​Ruhi Kumar

Jerzy Grotowski 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research on Grotowski 

 

-Polish Theatre Practitioner

-1933-1999

-Non-naturalistic style of theatre 

-He commonly experimented with Physical, Spiritual and ritualistic elements of theatre. 

-Spent his childhood under Nazi Domination

-Born in small town of Rzeszow in South-Eastern Poland

-His mother was a school teacher and his father was a forest ranger and painter

-From age 6 he was raised solely by his mother

-For university he was undecided on what he wanted to study so he applied for three different streams medicine, oriental studies, acting department.

-He had a deep interest in Asia as he studied Sanskrit and asian traditional classical arts

-Received a scholarship to institute of theatre arts in Moscow

-He showed little interest in actors whom behaved "Naturally" on stage. He liked those who reveled their own personal nature on the stage. He called this organicity

-He had a simple set and philosophy

 

 

 

Source: At work with Growtowski on physical actions by Thomas Richards

 

 

-He believed that to learn something means to conquer it in practice. He strongly believed that one must learn through “doing” and not through memorization of ideas and theories.

 

”We must love not ourselves in art, but art in ourself.” -Jerzy Grotowski

 

-He died at aged 65 and had a relatively brief career 

-He knew that fame was necessary to achieve his goals, but also believed that fame was fleeting and it would be dangerous to succumb to its intoxication. 

-He wanted his actors to have complete control over their bodies, breathing and voice. 

-Physical movement was a key component in epic theatre.

 

-While he was teaching he put on many different shows, his debut was in 1958 for the production of gods of rain. He then took over a theatre company called theatre of 13 rows where he taught theories to a young group of actors. 

 

 

In The tragical history of doctor faustus: he instructed all the actors to use their body to convey their emotions and used actors instead of props thus taking on a new approach to modern realism. This led him to the works of Poor theatre 

 

 

 

What is Poor Theatre?

Grotowski referred to his style of theatre as 'poor' because it did not include the technological resources such as intricate costuming and set design like ‘rich’ theatre did Grotowski's performances were all very minimalistic and simplistic as he believed that theatre was the work of the actor with the audience not the sets, costuming or lighting. Grotowski made the actor’s voice and body central to the performance. He often incorporated vocal effects to replace instrumental music and sound effects as he wanted the space in which the actors performed to be an intimate space divided in varying ways to allow contact and exchange between performers and audience. 

 

He constantly worked with his actors to develop physical and emotional responses as he believed that the actors body and voice skills should always be the primary spectacle of the piece of theatre. The techniques and exercises used in Grotowski's laboratory required serious concentration and commitment from all of his actors as they were usually both physically and emotionally demanding. The actor needed to find the strength of his natural voice and body as Grotowski wanted his pieces to show something real and true. The perfection of the techniques was not as important as the awareness of the process.