FIVE QUESTIONS
Five Questions with Justyna Kostek: Founder and Artistic Director of Just More Theatre in New York City. Kostek is performing the upstate premiere of her hit off-Broadway one-woman show on the life of Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy on September 15th.
1 Why did you choose Troy to premiere your hit onewoman show on Dietrich outside of New York City?
I have such wonderful memories working on Helen of Troy, NY, the musical comedy in Troy with Don Rittner in 2015. This city has some amazing history and the audiences loved the old tunes from the musical I co-directed and performed in. So I am bringing them more of these old tunes with my onewoman show about Marlene Dietrich, which features 12 songs that everyone will be able to recognize from the American songbook and her movies.
2 You came to America in 2014to pursue your theater career. How did you get started in Europe and then here?
Theatre became my passion when I was a very young in Poland. I followed it to Copenhagen, Denmark where I studied in Commedia and Drama School and founded my own traveling theatre company (Atelier Teatral), directing and acting in plays that are performed in festivals across Europe. While studying in Denmark I created an experimental theatre piece about a Wagner piano, which made me fall in love with connecting music and theatre. I followed that love to NYC, the city of musicals. Since I arrived here, I established a theatre company Just More Theatre Inc.; co-directed and starred in the musical comedy Helen of Troy, NY; starred and co-directed in Women of History Fashion Show; played a lead in the musical comedy, Bound to Rise and played Charlotta in the musical comedy Mr. Chekhov & Mr. Porter, both at Medicine Show Theatre, and performed multiple roles in comedy musical The Cheating Flea with the Polish Theatre Institute for kids throughout NY, NJ, PA & CT. I also teach theatre and public speaking to children in Waldo School, Jersey City.
3 Why did you pick the story of Marlene?
A music director in 2016told me that I sound and look like Marlene. It intrigued me, I knew very little about her so I began some research. I realized that my love of the stage runs as deep as Dietrich’s and my training and extensive theatrical background are very Dietrich like. I wanted the challenge of being a Polish actress portraying the most famous German actress who ever lived. Kill the stereotypes about German-Polish enmity which Dietrich herself, as I learned, was free of, at the time when Nazi ideology was encouraging it. We’re both hard workers, very demanding and impatient when people don’t do their jobs -- I hate that! I’m also very hard on myself, just like Dietrich. While watching her perform in her movies I kept seeing moves and attitudes from Commedia Dal Arte and clown acting that I learned and practiced in school. Americans have a strangely limited view of clowns, so they might
not understand when I say Dietrich was not only a great star, actress, and singer, but also a great clown, in her way as great as Chaplin. Lots of other things connect me to Marlene like her love of beautiful clothes (my budget is smaller!), her artistic spirit. It’s hard to explain, but her whole soul, her theatricality, deeply appeal to me. Dietrich’s anti-Nazi convictions, the personal sacrifice she made -- volunteering for the US Army, performing under fire, incredible things like this that actually happened, well of course as a citizen of a country invaded and oppressed by the Nazis, I feel respect and gratitude. So I got together with a directorfriend and we wrote Dietrich Rides Again together.
did you start Just More Theatre?
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My main goal is to produce experimental theatre in the United States where I connect what I’ve learned from European and American theatre and put it in on stage! For a year now I have been teaching theatre to children and will be continuing that this year. Eventually I’d love to open Just More Theatre School in NYC where I would offer drama teaching programs to people of all ages.
can one get tickets to this limited performance?
Tickets can be ordered online at https://events. ticketprinting.com/event/ Dietrich-Rides-AgainAt-The-Arts-Center-OfThe-29307or go to www. eventgroove.com and search for “Dietrich Rides Again.” It is a small performance space so hopefully people will order their tickets soon.
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