{"id":3494,"date":"2026-01-27T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/?p=3494"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:20:35","slug":"the-pk-kuts-bloody-debut-in-the-juliusz-slowacki-theaters-extraordinary-production-of-antigone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/the-pk-kuts-bloody-debut-in-the-juliusz-slowacki-theaters-extraordinary-production-of-antigone\/","title":{"rendered":"The PK&nbsp;KUT&#8217;s&nbsp;\u201cBloody\u201d Debut in&nbsp;the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Theater\u2019s&nbsp;Extraordinary Production of&nbsp;\u201cAntigone\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph showing a theatrical performance that used artificial blood produced at our university.\" class=\"wp-image-3581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artificial blood produced in&nbsp;the university&#8217;s&nbsp;laboratories debuted  at&nbsp;the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Theatre in&nbsp;Krakow. Photo by&nbsp;Joanna Siwiec.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-pk-typografia-lead pk-lead has-text-align-justify\"><strong>No&nbsp;scientific solution from the PK&nbsp;Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology has ever had such a&nbsp;premiere! Artificial blood produced in&nbsp;the university\u2019s&nbsp;laboratories debuted in&nbsp;the first premiere of&nbsp;the year at&nbsp;the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Theatre in&nbsp;Krakow. In&nbsp;the musical \u201cAntigone\u201d (dir. Jakub Roszkowski), 500 liters of&nbsp;the university\u2019s&nbsp;blood \u201cplays\u201d one of&nbsp;the main roles.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<nav class=\"pkng-toc\" aria-label=\"Contents\"><p class=\"pkng-toc__title\">Contents<\/p><ul class=\"pkng-toc__list\"><li class=\"pkng-toc__item pkng-toc__item--h3\"><a href=\"#h-artists-with-an-unusual-task-for-scientists\"><span class=\"pkng-toc__nr\">1.<\/span> Artists with an&nbsp;unusual task for scientists<\/a><\/li><li class=\"pkng-toc__item pkng-toc__item--h3\"><a href=\"#h-500-liters-of-artificial-blood-in-the-universitys-chemical-laboratory\"><span class=\"pkng-toc__nr\">2.<\/span> 500 liters of&nbsp;artificial blood in&nbsp;the university&#039;s&nbsp;chemical laboratory<\/a><\/li><li class=\"pkng-toc__item pkng-toc__item--h3\"><a href=\"#h-antigone-doubly-innovative\"><span class=\"pkng-toc__nr\">3.<\/span> &quot;Antigone&quot; \u2013 doubly innovative<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2013 This is&nbsp;an&nbsp;extraordinary play. Its creators used exceptionally original and bold artistic means of&nbsp;expression, including a&nbsp;set design element uniquely created by&nbsp;us. We&nbsp;are very proud because our chemists so&nbsp;perfectly utilized their engineering craftsmanship to&nbsp;support the artists<\/em> \u2013 says Prof. Andrzej Szarata, Rector of&nbsp;the Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology, after the play&#8217;s&nbsp;premiere. <br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Artists with an&nbsp;unusual task for scientists<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Specialists from the Faculty of&nbsp;Chemical Engineering and Technology at&nbsp;the Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology are not afraid of&nbsp;challenges, even the most unusual ones. And it&nbsp;was with such an&nbsp;artistic and technical task that the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Theatre approached the Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology. <em>\u2013 We&nbsp;were asked if&nbsp;we&nbsp;could produce artificial blood prepared in&nbsp;such a&nbsp;way as&nbsp;to&nbsp;fulfill the requirements of&nbsp;the play&#8217;s&nbsp;script.<\/em> <em>It&nbsp;could not be&nbsp;the s<\/em><em>tage blood commonly available on&nbsp;the theatrical props market<\/em> \u2013 says Dr. Eng. Piotr Michorczyk, Dean of&nbsp;the Faculty, one of&nbsp;the creators of&nbsp;the theatrical blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Without revealing too many details (so&nbsp;as&nbsp;not to&nbsp;spoil the experience for future audiences), it&nbsp;had to&nbsp;be&nbsp;a&nbsp;substance with special characteristics. \u2013 <em>Rheological properties, ensuring, among other things, the flow of&nbsp;the substance as&nbsp;expected by&nbsp;the play&#8217;s&nbsp;creators, were to&nbsp;play a&nbsp;significant role. The density of&nbsp;the fluid and the depth of&nbsp;its color were also important. Our &#8220;blood&#8221; was optimized in&nbsp;terms of&nbsp;these properties to&nbsp;meet the script&#8217;s&nbsp;requirements<\/em> \u2013 explains Prof. Piotr Michorczyk.