Jerzy Grotowski

by James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta

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.

Genres: Theatre

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

Reviews

[Daline Ly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grotowski is the first theatre practitioner ever who has shown/given me a deeper meaning of what theatre truly is. It's an absolute revelation for myself as an actor and theatre enthusiast.

Part of my theatre assessment is to create a solo theatre piece by focusing on an aspect of a theory of a chosen theatre practitioner. I was introduced to Grotowksi by my drama teacher, who thought that my style and approach as an actor and artist is Grotowskian. Not knowing what Grotowski's theatre approach at the time, i discarded his theory and proceeded to different ones. I thought Grotowski's "Poor Theatre" aspect is about performing theatre to the peasant, which didn't appeal to me (only to realized later I was completely wrong about it) My search for other theatre practitioners didn't get anywhere. I found a book about Grotowski's method and theory (this current book I am reviewing on), after reading few pages into it, i felt Grotowski's words surging through me. Do believe me when I say that his explanations can be very abstract with countless of contradictions, one after the other, yet it made sense to me.

I understood what he meant when he said it was an act of surrendering and sacrificing oneself to something that's greater and bigger than ourself. Grotowski then started explaining one's source of energy: The Source. The energy that is larger and greater than what we human can hold, and the aim is to reconnect to the source. It is about revealing the deeper truth from within and never about acting. I read and read and read over and over again of his works and what it could potentially means, and each time felt like I read it for the first time. Grotowski is not a man of conforming to conventional and/or social norms, which can clearly be seen through his works and productions. It's not for everybody. That's what make it so special and so pure, raw and effective because it's never about generating revenues and mass marketing the production but about creating and revealing such raw truth that the audience leave the performance having something clicked within themselves. This isn't the sort of work that can be so easily replicated, one can only strive to do so when one understands the core of it.

As an actor who self-trained and performed a solo piece under the influence of Grotowski's theory and methods, he has changed my view on theatre and have forced me to stretch my own limit and boundaries of acting. It was absolutely exhausting, physically, mentally and emotionally, just to try different exercises set out by Grotowski, but the ending rewards is always the most worthy.

[Jack Luminous]

Może być, ale jest to wprowadzenie tak elementarne, że tylko ludzie, którzy o Grotowskim nie wiedzą absolutnie, zupełnie, ani trochę NIC, mogą coś z tej książeczki wyciągnąć. Z drugiej strony, chyba chodziło o napisanie takiego trochę wprowadzenia do tematu, więc w tym charakterze warto się zapoznać (jeżeli jest taka potrzeba).