Jerzy Grotowski (11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre
director and a leading figure in avant garde theatre of the 20th century. Most notable for his work in the mode known as 'poor
theatre' Grotowski is significant for advancing the work on psycho-physical actions pioneered by Constantin Stanislavsky, for
pioneering what is known as para-theatrical (or post-theatrical either way) work and for popularizing a more ritualistic kind of
theatre that would help give rise to the contemporary field of performance studies.
The Early Years
Grotowski was born in Rzeszów in Poland and lived until the
age of six in Przemyśl. During World War II, the family
was separated. His mother moved with him to the small village of Nienadówka. His father served as an officer in the Polish Army and was later stationed in England. Grotowski, his
mother, and brother all escaped from the Nazis and stayed at the farm of his aunt and uncle. His
uncle was a bishop in Kraków, and around this time Grotowski reported his first spiritual
awakenings. This is important because Grotowski's career in theatre has come to be seen as a kind of spiritual quest, a
confrontation between man and mythology.
In 1955 Grotowski graduated from the High Theatrical School in Kraków with a degree in acting.
Soon after graduation he went on to Moscow to study directing at the Lunacharsky Institute of
Theatre Arts (GITIS). During his stay in Moscow, until 1956, he
learned about new trends in theatre pioneered by leading Russian figures such as Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold and Tairov. He was barely admitted, and by many accounts was an unexceptional student at
this time. After returning to Poland Grotowski expanded his studies in directing at the theatrical school from which he had
graduated (1956–1960).
Theatre of Productions (1957-69)
In 1958 he made his directorial debut with the production "Gods of Rain" (based on a novel by Jerzy Krzyszton). Foreshadowing
the notoriety that was to come, this production was controversial for Grotowski's bold use of text. Said Grotowski, "In terms of
my attitude to the dramatic text, I think that the director should treat it solely as a theme upon which he builds a new work of
art that is the theatrical spectacle." (R. Konieczna, "Przed premiera 'Pechowcow'. Rozmowa z rezyserem" / "Before the Premiere of
'The Unlucky' - A Conversation with the Director"). This approach is one that he would incorporate throughout the entirety of his
career, influencing many subsequent theatre artists. Later that same year, Grotowski moved to Opole where he took over the post of director at the Theatre of 13 Rows. Here he began to assemble a company of
actors and artistic collaborators that would help him realize his unique vision.
Among the many productions for which his theatre company would soon become famous were "Orpheus" by Jean Cocteau, "Shakuntala" based on text by Kalidasa, "Dziady" by Adam
Mickiewicz and "Akropolis" by Stanislaw Wyspianski. This last production was the first complete realization of Grotowski's notion
of 'poor theatre'. In it the company of actors (representing concentration camp prisoners) build the structure of a crematorium
around the audience while acting out stories from the bible. This conceptualization had particular resonance for the audiences in
Opole, as the Auschwitz concentration camp was only sixty miles away. "Akropolis" was a play that received much attention, and
could be said to have launched Grotowski's career internationally.
In 1964 he followed success with success when his theatre premiered "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" based on the
Elizabethan drama by Marlowe. Foregoing the use of props altogether, Grotowski let the actors' bodies represent different
objects. In a scene where the pope is at dinner, for example, one actor played the chair, another actor played the meal. These
two actors also assumed the role of Mephistopheles at other points in the play, demonstrating the way Grotowski layered meaning
on top of meaning in his productions .
In 1965 he moved his company to Wrocław relabeling them a
"Teatr Laboratorium", in part to avoid the heavy censorship that professional 'theatres' were subject to in Poland at that time.
Work had already begun on one of their most famous productions, "The Constant Prince". Debuting in 1967, this production is
thought by many to be one of the greatest theatrical works of the 20th century. Ryzsard Cieslak's performance in the title role
is considered the apogee of Grotowski's approach to acting. In his later work, from the Paratheatrical phase onward, Grotowski
would explore the meaning of ritual and performance outside the context of aesthetics.
