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About the Artist [0]
Bronislaw Machalski is one of the giants of Classic Mime. Recognized by critics, audiences and his peers as a master of the form, "Machalski has won acclaim and respect on two continents as an extraordinary practitioner of both Classic and Modern Pantomime. Machalski's live and film performances have garnered numerous awards and earned him the title of "Superstar" in Europe. And now, American audiences have the opportunity to experience the unparalleled artistry of Bronislaw Machalski.
Born of Polish parents in Eastern Siberia, Machalski was deafened at the age of five in a train accident. Later, at the encouragement of the great Polish film director Andrzej Munk, Machalski began his formal mime training at the world-renowned Polish Mime Ballet Theatre under the tutelage of its founder Madame Alla Laskowska.
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"Your work is perfect, the best I have ever seen." Bill Cosby
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His talent and brilliance were such that within a few years, the young Machalski won the Grand Prize at the International Festival of Mime in Poland.
From that milestone, Machalski's career and art flourished throughout Europe, encompassing opera, and other stage performances, and punctuated by many award winning appearances in film and television, his name sharing top-billing with superstars Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud, Salvatore Adamo, Dalida, and Shirley Bassey. Since coming to America a few short years ago, Machalski has performed throughout the West and Southwest, sharing the stage with such entertainers as Bill Cosby, Peter Gabriel and Emmylou Harris.
From devotees of the art of pantomime to the uninitiated, Machalski will provide hours of stimulating art, razor-sharp wit and exhilarating fun. No one can fully understand the possibilities of the mime form without spending an evening with Bronislaw Machalski.
Bronislaw Machalski's career began in the late fifties with appearances in films by directors Andrzej Munk, Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Boris Iwanow.
In 1965, Machalski shared with director Jerzy Ziarnik the Gold Cup awards at the Florence and Cannes film festivals for their short film In the Circle of Stillness.
In 1967, Machalski won the prestigious Grand Prize at the International Festival of Mime in Poland. That same year, he also won the award for Best Solo performance at the Warsaw International Theatre.
In 1971, Machalski was awarded the Unesco Prize of the Arts at the Festival of the Theatre National Populaire in Paris for his starring role in Silence of the World, the only time the much-coveted prize has been given to an individual artist. He capped that year with a sold-out two-month run at Dusseldorf's Pan Theatre on the occasion of Beethoven's 200th birthday for which he created and premiered a new pantomime.
In the years that followed, Machalski multiplied his stage and television appearances, playing the Sporting Hall in Monaco, the Olympia in Paris, the Royal Theatre in Holland, and the Messe-Hall and Oben Gallery in Berlin. And everywhere, audiences bestowed their highest honors on Machalski and his one-man show Miko and His World.
In 1975, Machalski's solo performance in Bob Vikic's film Way to the Neighbour won it the Critics' Award for Best Film at the Oberhausen Film Festival in West Germany. Later that year, the Cologne Opera premiered Miko and His World with music by composer Stewart Robertson.
Machalski's show has often formed the core for numerous Gala benefits in Europe and America: in 1976, he headlined benefits for UNICEF at Amsterdam's Royal Theatre, and for the Africa Center in Monaco. In 1978, he performed for a Gala Evening for Handicap Research at the Theatre of the Nations.
You make a magnificent and superbly skilled pantomime.... Emmylou Harris |
In 1977, Machalski appeared with Bill Cosby at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, to great acclaim. The following year, he toured with Cosby in the Midwest. In the past three years, he has concentrated his work in the United States, performing extensively on the West Coast, notably in Hollywood with Peter Gabriel and Emmylou Harris.
Machalski has also used his unique talents beyond the performing stage, acting as script consultant and technical advisor on numerous film and television productions. He has taught master classes for the program "Dance Masters of America 11 in Northern California. As an instructor specializing in body and flexible movements, psycho- expression and emotional techniques, he has given apprenticeships to some of the bestknown actors, actresses and opera singers in Poland, West German, France and America.
Bronislaw Machalski's great creation is "Miko", a straw-hatted, white-f aced Everyman put through the gamut of human emotion in Machalski's one-man show Miko and His World. Incorporating some dozen sketches that run from the profound to the fanciful, Machalski draws on every shade of the human experience. In Civil War, Miko is the awkward recruit with an oversized rifle thrown into the sudden terror of the trenches. In The Music Box, Miko transforms himself into a revolving rainbow of characters, underlying Machalski's singular versatility. In Miko Meets A Tragic Fate, a more intellectual facet reveals itself as Miko struggles with the universal problem of ambivalent morality.
Machalski's whimsical side takes over in The Cleaning Woman, an uproarious sketch detailing the trials and tribulations of a vain and feckless creature. In
the Ring
features Miko as a demure
boxer going up against an overwhelming opponent but who must first vanquish his
own clumsiness. And in the tragi-comic Employer and Employee, Miko's hat
becomes the element separating the callous employer and the hatless worker
crippled by inhuman work, until Miko fuses his dual roles in a bloodless coup to
emerge as the victorious employee - now sporting the hat. It is this last sketch
that sets the tone for much of Machalski's work; Miko is able to turn personal
tragedy into impressive triumph while retaining an infectious sense of humor.
Machalski's wizardry to paint images and sculpt objects out of thin air is amply demonstrated in A Stroll with an Umbrella, a tour-de-force sketch which has Miko trying to retrieve his hat from the clutches of the wind. Finally, it is Miko himself who, seemingly weightless is nearly carried off toward the heavens. It is Machalski's genius that he is able to convincingly communicate the unseen, as in Flight with the Wind, and the unheard, as in The Street-Musician. His perfect balance, his dancer's grace, his unmatched timing and his talent to entertain any audience make Machalski a master of his art, and his show an unforgettable experience.
BRONISLAW MACHALSKI
"A
dedicated performer ... I am moved and touched by Miko's artistry."
Marcel Marceau
"I
love Miko because he portrays beautifully the art of classic mime."
Benjamin Britten
"... stunning
portraits of pain and anguish, giving one the feeling of just having read
an epic novel or poem."
Chattanooga
Times
Helmut Kotschenreuther
Die Welt (Germany)
"Machalski
is the greatest in the classical traditions of mime."
Jacques Le T ati
Paris-Match
(France)
"Although classified as pantomime, Machalski's technique is not
abstract. He presents concrete dramatic scenes and characters. Using solely his body, he
reveals as much imagination an precision, vitality and
humor as the dramatic theater."
Rolf Wiest
Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger (Germany)
Los Angeles Times
"His is not a world of
beautiful appearances, but rather the world of harsh realities. Fear,
hesitation, anger, courage ... were the images he sketched."
Giessener Allgemeine (Germany)
"'Miko and
His World' was a masterly demonstration of the art of pantomime."
Dorothy Nichols
Palo Alto
Times