Jerzy Szeski

Biography

His real name was Beniamin Sheskin. He used this name until the mid-1940s. Jerzy Szeski (March 29, 1920 – December 7, 1992) was a set and costume designer for film and theater. He came to Poland (Grodno) with his family in 1938. During the Soviet occupation, in December 1939, he became a set decorator and actor at the Polish Puppet Theatre of Western Belarus in Grodno. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, he escaped to Warsaw. After the war, he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, simultaneously collaborating with Krakow theaters. From the fall of 1945 to April 1946, he served as artistic director of the "Wesoła Gromadka" Children's Theater, and in 1946-47, he was employed as a painter-decorator at the Słowacki Theater. After graduating, he worked in numerous theaters throughout Poland, including: at the Dramatic Theatres in Wrocław (1949-51), the Dramatic Theatres in Szczecin (1951-54), and the Powszechny Theatre in Łódź (1955-57). From 1967, he was a full-time employee of the Polish Film Federation (PRF) "Zespoły Filmowe." He was one of the most outstanding Polish film set designers of the second half of the 20th century, and an expert on military artifacts, particularly those from the 17th century.