Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999)

A practitioner who’s main focus was on the actor as well as their message; all props, costume, music, any sort of background element was eliminated. He founded Laboratory Theatre, which is best described as what lies beneath the exterior. He wanted to make a spiritual connection with the audience, he went against everything that makes a theatre, theatre.

His actors needed to be physically and mentally healthy, they were so talented that they could communicate through sounds and movement alone. A Grotowski actor can move every part of their body even the most intricate joints, plastiques this was called. It was all about harmony and peace of mind.

With intense training and using Grotowski’s acting style his actors were taught how to never hold back, break through limitations, experiment, realise their full potential, become aware of abilities they didn’t know they had and learn and grow all at the same time. Training the actor strips away the mechanics of technique to deliver a real truthful performance.

In order to understand the character, the actor must work physically and mentally, delve deep inside their mind in order to become said character. Go for it! Don’t think about what other people think, it will get in the way of progress, was how Grotowski saw it.

One of his techniques was literally to do nothing. If an actor could sit and do nothing for several minutes without becoming distracted by the world around them, then they could do anything.

As a class, we did a repetitive task which involved all of us lying on our backs and when our teacher Nat would call out a number like 1 we would lift up our arm or leg depending on which number she called out. She’d pick up the pace or slow it right down. The funny part to it all was the fact that none of us questioned why we were doing this, but after 10 minutes we were all starting to become unnerved until she finally stopped.

1 = left arm

2 = right arm

3 = left leg

4 = right leg

It is our bodies that express everything about us. You need to separate yourself from the character, attention to detail, for example if a girl were to play a male role, they should talk and act like a stereotypical man and get rid of any features that can connect them back to their original persona.

When it came down to the voice, to emphasises clarity they’d sing, chant and recite poetry. The voice is an instrument.

Poor Theatre

Don’t rely on props, staging and set to create a piece of theatre. Poor theatre forces actors to use their skills alone to performance a piece of theatre on an empty stage and transform it into a whole new world thanks to their imagination.

Symbolism is an essential part of Grotowski’s work, the audience should always be involved and actors shouldn’t need lighting, props, sounds to carry them through performance.

Emotional Memory

Like Brecht, Grotowski emphasised the use of emotion memory to recall experiences and recreate feelings. I do not agree with this technique because it can be very traumatic for an actor especially if its a death scene or something like that.

However the two practitioners believe it gave a true, honest performance and showed full dedication and commitment towards the characters, it did not matter how painful, personal or private the memory was.

My Opinion on Jerzy Grotowski

I find the practitioner fascinating, his poor theatre sounds very fun to try out with limited objects and set and I love the whole connecting with the audience part but I get put off by the emotion memory situation. An actor shouldn’t need to suffer in order to put on a real truthful performance. Though being able to move every joint in the body is an interesting concept I don’t feel like it is necessary in certain situations, like TV acting or stage acting where I’m aiming for, I see it more for dancing and gymnastics.