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The details of&nbsp;the project were agreed upon with the producer of&nbsp;the musical &#8220;Antigone,&#8221; Oliwia Kuc. The requirements included appropriate rheological properties, color, safety for actors, low staining, and durability (for multiple uses). \u2013 <em>After establishing the boundary parameters<\/em> <em>in&nbsp;the first stage, samples of&nbsp;preparations based on&nbsp;pigments and dyes were prepared. We&nbsp;prepared as&nbsp;many as&nbsp;13 proposals, from which the appropriate color version of&nbsp;the blood was selected<\/em> \u2013 says Prof. Michorczyk.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>500 liters of&nbsp;artificial blood in&nbsp;the university&#8217;s&nbsp;chemical laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The biggest difficulty in&nbsp;carrying out the task was the enormous scale of&nbsp;the order. The competence of&nbsp;the university&#8217;s&nbsp;chemists and the advanced capabilities of&nbsp;its research infrastructure allowed for the relatively quick development of&nbsp;an&nbsp;original formula for the preparation. But preparing first 400 liters of&nbsp;artificial blood, and then another 100 liters ordered by&nbsp;the Theatre, was a&nbsp;significant logistical challenge for a&nbsp;university laboratory, not an&nbsp;industrial one.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 <em>Producing so&nbsp;many liters of&nbsp;stage blood with a&nbsp;homogeneous consistency is&nbsp;not a&nbsp;problem on&nbsp;an&nbsp;industrial scale nowadays. The problem is&nbsp;optimizing its composition for the play, which required us&nbsp;to&nbsp;design the composition from scratch<\/em> \u2013 explains Piotr Michorczyk. \u2013 <em>On&nbsp;an&nbsp;industrial scale, 500 liters is&nbsp;too small a&nbsp;production to&nbsp;make it&nbsp;worthwhile to&nbsp;retool production for such an&nbsp;order. At&nbsp;the university, however, scale matters. Most of&nbsp;our research equipment is&nbsp;for a&nbsp;maximum of&nbsp;a&nbsp;few liters. Several hundred liters of&nbsp;production is&nbsp;a&nbsp;challenge.<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The university&#8217;s&nbsp;chemists therefore had to&nbsp;produce the stage blood simultaneously in&nbsp;four 20-liter tank reactors. \u2013 <em>This required us&nbsp;to&nbsp;repeat the procedures 25 times, but also to&nbsp;react appropriately to&nbsp;problems that arose during the work, e.g., the problem with the solubility of&nbsp;some components<\/em> \u2013 says Prof. Michorczyk. The university&#8217;s&nbsp;blood is&nbsp;designed for multiple uses and is&nbsp;based exclusively on&nbsp;food-grade products and cosmetics. \u2013 <em>They ensure proper rheology, microbiological stability, and color. We&nbsp;used pharmaceutical-grade intermediates<\/em> \u2013 emphasizes the Dean of&nbsp;the Faculty of&nbsp;Chemical Engineering and Technology. The production of&nbsp;such blood is&nbsp;only seemingly a&nbsp;simple technological mixing process. In&nbsp;practice, the process required specialized knowledge and original ingenuity. \u2013 <em>It&nbsp;was essential to&nbsp;maintain optimized process parameters, mixing order, and proper proportions<\/em> \u2013 explains the Dean of&nbsp;FCE&amp;T&nbsp;PK&nbsp;KUT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Specialists from the Department of&nbsp;Organic Chemistry and Technology at&nbsp;the Faculty of&nbsp;Chemical Engineering and Technology of&nbsp;the Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology worked on&nbsp;developing the appropriate consistency and color of&nbsp;the blood. Dr. Eng. Piotr Michorczyk, Prof. PK&nbsp;KUT, designed the stage blood, optimized its composition, and manufacturing technology. Dr. Adam W\u0119grzynowicz participated in&nbsp;the technological and pre-production stages, and Dr. Eng. Barbara Michorczyk was responsible for rheology and color measurements. Eng. Anna Drabczyk designed the labels for the prop packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Antigone&#8221; \u2013 doubly innovative<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The stage blood &#8220;appears&#8221; in&nbsp;key parts of&nbsp;&#8220;Antigone.