Christopher Vened Szwaja
Christopher Vened Szwaja | |||
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| Born | May 31, 1952 Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Poland | ||
| Nationality | Polish | ||
| Citizenship | Poland | ||
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Christopher Vened aka Krzysztof Szwaja was born May 31, 1952 in Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Poland. He is an actor-mime, writer, and director.
He grew up in Międzygórze, a beautiful mountain resort in Lower Silesia. His mother, Weronika, ran a private hotel for tourists. His father, Jan, was an economist and worked for the state. He has two sisters, Irena, who is a lawyer, and Marzenna, who is an orthodontist.
He started his stage career by chance as a dancer in the Wroclaw Operetta at the age of twenty. He worked two years there, performing six shows per week, and learning ballet and acrobatics.
In 1974, he joined the Wroclaw Pantomime Theater, the world famous avant-garde theater, founded and directed by Henryk Tomaszewski, and became an actor-mime. He had an illustrious career in the company, performing leading roles, often cast in the parts of gods, monsters, and lovers. The dual role of Guest-Dionysus in the production of Arriving Tomorrow brought him stardom. He also distinguished himself in the roles of the Medium in the production of The Menagerie of Empress Filissa, the Monster in the production of Mr. Twardowski, Paris and Homunculus in the production of Dr. Faust, the Satyr in the production of Hercules and Hebe, Boy II in the production of La Dispute, and Galahad in the production of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. He also performed the role of An Enemy in a film for Norway TV, Smith. In 1977, he was awarded the Brown Spire in Wroclaw for Best Performer.
He regularly toured internationally with the Wroclaw Pantomime Theater and participated in the most prestigious theater festivals in the world. While on a tour with the Wroclaw Pantomime Theatre in Germany, Martial Law was declared in Poland on December 13, 1981. As a result, Christopher decided to defect to the West. In this heroic but reckless act, he lost everything, namely, his prominent position in the Polish Royal Socialist Theater, and began his life there in the West.
He lived in West Berlin for two and a half years, where he taught mime and movement and choreographed shows in the Transformtheater. His classes had a considerable following. Students were coming to attend them from all over Europe. In 1983, he founded Impulse: Movement Theater, and produced, wrote and directed Sechs Uhr Morgan, a choreodrama inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in Kreuzberger Tanzfabrik.
In April 1984, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where he taught in acting studios and choreographed and/or directed performances in various theaters.
In 1985, he was awarded the Los Angeles Drama-Logue’s Critic’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theater for choreography in the production of Voyage to Arcturus at the Odyssey Theater. During this production, he met his future wife, Rebecca Robertson, who was an actress in the company.
In 1987, Christopher moved to Seattle and became the founder of Drama Studio. There he focused on teaching and exploring acting techniques. He taught Character Study, Scene Work, and Movement for Actors classes. He also directed Private View by Vaclav Havel, and The Maids by Jean Genet.
In Seattle, he started to work on his own acting method, combining external and internal approaches into one complimentary system. It is a thorough system, which he describes in his book In Character: An Actor’s Workbook for Character Development. Heinemann Drama published the book in 2000.
In 1994, Christopher returned to Los Angeles where he lives with his wife until now. He taught acting and movement at UCLA and various other schools around the country. He continues to direct and choreograph shows in various theaters. He has written fiction, plays, and essays.
His major works of the last decades are:
- Directing Dracula in the North Coast Repertory Intimate Theatre, Solana Beach, in 2007. - An Interview With Myself: A Theatrical Memoir, which he wrote and published in various literary magazines, in 2007-2018. - Human Identity, a one-man show, which he wrote and performed. It premiered at The Lounge Theatres, Los Angeles, on January 5, 2014. - Infidel, a play, which he wrote and directed. It premiered at the Whitefire Theatre, Los Angeles in 2018. - 3 Stories, a play, which he wrote and directed. It premiered at Studio Theatre, in the Acting Conservatory of OCSA, in 2019.
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