The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
commemorates
HELENA MODJESKA
American theater icon,
utopian pioneer, national celebrity,
a woman ahead of her time,
on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her death
UNVEILING OF THE HELENA MODJESKA MEMORIAL PLAQUE St. Stanislaus Church, East Village, NYC Sunday, April 5, 2009, 1:15 PM DISCUSSION Helena Modjeska (Poland/US): Commemorating a 19th Century American Theatre Icon Martin E. Segal Theatre Center , CUNY Graduate Center Wednesday, April 8, 6.30 - 8.00 PM New York, April 24, 2009 - The Polish Cultural Institute commemorates Helena Modjeska - an iconic Polish-American Shakespearean actress of the 19th century - on the occasion of the centennial of her death. From humble origins, Modjeska became a dominant force in Polish theater and a star of Warsaw high society. For reasons both political and personal she left Poland together with her aristocrat husband and founded a utopian community in California . The immigrant actress was considered by many American critics to be the best American female Shakespearean of her generation, a one-woman theatrical institution comparable only to the great Edwin Booth in her achievements. T