&#8221; <em>\u2013 The entire play, especially the scenes involving the blood created at&nbsp;the University of&nbsp;Technology, makes an&nbsp;incredible impression<\/em> \u2013 reveals the Rector of&nbsp;the University, who attended the enthusiastically received premiere of&nbsp;the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The musical &#8220;Antigone&#8221; tells Sophocles&#8217; tragedy in&nbsp;a&nbsp;contemporary, rap language. The S\u0142owacki Theatre emphasizes that its play builds a&nbsp;bridge between the world of&nbsp;ancient heroes, values, and choruses, and the world of&nbsp;today&#8217;s&nbsp;young people, whose rebellion and heroism are mixed with confusion, fear, and uncertainty. The play was directed by&nbsp;Jakub Roszkowski. Mirek Kaczmarek is&nbsp;responsible for the set design, costumes, and lighting. The lyrics and music (with Micha\u0142 Szlempo) were created by&nbsp;Jaros\u0142aw BISZ Jaruszewski, one of&nbsp;the most important contemporary Polish lyricists and rappers. The innovative approach of&nbsp;the creators of&nbsp;Krakow&#8217;s&nbsp;&#8220;Antigone&#8221; to&nbsp;the classical literary work perfectly harmonizes with the idea of&nbsp;inviting scientists from the University of&nbsp;Technology to&nbsp;realize the performance. The first showings of&nbsp;the musical, which met with an&nbsp;excellent reception from the audience, demonstrated how successful this idea was.       <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The production of&nbsp;blood for &#8220;Antigone&#8221; is&nbsp;not an&nbsp;isolated act of&nbsp;cooperation between engineers from the University of&nbsp;Technology and the world of&nbsp;art. \u2013 <em>We&nbsp;have a&nbsp;cooperation agreement with the S\u0142owacki Theatre. We&nbsp;know that there are many unusual engineering challenges during the realization of&nbsp;theatrical performances. The Director of&nbsp;the Theatre, Krzysztof G\u0142uchowski, already has new tasks for us, requiring great inventiveness. We&nbsp;do&nbsp;not rule out further joint premieres&#8230;<\/em> \u2013 says Rector Andrzej Szarata. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The university&#8217;s&nbsp;chemists enjoyed the unusual challenge. \u2013 <em>The realization of&nbsp;such orders, of&nbsp;course, takes place when we&nbsp;have time for it. In&nbsp;our research teams, we&nbsp;focus primarily on&nbsp;scientific research and educating students. But we&nbsp;often receive reports of&nbsp;t<\/em><em>echnical and process problems for which there is&nbsp;no&nbsp;standard solution<\/em>. <em>We&nbsp;then have the opportunity to&nbsp;exercise our engineering ingenuity. A<\/em><em>mong the unusual tasks, the one from the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Theatre in&nbsp;Krakow was the most demanding in&nbsp;terms of&nbsp;production scale. But we&nbsp;like challenges<\/em> <em>\u2013<\/em> concludes Dean Piotr Michorczyk about the theatrical adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(mas, j)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2013 This is&nbsp;an&nbsp;extraordinary play. Its creators used exceptionally original and bold artistic means of&nbsp;expression, including a&nbsp;set design element uniquely created [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"pkng_main_category":0,"pk_kadr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef.jpg",2000,1334,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images_news_2026_1_ANTYGONA_JoannaSiwiec.jpg_921ef1ef.jpg",2000,1334,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kurbanowski","author_link":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/author\/kurbanowski\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u2013 This is&nbsp;an&nbsp;extraordinary play. Its creators used exceptionally original and bold artistic means of&nbsp;expression, including a&nbsp;set design element uniquely created [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3494"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12979,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions\/12979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}