Helena Rakovich

I would like to experiment with experimenting – to find ways of starting work even before stepping onto the stage (as a rule, lighting design for dramatic productions is usually created between the completion of the set construction and the start of dress rehearsals – this is a very short period during which a finished concept and a swift, deliberate, pre-planned action is expected). When I speak of starting work, I do not mean work dependent on the technical capabilities of the stage; I would like to free myself from this way of thinking and consider what, as a lighting director, I can do for the process beyond the physical space, beyond the lighting plan on paper and beyond the physical aspect of this profession.  

Recently, I have become increasingly fascinated by the phenomenon of a blacked-out theatre auditorium – it is one of the very few spaces completely devoid of natural light, but also of artificial light, which in modern life is becoming more prevalent than natural light.

I would like to search within this ‘natural’ environment for strategies, tools and solutions that we have forgotten to bring into the theatre (or perhaps we have consciously removed them), to rediscover them, examine them and restore them, in one form or another, perhaps beyond recognition, but after all, inspiration and adaptation are also an integral part of the creative process.

I would like to step away from the theatre for these three months, so that I may return to it.

I am a lighting director, theatre producer and a graduate of a ballet school. I studied at the University of Lodz, Warsaw University, the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. I was a scholarship holder of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius.

Since 2024 I have been designing lighting for plays, interdisciplinary projects, music and dance performances in Poland, Lithuania and Estonia. As a lighting director, I have cooperated with Krzysztof Warlikowski and Felice Ross (Nowy Teatr in Warsaw), Barbara Wiśniewska and Aleksander Prowaliński (Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera), Piotr Pacześniak (The Kazimierz Dejmek New Theatre in Lodz), Maciej Jaszczyński (The Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw), Wojciech Faruga (The Collegium Nobilium Theatre), Jakub Zalasa (The Wrocław Pantomime Theatre, the Barakah Theatre in Cracow) and others.

In my work, I strive to focus particularly on exploring the relationship between the eye and the prefrontal cortex, as well as the neurological and neurobiological aspects of processing information provided by the organ of sight.