Krzysztof Torończyk – Managing Director
Krzysztof Torończyk graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and completed his doctoral studies in mathematical methods used in management, culminating in the defence of his doctoral dissertation in 1978. From 1998 to 2025, he was the director of the National Theatre, and he is now the managing director of the National Theatre.
Phot. Marta Ankiersztejn / The Artistic Archive of the National Theatre in Warsaw
Torończyk began his professional career at MCSU in Lublin as an assistant in the Department of Organisation and Management Theory at the Institute of Production Economics (1972–1978).
Next, from 1978 to 1992, he served as deputy director at the Juliusz Osterwa State Theatre in Lublin.
In January 1995, he began working at the Grand Theatre / National Opera in Warsaw as deputy director for financial affairs. At the same time (from April 1995) he was plenipotentiary for the Minister of Culture and Art regarding the merger process and creating a cultural institution bearing the name THE NATIONAL THEATRE in Warsaw. From January 1996 to April 1998, he worked as managing director of the National Theatre, which at that time encompassed both the opera and theatre stages. He developed the administrative and financial structure and oversaw how work was organised amongst a team of approximately 1500 people. He conducted negotiations with sponsors, thus obtaining extra-budgetary funds, that allowed for the implementation of many artistic projects that were significant for international cultural exchange.
Following the decision to separate the National Theatre into two distinct cultural institutions, the Grand Theatre / National Opera and the National Theatre, Torończyk organised the newly established National Theatre from the ground up in terms of structure, personnel, and economic and financial aspects to ensure it could function independently. From April 1998, he was appointed acting director, and then from September 1998, director of the National Theatre, a position he would hold until August 2025.
In 2000, at the request of the local authorities in the Lublin Province, he simultaneously assumed the position of general director of the Juliusz Osterwa Theatre in Lublin, and was tasked with restoring the artistic prestige of this renowned stage, its economic and financial condition, and ensuring the reconstruction of the theatre's historic building. He held the position until 2016.
Torończyk also helped to establish the Union of Polish Theatres and participated in drawing up documents regulating its activities, and for many years he was the vice-president of the organisation.
From 2003 to 2016, he lectured at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in the Directing Department; and from 2010 he also lectured at the Department of Theatre Studies in this same Warsaw institution.
Torończyk is a member of the Chapter of Distinguished Members of the Association of Polish Stage Artists. He was chairman of the Main Audit Commission during the presidencies of Kazimierz Dejmek (1988) and Andrzej Łapicki (1989–1990). He has been awarded the Silver and Gold Cross of Merit, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He has also been honoured by the Minister of Culture with the Silver Medal for Services to Culture, Gloria Artis, as well as with the "Meritorious for Polish Culture" badge.
