Jerzy Grotowski

Context

Grotowski was a famous and respected practitioner. He was an innovative theatre director and theorist. His methods of actor training and theatrical production have had a significant influence on theatre today. He was born in 1933 in Rzesew in South East Poland.  He studied acting and directing at the State Theatre School in Kraków. He was described as an enigma, master, a charlatan; a guru, a sage; a myth and monster. During his career, Grotowski went through a number of ideas and arrangements which often surprised those who knew him well.  His work was heavily influenced by religious writings such as the Bible or Qur'an or the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky. He also set up and was the director of the Polish Theatre Lab.

The Holy Actor

Grotowski believed that his actors must rediscover the true elements of theatre. He believed that they could achieve this by getting rid of everything that was unnecessary or superfluous. His style of Theatre practice was extremely spiritual, he believed that this was a way of life rather than merely a method of actor training. Grotowski believed the perfect actor must sacrifice their body to acting, hence the term ‘holy actor’. He wanted actors to be these temples of emotions and physical abilities so he could simply just mould them into the perfect actor or ‘holy actor.’ This is a juxtaposition to a courtesan actor who ‘sells’ their body for money and fame. Only the Holy Actor is capable of performing an act that doesn’t veer from the true meaning and purpose of theatre. Grotowski’s reference to ‘Holy theatre’ applies to the actor’s dedication to their work. The actor must give themselves as a gift in order to allow a sense of holiness. This carries over a performance which is transcendent in a naturalistic and subtle way. The general aims of his work could be considered to correlate with modernism. Previously, theatre had been largely representative and had been interested in portraying ‘real life’ in a naturalistic manner on stage. However, Grotowski was an experimental theatre practitioner, therefore he was more interested in form. He wanted to strip Theatre back to the bare bones of an actor on stage with an audience watching. 

Via Negativa

Via Negativa means to be completely in the moment or being present. The direct translation of Via Negativa is 'a technique of elimination'. He wanted his actors to get rid of anything that can stop you living in the moment and becoming totally involved in a role. One of the ways he did this was by putting actors through tiring, strenuous and rigorous training by asking them to undertake physical activity such as running for long periods of time. He believed that exhaustion enabled his actors to access their emotions more readily. He refers to the concept as being ‘not a collection of skills but an eradication of blocks.’ This meant he wanted to eliminate the obstacles that block or inhibit an actor’s creative ability and way of expression. We react to stimuli within our environment. However, young actors still retain that split-second of acting, thinking that delays will create a true response. An actor must overcome this by ‘completely stripping down and laying bare ones intimate’ in order to ‘achieve a freedom from the time-lapse between inner impulse and outer reaction.’ To start off our workshop, our teacher made us make the space immaculate for us to work in. This meant that we had to put away our coats, place our bags on top of them and remove our shoes, leaving all of these items at the very edge of the space in order to make the room as clear and tidy as possible. Once our space was ready to work in, we were told to run around the room while avoiding each other. At first we jogged freely, but then we were given more structure, being instructed to run around the outside of the space, equidistant to the person in front of us and the person behind either clockwise or anticlockwise. Every so often, the teacher would shout "Change!" which meant that we had to change our direction of running. After this, we carried on running outside, while still avoiding each other. In total, we ran for 45 minutes without stopping. This was very physically tiring and my body began to ache. We found out that Grotowski made his actors go for a run before every rehearsal. I felt like I pushed myself very hard as I  didn’t stop once during the whole exercise. This exercise was to demonstrate how physical exhaustion can break down barriers and reach a point where, as an actor, you are willing to push yourself to extreme lengths that you wouldn’t normally go to. However, we didn’t run for anywhere near as long as Grotowski made his actors run for. Therefore, it felt like a waste of time to not actually create anything or do any acting exercises after we got to this point of exhaustion; it felt like we'd done all this work for no reason. I felt like it would have been more effective if we tested Grotowski’s method of pushing his actors to the point of exhaustion before acting. However, we just spoke about how it felt to run for a long period of time. I did actually feel the artistic potential and I can guess that any work we would have made would have been very experimental and emotional charged. Our teacher then informed us that if we were being taught by Grotowski himself, he probably would have made us do it for about 3 hours. He believed that actors must be able to access their emotions easily in order to portray emotion on stage, he believed they could achieve this by being physically fit. His main method of training was to take them running - usually through Polish Forrest's, and sometimes naked. This would allow them to become physically fit, hence being able to focus and connect to their deeper emotions. He believed that running does so many things to the body, it waked is up, relaxes it, yet it fatigues it, it exhausts it and it manipulates it. When you are exhausted, your emotions are raw and truthful, therefore the natural filter comes through. You could then go on to use the emotions present through emotion memory - the emotions would not be forced - they would just be there. Grotowski made his actors live, mediate and run together. This allowed them to live a spiritual and simple life. Furthermore, it allowed them to create a stronger relationship between them, therefore allowing them to trust each other and become confident around each other, hence making it easier to act with each other. 

