I first encountered the Węgajty Theatre in Nowica, in the mid-1990s. I was living in Jan Szymczyk’s house and I was in a pretty low place in my life. A new plan was born in Nowica. I wanted to work with children wherever fate took me. A fairy tale about the Mountain Spirit was writing itself in my head. I would later introduce the children from Nowica into it. After the carolling, over dinner, which was held in the old Nowica school, I told Wacek Sobaszek about my thoughts. Wacek said: "Yes, you have to work with children". That dispelled all of my doubts. Before that, however, I witnessed something that set me ideologically for many years. Węgajty are walking in a snowy tunnel, leaving the school towards the village, with music and their magic lamp, I am standing on the steps and looking at them I say to myself: "I’ve seen this before. I saw it as a child, in the hamlet of Bliżyn, in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, where my Grandmother lived". A moment in which I returned for a moment to childhood sensitivity, this pure, unadulterated one. This became an important event in my life. I started to think about building such events for myself and others. A few years had passed. I returned to my native Świętokrzyskie and, under the banner of the "Sensitivity Workshop", I started working with children, in a small wooden house, in the village of Dąbrowa Dolna. The fairy tale of the Mountain Spirit grew a lot. Many new characters appeared, simply emerging from the branches. It was a late May evening, the cottage was being overhauled, and I was making puppets that were playing in my hands on their own. Someone knocks on the door.... Mutka, Wacek and Ewa Skowerska are standing behind the door. Wacek asks: "What are you doing?". "Instead of painting the walls, I'm playing a fairy tale about the Mountain Spirit with puppets on an old table", I reply. Wacek says: "Then show it". Over candlelight, I showed them my fairy tale for the first time, which I later called Nieczekaj Lecilaty. "Would you come with your fairy tale to the Theatre Village", he suggested. "But I've never performed in front of people". Wacek said: "Well then you should try". I tried. They gave me a completely free space to act. In addition to the fairy tale, I was able to show a fire installation, with young Ugnius Litwiński and the girls from Węgajty. I could conduct workshops on earth painting, on the wall of the theatre, I could braid wicker forms and play my music. "Am I an artist?", I asked myself. I certainly wanted to be one. Węgajty allowed me to exist. The interest on their part in what I was doing gave me a sense of self-confidence. During an earth painting workshop I, met Daria Kozłowska and we wrote a song: "Dari-Ko, która z was mnie wołała, Dari-Ko, czego chciała, ty przy drodze do Węgajt płakałaś, jeszcze wtedy nie wiedziałaś, że będziesz śpiewała, i, że leśniczówka w Dąbrowie to będzie nasz dom". Over the years, Węgajty has been an open stage for our work. Carolling with them in Dąbrowa became a tradition. Many young artists reached the forester’s lodge via Węgajty. It was a prestige to work with them, especially for me, a classic ignorant of theatre and music. The Sobaszeks love people and spread light, light that will go through generations.
rys. Daria Kozłowska-Wrona