The Grotowski Sourcebook

Worlds of Performance

by Richard Schechner (Editor), Lisa Wolford Wylam (Editor)

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
*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.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction

548 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 1997

Reviews

[Julian Munds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is by no means an easy read. It's scholastic and because of the nature of Grotowski's work, abstract. I learned many important things about the way Jerzy worked with actors and what he was searching for. At times this reads more like an account of a cult and is reverential to a sickening degree. The man himself and his practises/thesis is problematic. His exclusion and religionist ways do bother me. But the book is sound. Schechner maybe much to much of a kind editor though and I don't there's enough inclusion of detractor criticism here to get a balanced view.