The “Republic of Sisters”, which we invite our readers to visit, is home to various ways of thinking and multiple voices. The heroines of this volume of Pamiętnik Teatralny include actresses, directors, managers, dancers, choreographers, visual artists, and playwrights. Our contributors penetrate the archives with different aims in mind: sometimes in order to undertake traditional genealogical research, and sometimes to construct speculative and counter(f)actual herstories, while problematizing the very idea of the archive. Above all, their reflection on the past is relevant to what is happening inside and around us today. Both in the theatres and in the streets.

What are the benefits of bringing together theatre and visual arts when searching for female genealogies and the principles on which they are worth constructing? How is herstorical research to be designed to break the patriarchal mould of the past? How to conceptualize theatre history in order to see the invisible work of women and hear their voices? Can artistic activity be more successful than academic research in bringing us closer to the past? What kind of feminist performance stands a chance to redefine the public sphere effectively? And when?

Join in and consider these and other matters together with a host of heterogenous herstories and their heroines: Krystyna Berwińska, Marcelina Grabowska, Manuela Gretkowska, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Maria Jarema, Aniela Kallas, Ida Kamińska, Katarzyna Kalwat, Aneta Klassenberg, Maria Klassenberg, Соломія Крушельницька, Irena Krzywicka, Zofia Kulik, Maria Kuncewiczowa, Natalia LL, Anna Lampel, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska, Pola Nireńska, Agata Siniarska, Antonina Sokolicz, Irena Solska, Ганна Совачева, Nora Szczepańska, Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina, Євгенія Шведівна, Aleksandra Śląska, Krystyna Uniechowska, Maria Wiercińska, Katarzyna Wolińska, Wanda Wróblewska, Anna Zahorska, Stefania Zahorska, Gabriela Zapolska.

On the cover: Aneta Grzeszykowska, Maria Klassenberg's Archive 1970–1980 (Chew). Performers: Anna Rutkowska and Wojciech Żera, collaboration Jan Smaga. Courtesy of the Raster galery.