Piotr Tomaszuk was born on June 17, 1961, in Białystok. He is a theatre director, playwright, and screenwriter, and the founder and director of the Wierszalin Theatre in Supraśl.
Piotr Tomaszuk graduated from the Theatre Studies Department of the State Drama School in Warsaw (1984) and from Puppet Theatre Directing in Białystok. He began his career in 1986 at the Białystok Puppet Theatre with the play About the Physician Feliks. His next play, Turlajgroszek, brought him national recognition and led to the founding of the Wierszalin Theatre in Supraśl in 1991 (together with Tadeusz Słobodzianek), which still exists today.
Tomaszuk’s theatre has become one of the most recognizable and acclaimed Polish alternative theatres, winning the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival three times for his performances: Turlajgroszek (1993), Merlin (1994), and Medyk (1997). Tomaszuk has developed a unique style combining outstanding acting with impeccable use of puppetry and visual art. Polish critics consider the Wierszalin Theatre to be a continuator of the traditions of Juliusz Osterwa’s Reduta Theatre, Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre, and Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 Theatre.
Tomaszuk has received numerous awards, including the Konrad Swinarski Award (1993), the Leon Schiller Award (1995), the Silver Award (2006), and the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2023). For his work, he was also awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2023).
His most important original productions include Turlajgroszek (The Pea Roller), Głup (The Fool), The Wilgefortis Sacrifice, Sant Oedipus, The God of Nijinsky, Wierszalin. A Report on the End of the World, and the comedy The Ascension. His most important productions with other authors include Merlin (by Tadeusz Słobodzianek), Klątwa (The Curse), and Wyzwolenie (Liberation) by Stanisław Wyspiański, as well as stagings of texts by Adam Mickiewicz: Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve), Ballads and Romances and Liryki Lausanne (The Lausanne Liries).
Throughout its history, the Wierszalin Theatre has performed several times in Tokyo (Japan), the United States, India, Mexico, and most European countries, including the World Exhibition in Hanover (Germany) in 2000.