Poor Theatre

Grotowski called his theatre ‘poor’ because it dispensed with theatrical trappings and the technological resources of ‘rich’ theatre. Poor theatre can be described as the opposite of “Rich theatre”, or one with superfluous components. This performance style rid itself of the unnecessary excesses of theatre, such as elaborate costumes and detailed set, hence being ‘poor’. Poor Theatre concentrate on the skills and ability of the actor. Props, scenery and costumes were stripped to a bare minimum, allowing the audience to focus only on the actor. He believed that any object that is used on stage must be there throughout the entire play. Therefore, many objects were used and interpreted in a variety of different ways. The concepts of poor Theatre also extended from the physical to the abstract. Grotowski made the actor’s voice and body key to the performances. He thought that these were the most important aspects of a performance. Vocal effects replaced instrumental music. When he directed plays, Grotowski preferred to perform his shows in non-traditional spaces such as old buildings rather than traditional theatres stages. Poor Theatre pieces weren’t often performed, those that did were often performed only once before a small number of spectators. Plays took a long time to rehearse because his methods of training were very time consuming. Grotowski wanted to discover something beyond drama. He worked to develop physical and emotional responses so that ‘impulse and reaction are concurrent’. He believed that when we are pushed to extreme circumstances in moments of shock or terror we, as humans, use ‘rhythmically articulated signs’ and do unnecessary and confusing things such as beginning to dance and sing in order to comfort ourselves and attempting to avoid harsh realities. Grotowski wanted to explore moments of extreme pressure in further detail. Therefore, he moved towards ‘archaic situations’ expressed in myth and often involving unusual or taboo circumstances. He believed that when we are pushed to the extreme and are put in uneasy or terrifying situations where ‘the life mask cracks and falls away’ it can expose an ‘intimate layer’ which helps us discover the truth behind a person, hence revealing their true personality. Grotowski believed that socialization, insecurities and intellectualization should never be present during rehearsals.

Relationship between actors and audience

Grotowski believed that the relationship between an actor and the audience was crucial. He thought that if the actor creates a truthful connection with the audience, he would be able to change them. He brought back the fundamentals of what ‘good acting’ is. If an actor’s performance is raw and emotional, it could affect the audience. He wanted his actors to be so connected to the work they were doing that they would have a moment of self-revelation of self-penetration. This means actors can have a moment of revelation which they can give to the audience. When the actor had a moment of 'self-penetration' and connects with the audience they could be able to connect too. Grotowski believed that this was a way to change the world. All that was needed was the live communion between actor, space and audience. Typically, the audience was placed on many sides of the action or in and amongst the action, itself. This allowed them to feel more involved in the performance. He was really interested in destroying the fourth wall. He wanted to make sure the audience were active rather than passive. This allowed the audience to get rid of any sense of illusion. Occasionally, he tried to make the audience feel on edge and tense rather than relaxed as their senses would be more on point, more heightened and more physically drained.