The pews fill not with a typical Sunday congregation but with an audience that becomes, for the next hour, a collective witness to betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection. “Passion and Resurrection” — a mystery play staged by THEOS Theatre and Opera Society — returns to St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Sunday, March 29 at 1:45 p.m., and if you’ve never seen it, this may be the year to change that.
Not a Show — a Shared Prayer
Strip away everything you associate with the word “performance,” and you get closer to what this is. “Passion and Resurrection” opens with Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and moves through the stations of his suffering — Judas’s betrayal, the trial, the crucifixion — before arriving at the Resurrection. The storytelling blends elements of ancient Greek theater with Polish Lenten and Easter poetry: verses by Roman Brandstaetter, Ernest Bryll, and Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński — names that carry enormous weight in Polish literary tradition — are interwoven with sacred music spanning centuries, from Pergolesi and Schubert in Latin to traditional Polish hymns. A multimedia backdrop projects the texts alongside masterworks by Caravaggio, Rubens, and other painters, turning the church nave into something between a chapel, a gallery, and a stage.
Three performers carry the entire work. Kasia Drucker is a dramatic soprano whose voice fills the church with an intensity borrowed from Greek tragedy. Anna Kucay, an actress whose recitations give the poetry a raw, theatrical edge. And accompanist D. Alan Jaymes, who binds the music together. Multimedia design is by Tadeusz Nowak. There is no fourth wall. The audience is addressed directly — not as spectators, but as witnesses. This year’s performance is dedicated to the intention of world peace.
The Woman Behind Greenpoint’s Polish Cultural Revival
Katarzyna “Kasia” Drucker is the kind of person who makes things happen in a community without waiting for permission or funding. A classically trained soprano who spent two decades on the opera and operetta stage in Szczecin, Poland, she arrived in New York in 2006 and almost immediately began building a Polish-language arts scene from scratch. She co-founded the comedy troupe “April Fools,” then in 2007 launched the theater group that would become THEOS Theatre and Opera Society — a registered nonprofit that has since staged dozens of productions in churches, cultural centers, and galleries across New York, New Jersey, and at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
“Passion and Resurrection” is THEOS’s signature production — performed more than thirty times over the years at parishes throughout the New York metro area. But Drucker’s impact on Greenpoint extends far beyond Lent. She is the driving force behind the annual Dyngus Day Parade on Greenpoint — a celebration of the Polish Easter Monday tradition that she co-produces with Fr. Grzegorz Markulak, the pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka, and the Maria Konopnicka Polish School. Under their partnership, the parade has grown from a single float and a hundred marchers in 2022 to a neighborhood-wide event that draws Poles and non-Poles alike into the streets with water guns, pussy willows, kielbasa, and original polka songs with titles like “Everybody’s Polish on Dyngus Day.”
St. Stanislaus Kostka: Where the Tradition Lives
The choice of venue matters. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, at 607 Humboldt Street, is the oldest and most important Polish parish in Greenpoint — the spiritual anchor of Brooklyn’s Polish community for generations. Under Fr. Markulak’s leadership, the parish has become a hub not just for worship but for cultural preservation: hosting mystery plays, poetry readings, holiday concerts, and community celebrations that keep the Polish language, music, and traditions alive in a neighborhood undergoing rapid change. In a Greenpoint where rents have tripled and many Polish businesses have closed, St. Stanislaus Kostka remains the one institution that has not moved, not closed, and not stopped speaking Polish.
It is no coincidence that the Dyngus Day Parade — now in its fifth year — starts and ends at this church. Or that the mystery play is performed here. Fr. Markulak and Drucker have built a partnership that turns the parish calendar into a cultural calendar: from Lent to Easter to Dyngus Day, from Advent to Christmas, Polish Greenpoint’s traditions flow through this building.
What’s Next: Dyngus Day, April 6
Exactly one week after the mystery play, on Easter Monday, April 6, the fifth Dyngus Day Parade will step off from St. Stanislaus Kostka at 5:30 p.m. The route winds through Greenpoint’s streets — Humboldt to Engert Avenue, Russell Street, Nassau Avenue, and Monitor Street — ending at McGoldrick Park, where food, music, and the traditional water fights await. The parade is free, open to everyone, and proof that in Greenpoint, Polish tradition is not a museum exhibit but a living, splashing, singing, marching thing.
If You Go
- What: “Passion and Resurrection” — a poetic-vocal mystery play
- When: Sunday, March 29, 2026, 1:45 p.m.
- Where: St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, 607 Humboldt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
- Performers: Kasia Drucker (soprano), Anna Kucay (poetry), D. Alan Jaymes (accompaniment), Tadeusz Nowak (multimedia)
- Presented by: THEOS Theatre and Opera Society
- Dedication: World peace
- Contact: Kasia Drucker, 646-468-8354, [email protected]
Redakcja, Głos Polonii w USA
Dyngus Day Parade in Greenpoint — Monday, April 6, 5:30 p.m., starting at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Info: 718-388-0170 or [email protected]
Read more at poland.us — daily news and culture for the Polish-American community. Looking for Polish businesses near you? PolishPages.com — the Polish-American business directory.
