Celińska has been working with Polish Radio Theatre since 1969. In 1970 she began her cooperation with Polish Television Theatre, in which she has played almost 60 roles. She has worked, among others, with Lidia Zamkow, Józef Słotwiński, Gustaw Holoubek, Andrzej Łapicki, and Bohdan Korzeniewski. Her debut as a radio theatre actor came with the role of the boy Bill in Thornton Wilder’s Childhood, directed by Helena Merenholtz. Celińska appeared in productions from both the classic and contemporary repertoires, including Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, The Enchanted Tailor by Sholem Aleichem, Królowa Mokradel (Queen of the Marshes) by Alicja Salczyńska-Bykowska, and Bal Stulecia (Centenary Ball) by Andrzej Mularczyk. For the past thirty-five years, she has also played the role of Yvonne in the radio series Matysiakowie (The Matysiaks).
Celińska worked simultaneously in film and theatre. In 1974, four years after her debut in the medium, she once again appeared in film. This time she was cast by Stanisław Bareja as small-town Lucy in Nie Ma Róży Bez Ognia (A Jungle Book of Regulations), a role in which she revealed her talent for comedy. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s she was showered with offers of film roles and played a variety of feature and bit parts. Her work throughout this time showed her to be extremely proficient at supporting character parts like the Baroness in Wojciech Marczewski’s made for television film Klucznik / The Steward (1980), the teacher Lewicka in Bareja’s television series Alternatywy 4 (1985), a beautiful bit part alongside Wojciech Pszoniak in Andrzej Wajda’s Korczak (1990), or the slightly over-the-top cafeteria employee in Łukasz Wyleżałek’s Balanga / The Party (1993).
In 1975 she appeared in the role of Agnieszka Niechcicówna in Jerzy Antczak’s Noce i Dnie (Nights and Days), wonderfully highlighting the inner maturing of the heroine. At around the same time, Janusz Majewski cast her as Hela in Zaklęte Rewiry (Hotel Pacific). In 1979 she was reunited with film director Andrzej Wajda on the set of his Panny z Wilka (The Maids of Wilko), based on a prose work of the same title by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, in which she played Sophia with incredible clarity, providing a wonderful rendering of the character’s cool, distant, yet rational and still-maturing nature.
Tremendous Flexibility in Acting
Her tremendous flexibility as an actor enabled her to play everything from bit parts and comedic roles with great sensitivity and passion, as exemplified by her Gozdziakowa in Roman Załuski’s 1989 Galimatias, Czyli Kogel-Mogel II (The Hotchpotch, or Kogel-mogel II), to characters who are inwardly focused, simplicity exemplified, subordinate to a metaphysical belief, like the role of Marcelina in Jerzy Łukaszewicz’s film titled Faustyna (1994). In turn, the character of the ageing Iza Gęsiareczka (Isabelle the Goose-keeper) in Jerzy Stuhr’s Spis cudzołożnic / List of Lovers (1994) as portrayed by Celińska acquired immense warmth and a touch of irony. Speaking about her own way of working, Celińska maintains that she avoids interpreting a role to its end: