Dr. K.K. (Kasia) Lech
Associate Professor Global Performance History
Faculty of Humanities
Theatre Studies
Area of expertise: multilingualism, migration, acting training, puppetry, dramaturgy, translation, community theatre, storytelling, theatre for young audiences, drama education, verse drama, digital theatre, Poland, Ireland, Central-Eastern Europe, artistic research
Visiting address
- Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16-18
Postal address
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Postbus 93065
1090 BB Amsterdam
Contact details
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Profile
Kasia Lech, with a PhD from University College Dublin, is a scholar, actor, storyteller, dramaturg, and puppeteer with scholarly and creative expertise in the intersection of theatre and performance with multilingualism, verse, translation, migration, and artistic research. Kasia performed internationally and co-founded Polish Theatre Ireland – a multilingual theatre company based in Dublin. She is an Executive Director at TheTheatreTimes.com, a multi-awarded global theatre portal, which seeks to decolonize theatre criticism. Kasia is an affiliate of metaLAB (at) Harvard & FU Berlin.
Kasia published Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre (Routledge, 2021), which received outstanding reviews for its content, critical quality, and decolonizing scholarship on verse. Her awarded second book Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre (Palgrave, 2024) was described as "profoundly impactful" in its engagement with how "European theatre performs, understands, and re-imagines difference." Her research on multilingualism, children theatre, and verse drama underpinned her writing of Feminist Imagining in Polish and Ukrainian Theatres co-authored with Ewa Bal (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Kasia was also part of funded research projects on devising strategies for multilingual theatre for young people in Europe, mapping Polish migrant theatre worldwide, and on historical and present violence in Polish theatre.
Kasia has twenty years of conservatory and university teaching experience in the UK, Ireland, Poland, and the Netherlands, and decades of teaching drama and running theatre and storytelling workshops for primary school children across the four countries. This is enhanced by two decades of applied arts projects and interdisciplinary research collaborations with diverse communities and non-academic organizations worldwide. At the moment, Kasia volunteers her expertise in acting, children theatre, multilingualism, and storytelling to Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Polish Culture NL, and to Stichting Pools Centrum voor Onderwijs en Cultuur Lokomotywa in Amsterdam. She runs monthly Polish-language storytelling activities for children and parents at OBA Oosterdok and facilitates Polish-language drama classes for children in Amsterdam.
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Publications
2026
- Bal, E., & Lech, K. K. (in press). (Trans)Localness Against Biopolitics of the Past in Polish Theatre after 1991. In Y. Meerzon, J. Listengarten, & V. Sklez (Eds.), Performances of Protest and Resistance: Contesting Russia's Nationalism (Methuen Drama). Methuen.
- Lech, K. K. (2026). Case study: Poland. In M. Romanska (Ed.), Digital Access to the Performing Arts: Comparative Study of Legal and Structural Challenges (pp. 81-87). Bristol University Press.
2025
- Lech, K. K. (2025). Assembling Diverse Voices: Female Migrant Artists in the British Theatre System. In The Methuen Drama Handbook of Women in Contemporary British Theatre Methuen.
- Lech, K. K., & Bal, E. (2025). Feminist Imagining in Polish and Ukrainian Theatres. Cambridge University Press.
- Lech, K. K., & Romanska, M. (2025). TheTheatreTimes.com: dążąc do ponadnarodowej infrastruktury cyfrowej. In T. Wiśniewski, R. Zgierska, K. Pastuszak, & K. Kręglewska (Eds.), Teatr – Literatura – Zarządzanie (pp. 557-566). Gdańsk University Press.
Lech, K., & Kennedy, M. (2025). Displacing Practitioner: on Professional Training for Multilingual Theatre in Europe. Culture Teatrali, 33, 132-146, 290. https://doi.org/10.53235/2036-5624/203 [details]
2024
- Lech, K. K. (2024). Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre. (New Dramaturgies). Palgrave Macmillan.
2023
- Lech, K. (2023). Sonless Mothers and Motherless Sons or How Has Polishness Haunted Polish Theatre Artists in Exile? In Y. Meerzon, & S. E. Wilmer (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration (pp. 291-301). (Palgrave handbooks). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20196-7_23 [details]
- Lech, K. (2023). Wielojęzyczny teatr europejski: próba zarysu. Didaskalia, 173, 6-26. https://doi.org/10.34762/Y6J0-ZH55 [details]
- Lech, K. K. (2023). „1989”: wielogłosowość infranarracji a pamięć zbiorowa o polskiej walce o wolność. Didaskalia, (177), 192-200. https://didaskalia.pl/pl/artykul/1989-wieloglosowosc-infranarracji-pamiec-zbiorowa-o-polskiej-walce-o-wolnosc
2022
- Lech, K. K. (2022). Focus: Ukraine II. Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, (25). https://www.critical-stages.org/25/category/focus-ukraine-2/
- Lech, K. K. (2022). Ukraine Theatre: Pasts, Presents, and Futures. Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, (25). https://www.critical-stages.org/25/ukraine-theatre-pasts-presents-and-futures/
2021
- Lech, K. (2021). Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre. (Focus on Dramaturgy). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429260056
- Lech, K. K. (2021). Krytyczki as Activists: on Theatre Criticism, Affect, Objectivism, and #Metoo in Polish Drama Schools. Interview with Monika Kwaśniewska. Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, (23). https://www.critical-stages.org/23/interview-with-monika-kwasniewska/
2020
- Lech, K. (2020). Roughening up of the utterance” or “It’s not all mountains and sheep and Emily Dickinson.”: How Contemporary Practitioners Test Boundaries of Verse Drama? Coup de Théâtre, (34), 161-179.
- Lech, K. K. (2020). Lockdown Verses and Anxieties of Presence: How Polish Theatre Rhymed a Case for Its Purpose on the Pandemic Stage? Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, (22). https://www.critical-stages.org/22/lockdown-verses-and-anxieties-of-presence-how-polish-theatre-rhymed-a-case-for-its-purpose-on-the-pandemic-stage/
- University, C. (2020). Claiming Their Voice: Foreign Memories on the Post-Brexit British Stage. In Y. Meerzon, D. Dean, & D. McNeil (Eds.), Migration and Stereotypes in Performance and Culture (pp. 215-234). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39915-3_12
2019
- Lech, K. K. (2019). Acting as the Act of Translation: Domesticating and Foreignizing Strategies as Part of the Actor’s Performance in the Irish-Polish Production of "Bubble Revolution”. In Y. Meerzon, & K. Pewny (Eds.), Dramaturgy of Migration: Staging Multicultural Encounters in Contemporary Theatre (pp. 39-50). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351270267-5/acting-act-translation-kasia-lech
2018
- Lech, K. K. (2018). Verse in Contemporary Irish Theatre . Ed. . Palgrave, pp. 599-613. In E. Jordan, & E. Weitz (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-58588-2
2017
- Lech, K. K., Hoople, L., Abiker, K., Mitchell, M., & Mooney, P. (2017). Students as Producers and Active Partners in Enhancing Equality and Diversity: Culturosity at Canterbury Christ Church University.” Principal Investigator. Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 3(2). https://journals.studentengagement.org.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/533
2015
- Lech, K. K. (2015). Difficult Encounter: Polish Theatre on the Irish Stage between 2004 and 2015. Litteraria Pragensia, (50), 32-46.
- Lech, K. K. (2015). Pain, Rain, and Rhyme: the Role of Rhythm in Stefanie Preissner’s Work. In M. Haughton, & M. Kurdi (Eds.), Radical Contemporary Theatre Practices by Women in Ireland (pp. 151-166). Peter Lang.
- Lech, K. K. (2015). Puppets, Dogs, and Vegetarian Angels: Ecocriticism in Jakub Krofta’s Polish productions. Theatralia/Yorick, 18(2), 277-302. https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/handle/11222.digilib/134427
2014
- Lech, K. K. (2014). Memory, Communism, and Foreign Words in "Foreign Bodies": Balancing Foreignization and Domesticating Strategies in Polish Theatre Ireland’s production of Julia Holewińska’s play. Translation Ireland, 19(2), 37-48. https://www.translatorsassociation.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Translation-Ireland-Polish-Irish-Issues-in-Translation.pdf
- Lech, K. K. (2014). Metatheatre and the Importance of Estrella in Calderón’s "La vida es sueño" and its Contemporary Productions. Bulletin of the Comediantes, 66(2), 175-193. https://doi.org/10.1353/boc.2014.0036
2024
- Lech, K. K., & Romanska, M. (2024). Rumo a uma Infraestrutura Teatral Transnacional: a plataforma TheTheatreTimes.com. In I. Cabral, M. Aquiles, R. Corrêa de Camargo, & T. Wiśniewski (Eds.), Entre Almanach 2024 (pp. 335-341). Lucias.
2024
- Lech, K. K. (2024). It Takes Artistry to Make Theatre for Young Audiences: New Theatre for Children Festival, Wrocław 2024. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/it-takes-artistry-to-make-theatre-for-young-audiences-review-of-new-theatre-for-children-wroclaw-2024/
2024
- Lech, K. K. (2024). Make Your Classroom Multilingual: On Training Students For Rapidly Changing Cultural Landscapes. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/make-your-classroom-multilingual-on-training-students-for-rapidly-changing-cultural-landscapes/
- Lech, K. K. (2024). Multilingual Theatre For/With Young Audiences: On the Jeune Théâtre Européen Jeunes Publics Project. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/multilingual-theatre-for-with-young-audiences-on-the-jeune-theatre-europeen-jeunes-publics-project/
- Lech, K. K. (2024). Towards New Theatre in Europe: What Roles Can Multilingual Dramaturgies Play in Europe’s Future(s)? TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/towards-new-theatre-in-europe-what-roles-can-multilingual-dramaturgies-play-in-europes-futures/
- Lech, K. K., & Romanska, M. (2024). TheTheatreTimes.com: Towards Transnational Digital Infrastructure. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/thetheatretimes-com-towards-transnational-digital-infrastructure/
2023
- Lech, K. K. (2023). Polish People Deserve Better from Irish Theatre. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/polish-people-deserve-better-from-irish-theatre/
2022
- Lech, K. K. (2022). Theatre as Shelter: on Artists' in Ukraine (And Beyond) Response to the Russian Invasion. TheTheatreTimes.com. https://thetheatretimes.com/theatre-as-shelter-on-artists-in-ukraine-response-to-the-russian-invasion/
Prize / grant
- Lech, K. (2025). The Janovics Center Award for Outstanding Humanities Research in Transnational Film and Theatre Studies. BEST BOOK IN THEATRE STUDIES 2024.. https://teatrufilm.ubbcluj.ro/2024-award-winners-announcement-the-janovics-centre-awards/
- Lech, K. (2025). TheTheatreTimes.com: The 2025 Webby Honoree in the Websites and Mobile Sites - Cultural Blog/Website. https://winners.webbyawards.com/winners/websites-and-mobile-sites/general-desktop-mobile-sites/cultural-blogwebsite?years=0&sort=0
- Lech, K. (2024). ATHE-ASTR Award for Excellence in Digital Scholarship. https://www.athe.org/page/24_digitalawardee
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Ancillary activities
No ancillary activities
Lech, K., & Kennedy, M. (2025). Displacing Practitioner: on Professional Training for Multilingual Theatre in Europe. Culture Teatrali, 33, 132-146, 290.