Laguna Art Museum, March 2019. The museum donated the large Modjeska banner to the Club.

Moonrise Press is pleased to announce the publication of the history of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, in Polish (July 2021). Edited by dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kanski and dr. Elżbieta Trybuś, this 380-page volume documents 50 years of cultural activities of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles, established in 1971 by actor-director Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński and other Polish emigres.

Club members at 1976 event with the Theater Eskulap from Warsaw, Residence of  President 
and Founder Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski, October 1976. Photograph donated to Club Archives 
by the founder's daughter, Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynski Hunken.

The Club is named after a famous Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska (1840-1909) who emigrated to California in 1876, changed her stage name to Modjeska and became one of the most important Shakespearean actresses of her generation. 

The Club's logo with Helena Modjeska. Cover design for 1997 website by Ewa Chodkiewicz-Swider.

The Club honored its patron in a variety of ways, including lectures, theatrical and film premieres, unrealized plans to build monuments to her (based on designs by Stanislaw Szukalski and Tomasz Misztal), and the Modjeska Prizes bestowed on eminent Polish and Polish American actors since 2010.

Jadwiga Inglis's article about  the 30th anniversary of the Club, 2002.

​The album consists of essays, interviews, reviews, reminiscences and lists of club's events, including lectures, film screenings, theatrical performances, concerts, cabarets, and more. It is richly illustrated with color photographs taken over the 50 years of the Modjeska Club's history. 

Modjeska Club members singing Christmas Carols in 2013.

Texts by: Anna Maria Anders, Tadeusz Bociański, Krysta Close, Dorota Czajka-Olszewska, Zofia Czajkowska, Witold Czajkowski, Zofia Cybulska-Adamowicz, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński, Jadwiga Inglis, Michal Jasień, Tomasz Kachelski, Elżbieta Kański, Krystyna Kuszta, Jarosław Łasiński, Andrzej Maleski, Dr. Mira N. Mataric, Marta Ojrzyńska, Maria Pilatowicz, Edward Piłatowicz, Dr. Kleofas Rundzio, Andrzej Seweryn, Katarzyna Śmiechowicz, Jan Świder, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Dr. Elżbieta Trybuś and Jolanta Zych. 

Modjeska Club members and guess at The Real Poetry of Cosmos event with 
five Polish engineers, at Van Harman Auditorium of JPL/NASA, 2011.

The publication of this volume was made possible by a grant from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, and the generous support of Moonrise Press.