1969 saw the last professional production from Grotowski as director. Entitled "Apocalypsis Cum Figuris" it is widely regarded
as one of the best theatre productions of the twentieth century. Again utilizing text from the bible, this production was cited
by members of the company as an example of a group 'total act'. In its development (which took three years) and in its aesthetic
Grotowski can already be seen abandoning the conventions of traditional theatre and investigating 'post-theatrical' approaches to
ritual and community.
Grotowski revolutionized theatre, and, along with his first apprentice Eugenio Barba,
leader and founder of Odin Teatret, is considered a father of contemporary theatre. Barba was instrumental in revealing Grotowski to
the world outside the iron curtain. He was the editor of Grotowski's seminal book, Towards a Poor Theatre
(1968), in which Grotowski declared that theatre should not, because it could not, compete against
the overwhelming spectacle of film and should instead focus on the very root of the act of theatre:
actors in front of spectators.
Theatre - through the actor's technique, his art in which the living organism strives for higher motives - provides an
opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of
physical and mental reactions. This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a full awareness of the
responsibilities it involves. Here we can see the theatre's therapeutic function for people in our present day civilization. It
is true that the actor accomplishes this act, but he can only do so through an encounter with the
spectator - intimately, visibly, not hiding behind a cameraman, wardrobe mistress, stage designer or make-up girl - in direct
confrontation with him, and somehow " instead of" him. The actor's act - discarding half measures, revealing, opening up,
emerging from himself as opposed to closing up - is an invitation to the spectator. This act could be compared to an act of the
most deeply rooted, genuine love between two human beings - this is just a comparison since we can only refer to this "emergence
from oneself" through analogy. This act, paradoxical and borderline, we call a total act. In our opinion it epitomizes the
actor's deepest calling. From 'Towards a Poor Theatre' by Grotowski[1]
The Notion of a 'Poor' Theatre
Grotowski was a revolutionary figure in theatre because he helped redefine the purpose of theatre in contemporary culture. One
of his central ideas was the notion of the 'poor' theatre. By this he meant a theatre in which
the fundamental concern was the work of the actor with the audience, not the sets, costumes, lighting or
special effects. In his view these were just trappings and, while they may enhance the
experience of theatre, were unnecessary to the central core of meaning that theatre should generate. 'Poor' meant the stripping
away of all that was unnecessary and leaving a 'stripped' and vulnerable actor. He contrasted this approach with the so-called
'rich theatre', which was not only a theatre of spectacle, but a theatre of assimilation, one that adopted the aesthetics of
television and film instead of striving for what was 'essential' to theatre. Grotowski always maintained that theatre could never
compete with cinema and that cinema offered a different experience to theatre. He wanted to bring a theatre to an audience that
was confronting, challenging and experimental.
Applying this principle in his 'laboratory' in Poland, Grotowski jettisoned all costume and
staging and preferred to work with all black sets and actors in plain black rehearsal costumes, at least in the rehearsal
process. He made the actors go through rigorous exercises so that they had full control over their bodies. What was important to
Grotowski was what the actor could do with his or her body and voice without aids and with only the visceral experience with the
audience. In this sense he overturned the traditions of exotic costumes and stunning staging that had driven much European
theatre from the 19th century. This is not to say that in public theatrical performances he
completely disregarded lights and sets, in fact, among some critics he is credited with early experiments in environmental
staging, but these were secondary and never supplanted the primacy of the actors.
By gradually eliminating whatever proved superfluous, we found that theatre can exist without make-up, without autonomic
costume and scenography, without a separate performance area (stage), without lighting and sound effects, etc. It cannot exist
without the spectator relationship of perceptual, direct, communion. This is an ancient theoretical truth, of course, but when
rigorously tested in practice it undermines most of our usual ideas about theatre. It challenges the notion of theatre as a
synthesis of disparate creative discipline; literature, sculpture, painting. architecture, lighting, acting....
(Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre. Simon & Schuster, 1968, p.19)
Grotowski's training regime was devised to:
- Eliminate, not teach something (Via Negativa).
