Janina Szarek and the Teatr Studio am Salzufer – Tadeusz Różewicz Bühne Berlin

In 1990, Szarek was given the role of the Pole Wanda Winnicka in “Lindenstraße”, the popular series from Westdeutsche Rundfunk. In the same year, she went to London to work as a teacher at the Science School of Acting, a private drama school. She was also performing and she directed plays in the Polish Social and Cultural Centre (Polski Ośrodek Społeczno-Kulturalny). She always kept up her professional contacts in Berlin and returned to the city for good in 1994. Things were better for her here than in the English metropolis. She organised a German-Polish theatre festival for the State Uckermark Theatre in Schwedt an der Oder, acted in a production by Kain Karawahn at the renowned “People’s Theatre” in Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and was once again a guest lecturer on the drama course at the Konrad Wolf Film University in Babelsberg and at the Ernst Busch School of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. As well as working in the theatre, she also worked as a teacher and director at the Musical – Neukölln state school. From 1995 to 2002, Szarek directed five musicals, which were performed at the Ballhaus Neukölln.

In 1999, Janina Szarek and the essayist, art critic and poet Prof. Olav Münzberg, who would also become her new life partner, founded the Internationale Theater Werkstatt e.V. (ITW) together. At the time, Münzberg was a very well known figure in the cultural world of Berlin as Chair of the Association of German Writers in Berlin and the New Society for Literature. International artists, writers and intellectuals were all involved with the ITW. The main role of the association was to create the conditions for a German-Polish theatre in Berlin. But, at the same time, its role was also to create a place for dialogue, for thought exchange and for cultural mediation from a human perspective and from an artistic perspective. At the end of 1999, the Internationale Theater Werkstatt staged its first premiere in the Polish Cultural Institute in Berlin with the play “Country House” (W małym dworku) by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and directed by Janina Szarek. The performance was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim by the audience and the media published very positive reviews. Nevertheless, despite their best efforts, they were unable to find sponsors for the German-Polish theatre.