The Theatre of Grotowski

The Theatre of Grotowski
Author: Jennifer Kumiega
Publisher:
Total Pages: 290
Release:
Genre: Experimental theater
ISBN: 9781472572165

First published in 1985, this is a reissue of the seminal text on the work of Jerzy Grotowski and Laboratory Theatre recognised as being one of the most influential and important studies of the Polish theatre practitioner. In 1984 Grotowski's Laboratory Theatre closed down after twenty-five years of ceaseless experimentation pushing at the boundaries of the nature of theatre. From tiny beginnings in provincial Poland, Grotowski's influence spread to Eurpoe and the United States, fuelled first by the international tours of his remarkable company and then by 'paratheatrical' participatory projects which attracted adherents all over the world. This study of his work remains one of the most important and thorough examinations of the history, theory, and post-theatre work of this most influential of theatre practitioners.

Towards a Poor Theatre

Towards a Poor Theatre
Author: Jerzy Grotowski
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1136745866

"In 1968, Jerzy Grotowski published his groundbreaking Towards a Poor Theatre, a record of the theatrical investigations conducted at his experimental theater in Poland. This classic work on acting and performance is now available once again. In his preface to the original edition, Peter Brook wrote: "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no one else in the world, to my knowledge no one since Stanislavski, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply as Grotowski." More recently, Richard Schechner has called Grotowski "one of the four great directors of Western theater." Jerzy Grotowski was born in Poland in 1933. In 1982 he moved to the United States and worked at the University of California. He later moved to Italy, where he continued his unique and intense theatrical investigation. He died in 1999"--Publisher description.

The Grotowski Sourcebook

The Grotowski Sourcebook
Author: RICHARD SCHECHNER
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1136167285

This acclaimed volume is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of Jerzy Grotowski's long and multi-faceted career. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Grotowski's life and work. Edited by the two leading experts on Grotowski, the sourcebook features: *essays from the key performance theorists who worked with Grotowski, including Eugenio Barba, Peter Brook, Jan Kott, Eric Bentley, Harold Clurman, and Charles Marowitz *writings which trace every phase of Grotowski's career from his 'theatre of production' to 'objective drama' and 'art as vehicle' *a wide-ranging collection of Grotowski's own writings, plus an interview with his closest collaborator and 'heir', Thomas Richards *an array of photographs documenting Grotowski and his followers in action *a historical-critical study of Grotowski by Richard Schechner.

Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski
Author: James Slowiak
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2007-03-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1134513704

Written by two theatre professionals who worked intimately with Grotowski over the last twenty-five years of his life, this book fills a gap in the published writings about this master director and teacher. In this book, the writers demonstrate Grotowski’s significance and how his frank rhetoric, his revolutionary theories, his landmark productions, and pioneering cultural projects continue to cause controversy and provide fertile topics for discussion and further experimentation in theatre studios, classrooms, and on stages around the world. The book introduces Grotowski to a new generation of theatre students, outlining his contributions to twentieth century performance and placing them in context and in perspective.

Grotowski's Empty Room

Grotowski's Empty Room
Author: Paul Allain
Publisher: Seagull Books Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781906497231

Contributed articles on the works of Grotowski Jerzy, 1933-1999, Polish theatre director.

Alchemists of the Stage

Alchemists of the Stage
Author: Mirella Schino
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 100067438X

What is a theatre laboratory? Why a theatre laboratory? This book tries to answer these questions focusing on the experiences and theories, the visions and the techniques, the differences and similarities of European theatre laboratories in the twentieth century. It studies in depth the Studios of Stanislavski and Meyerhold, the school of Decroux, the Teatr Laboratorium of Jerzy Grotowski and Ludwik Flaszen, as well as Eugenio Barba's Odin Teatret. Theatre laboratories embody a theatre practice which defies the demands and fashions of the times, the usual ways of production and the sensible functions which stage art enjoys in our society. It is a theatre which refuses to be only art and whose radical research forges new conditions with a view to changing both the actor and the spectator. This research transforms theatrical craft into a laboratory which has been compared to the laboratory of the alchemists, who worked not on material but on substance. The alchemists of the stage did not operate only on forms and styles, but mainly on the living matter of the theatre: the actor, seen not just as an artist but above all as a representative of a new human being. Laboratory theatres have rarely been at the centre of the news. Yet their underground activity has influenced theatre history. Without them, the same idea of theatre, as it has been shaped in the course of the twentieth century, would have been different. In this book Mirella Schino recounts, as in a novel, the vicissitudes of a group of practitioners and scholars who try to uncover the technical, political and spiritual perspectives behind the word laboratory when applied to the theatre.

The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor

The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor
Author: Magda Romanska
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1783083212

Despite its international influence, Polish theatre remains a mystery to many Westerners. This volume attempts to fill in current gaps in English-language scholarship by offering a historical and critical analysis of two of the most influential works of Polish theatre: Jerzy Grotowski’s ‘Akropolis’ and Tadeusz Kantor’s ‘Dead Class’. By examining each director’s representation of Auschwitz, this study provides a new understanding of how translating national trauma through the prism of performance can alter and deflect the meaning and reception of theatrical works, both inside and outside of their cultural and historical contexts.

Grotowski, Women, and Contemporary Performance

Grotowski, Women, and Contemporary Performance
Author: Virginie Magnat
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2013-09-11
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1135081700

As the first examination of women's foremost contributions to Jerzy Grotowski's cross-cultural investigation of performance, this book complements and broadens existing literature by offering a more diverse and inclusive re-assessment of Grotowski's legacy, thereby probing its significance for contemporary performance practice and research. Although the particularly strenuous physical training emblematic of Grotowski's approach is not gender specific, it has historically been associated with a masculine conception of the performer incarnated by Ryszard Cieslak in The Constant Prince, thus overlooking the work of Rena Mirecka, Maja Komorowska, and Elizabeth Albahaca, to name only the leading women performers identified with the period of theatre productions. This book therefore redresses this imbalance by focusing on key women from different cultures and generations who share a direct connection to Grotowski's legacy while clearly asserting their artistic independence. These women actively participated in all phases of the Polish director’s practical research, and continue to play a vital role in today's transnational community of artists whose work reflects Grotowski's enduring influence. Grounding her inquiry in her embodied research and on-going collaboration with these artists, Magnat explores the interrelation of creativity, embodiment, agency, and spirituality within their performing and teaching. Building on current debates in performance studies, experimental ethnography, Indigenous research, global gender studies, and ecocriticism, the author maps out interconnections between these women's distinct artistic practices across the boundaries that once delineated Grotowski's theatrical and post-theatrical experiments. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.