This can be described as a basic philosophy for actor training that essentially says the actor's main task involves not
accruing skills so much as eradicating obstacles that get in the way of being true.[2]
- Enhance that which already exists.
- Create all that is needed for the play in the actor's body, with little use of props.
- Promote rigorous physical and vocal training of actors
- Avoid the beautiful if it does not foster truth
To this concept of 'poor theatre' Grotowski (an atheist) added the concept of the 'priesthood' or sacredness of the
actor. When the actor entered the sanctity of the performance space, then a special event
occurred, much like the Mass in the Roman Catholic
Church. It was in this space, in the holy relationship between the actor and the audience, that an audience was challenged
to think and be transformed by theatre. In this sense, Grotowski was one of the key figures in the development of
political theatre in the 20th Century. His
theatrical productions often contained political and social themes. The actor, depending only on the natural gifts of voice and
body, could bring the sacred rituals of theatre and the themes of social transformation to the audience. The audience became
pivotal to theatrical performance, and theatre became more than entertainment: it became a pathway to understanding. This
philosophy was perhaps best realized in the last production of his 'professional phase', Apocalypsis Cum Figuris.
Grotowski, as he wrote and published his work, became renowned and received numerous invitations to work in the most prominent
drama schools, theatre companies and universities in Europe and America. Most of these he declined, preferring instead to stay
with his actors in his small 'laboratory', in relative obscurity.
Debut in the West
The Paratheatrical Phase (1969-78)
In 1970 Grotowski published "Holiday," which outlined a new course of investigation. He would pursue this 'Paratheatrical'
phase until 1978. This phase is known as the 'Paratheatrical' phase of his career because it was an attempt to transcend the
separation between performer and spectator. Grotowski attempted this through the organization of communal rites and simple
interactive exchanges that went on sometimes for extended periods, attempting to provoke in participants a deconditioning of
impulse. The most widely circulated description of one of these post-theatrical events (a 'beehive') is voiced by
Andre Gregory, Grotowski's long-time friend and the American director whose work he most
strongly endorsed, in My Dinner with Andre. Various collaborators who had been
important to Grotowski's work in what he termed his "Theatre of Productions" phase had difficulty following him in these
explorations beyond the boundary of conventional theatre. Other, younger members of the group came to the foreground, notably
Jacek Zmyslowski, whom many would consider Grotowski's closest collaborator in this period. Theatre critics have often exoticized
and mystified Grotowski's work on the basis of these paratheatrical experiments, suggesting that his work should be seen in the
lineage of Antonin Artaud, a suggestion Grotowski strongly resisted. Later in life, he
clarified that he quickly found this direction of research limiting, having realized that unstructured work frequently elicits
banalities and cultural cliché from participants.
Theatre of Sources (1976-82)
In this period of his work, Grotowski traveled intensively in India, Mexico, Haiti and elsewhere, seeking to identify elements
of technique in the traditional practices of various cultures that could have a precise and discernible effect on participants.
Key collaborators in this phase of work include Wlodzimierz Staniewski, subsequently founder of
Gardzienice Theatre Association, Jairo Cuesta and Magda Zlotowska, who traveled with Grotowski on
his international expeditions. His interest in ritual techniques linked to Hatian practice led Grotowski to a long-standing
collaboration with Maud Robart and Tiga of Saint Soleil. Always a master strategist, Grotowski made use of his international ties
and the relative freedom of travel allowed him to pursue this program of cultural research in order to flee Poland following the
imposition of martial law. He spent time in Haiti and in Rome, where he delivered a series of important lectures on the topic of
theatre anthropology at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1982 before seeking political asylum in the United States. His dear
friends Andre and Mercedes Gregory helped Grotowski to
settle in the US, where he taught at Columbia University for one year while attempting to find support for a new program of
research. He also spent a semester as a teacher in resident at UC Irvine during this time.
