Rafał Supiński
Theatre Director · Actor · Vocal Coach · Artistic Producer
Graduate of the New International Performing Arts Institute (NIPAI) - Ensemble Building Programme
"I believe that theatre begins with people."
THE ARTIST
Theatre begins with people.
Rafał Supiński is a Polish theatre director, actor and vocal coach creating original musical theatre and educational performances while collaborating with leading opera institutions across Poland. Since 2013 he has collaborated with the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, developing projects as a performer, assistant director and director.
He has also worked with the Wrocław Opera, the Warsaw Chamber Opera (La Finta Semplice), the Baltic Opera (The Haunted Manor) and the Polish National Opera (Die Frau ohne Schatten), and the premiere of Adonis Has a Guest at Variete Theatre in Kraków.
A graduate and scholarship recipient of the Royal Academy of Music in London - where he completed an MA in Musical Theatre with honours and earned the LRAM certificate - Rafał has always valued international collaboration and lifelong learning. "For me, artistic education is not about collecting certificates," he says, "but about staying curious and remaining open to new perspectives."
Alongside his institutional work, he founded the Breath of Culture 2.0 Foundation, an independent organisation creating original educational and interdisciplinary performances that combine theatre, music, voice and social inclusion.
THE NIPAI CHAPTER
From instinct to method.
Every director arrives with instinct. What Rafał wanted was a way to organise it - a repeatable method for building an ensemble on purpose, instead of starting from zero with each new cast.
He completed NIPAI's Ensemble Building Programme: a three-month distance course of structured work with the body, rhythm, imagination and the group - each tool applied to his own performers and refined through a mentor's feedback.
"It helped me organise ideas that had accompanied me for years," he says, "and gave me practical tools for creating performances through rhythm, physical action, imagination and collective awareness."
"This experience has deepened my craft and already shapes my work on stage and in workshops. This is just the beginning."
RAFAŁ SUPIŃSKI
WHAT THE PROGRAMME GAVE HIM
Twelve weeks, three lasting changes.
01
A repeatable system
A structured set of twelve ensemble tools he can bring to any cast or context - so a strong ensemble is built on purpose, not left to chance.
02
Dramaturgy through the body
A way to build dramaturgy through rhythm, physical action and collective imagination.
"The experience from NIPAI has influenced the way I work with ensembles… I often return to those tools in my directing practice."
(c) Rafał Supiński
03
Applied immediately
Methods he put to work straight away - on stage in the musical Vesper, and in his acting and vocal workshops across Poland.
"Rafał stands out with his interdisciplinary fluency and audience sensitivity. He consolidates a methodology combining structure and exploration - essential in ensemble theatre".
- FROM RAFAŁ'S FINAL COURSE FEEDBACK · NIPAI
IN PRACTICE
Where the method shows up in his work.
Since the course, the tools turn up directly in Rafał's rehearsals and productions. Three examples, drawn from his own course correspondence.
01
Co-created rhythm
An exercise Rafał returns to is The Machine of Change, from Boal's Games for Actors and Non-Actors. One performer sets a rhythm; others join, each "complement, contrast, or enrich" it; a "conductor" then shifts the tempo. "This builds an ensemble rhythm that is co-created rather than dictated."
02
Tableaux & the frozen image
Confirming the course's work on tableaux at the premiere of the musical Vesper, he staged a living image: "the soloist sings while a group of us actors are completely still, frozen in emotionally charged positions" - a visual metaphor, in his words, "coming to life."
03
Freedom inside structure
"Balancing freedom with structure also hit home." He often gives "quite a lot of freedom at the start"; the course sharpened his instinct for framing improvisation "within clearer parameters," alongside a shared movement vocabulary in the spirit of Complicite and Gardzienice.
FROM STAGE TO PAGE
When a performance becomes a book.
One of Rafał's original projects, Karolcia and the Secret of the Forest Valley (Karolcia i sekret leśnej doliny), grew beyond the stage and became a children's book. The project continues to evolve through live performances, educational meetings and interdisciplinary activities connecting literature, music and theatre.
"Watching a live performance transform into literature confirmed my belief that stories can travel across different artistic forms while keeping the same emotional core." (c) Rafał Supiński
SELECTED RECENT PROJECTS
A practice across opera, musical & family theatre.
FOUNDER
Breath of Culture 2.0 Foundation
DIRECTOR
Adonis Has a Guest
Krakowski Teatr Variété
AUTHOR
Karolcia and the Secret of the Forest Valley Original production · later a children's book
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Polish National Opera
"Curiosity creates learning. Learning creates connection. And connection creates theatre.".
- Rafał Supiński
