Press release, 7 September 2026
Let’s play it a thirtieth time. LET US PLAY!
KORCZAK TODAY 2026 announces the programme of its 30th anniversary edition.
Warsaw, 16 to 24 October 2026. The city once again becomes a stage for the youngest, the young, and the young at heart. The 30th International Festival of Theatres for Children and Young Audiences KORCZAK TODAY, organised by ASSITEJ Poland, takes place this year under the motto LET US PLAY. The programme features 14 productions from Poland, Belgium and Germany, presented at eleven Warsaw venues, alongside a conference, debates, workshops and meetings with artists. The focus of this year’s edition is on the Belgian scene.
Thirty is an age at which it is worth asking not only where we came from and where we are now, but also where we are going. That is why this anniversary edition is not only a moment of celebration for us, but also a question about the future of theatre for young audiences. What kind of performing arts do young people need today, and are we ready to create it with them rather than merely for them? The motto LET US PLAY, with its appeal to play and games, to freedom and agency, is both an invitation and a commitment.
Dorota Kowalkowska, Artistic Director, KORCZAK TODAY Festival
LET US PLAY, or: let us be allowed to play
More than a century ago, Janusz Korczak wrote that it is not only children who play, but adults too (“How to Love a Child. The Child in the Family”). A few years later he noted that one should not be ashamed of play, and that there is no such thing as a childish game (“Rules of Life”). He saw play not as an addition to life but as a way of coming to know oneself, others and the world. In play, after all, the rules can be changed, and one can find out what happens if the world works differently.
The thirtieth edition is a good moment, after three decades of encounters with theatre for young audiences, to ask about its future. And to ask whether, at a time when the world outside is increasingly hard to call safe or stable, play becomes something more than entertainment: a space of childhood, imagination and freedom.
FOCUS: BELGIUM
The Belgian productions show that theatre for young people need not begin with words. Body, object, acrobatics, rhythm and space become the languages of the story. This is art that explains nothing. In practice it also means that anyone can come to these performances, whatever language they speak day to day and whatever their age.
“Double You” by Be Flat, a social circus experiment played simultaneously on two stages separated by a thin wall. No single version of this performance exists.
“Je prends feu trop souvent” by Compagnie NYASH, a dance solo about adolescence, addressed to teenage audiences. Performing in Poland for the first time at KORCZAK TODAY.
“Souvenirshop” by BRONKS and Not Standing / Alexander Vantournhout, in which the souvenirs of the title turn into choreography featuring the Mona Lisa, Magritte and Monet. Vantournhout’s first work for the youngest audiences.
“Tout/Rien” by Cie Modo Grosso, an object circus for an audience of forty. No plot, no hurry, no screen.
The performances are accompanied by a Polish-Belgian conference on 19 October at Nowy Teatr, curated by Zita Epenge of hetpaleis in Antwerp. Its subject is co-creation: what happens when young people are not merely the recipients of a finished work but become partners in making decisions, and whether institutions are ready to share part of their control over the creative process.
Theatre for teenagers, and performances for everyone
This year’s edition puts strong emphasis on work for audiences aged 12 and over, still in short supply in Polish theatre. It includes “Masz coś w zębach” by Teatr Ochoty, developed out of conversations and workshops with young people in Warsaw; “POV: Masz 12 lat i prze….ne” by Teatr Współczesny in Szczecin, performed in a Warsaw primary school in the form of a theatrical silent disco; and “Masara” by the Silesian Ateneum Puppet and Actor Theatre in Katowice, an adaptation of Szczepan Twardoch’s short story about online hate and one’s relationship with one’s own body, awarded the Golden Mask for 2025 in the category of best production for young audiences. The Belgian “Je prends feu trop souvent” joins them.
Performances for all ages hold a key place in the programme. They need not mean the same thing to a six-year-old, a sixteen-year-old and a sixty-year-old, and it is precisely in that difference that an encounter can happen. Play has no age limit. The programme also includes “Bardzo, bardzo” by Teatr Maska in Rzeszów, the only production for the very youngest audiences and a relaxed, sensory-friendly performance; “Widzę tutaj coś innego” by the Sticky Fingers Club collective; “Podróże Guliwera”, Krzysztof Garbaczewski’s take on Swift, combining puppets with animated avatars and VR technology; “Bibuła w tapczanie” by Teatr Miniatura in Gdańsk, winner of the Grand Prix at the 32nd Polish Competition for the Staging of Contemporary Polish Plays, based on a book by Michał Rusinek; “Pani Twardowska albo Nieustraszony Adam Mickiewicz” by Teatr Lalka, after Adam Mickiewicz’s ballad; and “Monsterrr” by the TOBOSO company with Trygve Wakenshaw, winner of the main Westwind 2025 award and presented in Poland for the first time.
Festival premiere: Power Play
In “Power Play”, a coproduction of TR Warszawa and the KORCZAK TODAY Festival, children share the stage with the actors of TR. The inspiration is Janusz Korczak’s “King Matt the First”, the story of a child who unexpectedly becomes a king. Directed by Samara Hersch, the performance asks who holds power in the theatre, and also who is allowed to speak, to decide and to be heard. The showing on 17 October is followed by a conversation with the creative team, and on 18 October by a debate on making performing arts for young audiences, with international curators taking part.
Awards, juries and accompanying events
At the gala on 24 October, three main awards will be presented: the Janusz Korczak Grand Prix, the Stefania Wilczyńska Award and the Halina and Jan Machulski Award. They will be decided by two independent juries: an international Adult Jury and a Young Jury selected through an open call. KORCZAK TODAY also means KDR, the Good Conversation Club, with meetings inspired by theatre pedagogy, as well as workshops, panels and debates. Behind the festival stands ASSITEJ Poland, an organisation whose mission is for theatre to treat young audiences not as the public of the future but as equal co-creators of reality here and now.
Accessibility
“Bardzo, bardzo” is a relaxed, sensory-friendly performance addressed also to children and adults with additional needs, and the words spoken in it are interpreted into Polish Sign Language. Polish-language productions are performed with English surtitles. The four Belgian productions and “Monsterrr” are performed without words or with only single words, and so remain accessible whatever language the audience speaks day to day. One of the two showings of “Bibuła w tapczanie” will be interpreted into Polish Sign Language. Detailed accessibility information for individual events is available on the festival website.
Let’s play it a thirtieth time. Let us celebrate and play with theatre. Together. LET US PLAY!
Tickets and full programme: korczak-festival.pl
Organiser: ASSITEJ Poland.
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, a state earmarked fund. The project is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw.
Honorary patronage: Embassy of Belgium.
The presentation of “Monsterrr” is held under the patronage of the Embassy of Germany in Poland, with the support of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation.
Partners: Teatr Ochoty, Arnold Szyfman Polish Theatre, TR Warszawa, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Teatr Polonia, Teatr Lalka, Teatr Guliwer, Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, Mazovian Institute of Culture, Nowy Teatr, MDK Ochota, Primary School No. 354, Creative Scotland, British Council Poland, Centre for Inclusive Art / Teatr21, Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Media partners: Tygodnik Powszechny, e-teatr, Czas Dzieci, Polskie Radio RDC
Press contact:
Mateusz Trzebiatowski
Head of Communications
mateusz.trzebiatowski@korczak-festival.pl
tel. +48 516 477 958
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- HAWA