Objective Drama (1983-86)
Unable (despite the best efforts of Richard Schechner) to secure resources for his
projected research in Manhattan, in 1983 Grotowski relocated to UC Irvine where he began a course of work known as 'Objective
Drama'. This phase of research was characterized by an investigation of the psychophysiological impact of selected songs and
other performative tools derived from traditional cultures on participants, focusing specifically on relatively simple techniques
that could exert a discernible and predictable impact on the doer regardless of her belief structures or culture of origin.
Ritual songs and related performative elements linked to Hatian and other African diaspora traditions became an especially
fruitful tool of research. During this time Grotowski continued several important collaborative relationships begun in earlier
phases, with Maud Robart, Jairo Cuesta, and Pablo Jimenez taking on significant roles as performers and research leaders in the
project. He also initiated a longstanding creative relationship with American director James Slowiak and discovered the
individual to whom he would ultimately pass responsibility for his life-long research, Thomas Richards, son of legendary
African-American director Lloyd Richards.
Art as Vehicle (1986- )
In 1986, Grotowski was invited by Roberto Bacci of the Centro per la Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale to shift the base
of his work to Pontedera, Italy, where he was offered an opportunity to conduct long-term research on performance without the
pressure of having to show results until he was ready. Grotowski gladly accepted, taking with him three assistants from Objective
Drama research (Richards, Jimenez and Slowiak) to help in founding his Italian Workcenter. Robart also led a work-team in
Pontedera for several years, after which time funding cuts necessitated downscaling to a single research group, led by Richards.
Grotowski took the term used to describe his final phase of research from a talk by Peter
Brook, who coined the phrase "art as vehicle" to characterize the focus of his attention. "It seems to me," Brook said,
"That Grotowski is showing us something which existed in the past but has been forgotten over the centuries. That is that one of
the vehicles which allows man to have access to another level of perception is to be found in the art of performance." The
culmination of Grotowski's life-long research involving the potential efficacy of ritual performance, Art as Vehicle focuses on
the subtle process of energy transformation that can be activated within an appropriately skilled and prepared doer working with
vibratory songs linked to ritual traditions, in the framework of a precise and repeatable artistic structure. Grotowski
articulated one of the most lucid and concise explanations of his work, specifically his interest in performance as a vehicle for
pursuing what he termed "verticality," in an essay printed in appendix to Thomas Richards first book, At Work with Grotowski
on Physical Actions. The work of Grotowski's final phase thus represents a synthesis of his early insistence on craft and
emphasis on an acting process rooted in Stanislavski's method of physical actions with the results of his extensive investigation
of bodily techniques. Richards became Grotowski's "essential collaborator" in this research, working intensively alongisde him
for 13 years in an intimate and rigorous dynamic described by Grotowski as a unique, singular process of "transmission,"
understood in the sense of traditional initiatory practices. One of the primary concerns of Grotowski's latter years was that the
research that had been the focus of his lifework should not die with him, but rather be passed on to other hands, so that this
knowledge should not be lost. Toward that end, he drove Richards to take on increasingly greater responsibility and leadership in
the work, until he was not only the primary doer in the practice of Art as Vehicle, but also its leader and "director" (if such a
term can be accurately used) of the performance structures created around these Afro-Caribbean vibratory songs, most
significantly Downstairs Action (filmed by Mercedes Gregory in 1989) and Action, on which work began in 1994 and
continues to the present. Italian actor Mario Biagini, who joined the Workcenter shortly after its founding, also became a
central contributor to this research. In 1995, Grotowski changed the name of the Italian center to the Workcenter of Jerzy
Grotowski and Thomas Richards to signal the unique and central place Richards held in his work. Although Grotowski died in 1999
at the end of a prolonged illness, the research of Art as Vehicle continues at the Pontedera Workcenter, with Richards as
Artistic Director and Biagini as Associate Artistic Director. Grotowski's will declared the two his "universal heirs," holders of
copyright on the entirety of his textual output and intellectual property.
Bibliography
Towards a Poor Theatre (Introduction by Peter Brook) (1968)
References
External links
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