POOR THEATRE
ELEANOR ANNE RICE - 12.2 - MONDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER 2012
Jerzy Grotowski
Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director
and author of “Towards a Poor Theatre”. He
graduated in 1955 with an acting degree before
moving to Moscow to study for a degree in
acting. During which he was taught about
Stanislavski and Meyerhold. After being
director of a small local theatre group he
moved and established the Laboratorium.
stripped away you
were left with a
vulnerable actor who
wasn’t able to hide
behind the
Poor Theatre is
essentially the work of production. This
an actor with the
meant that the
performance was
audience. Set,
costume, lighting, etc, much more raw and
all came secondary to pure.
the actor. The whole
production elements
were what film
embodied so
Grotowski wanted to
get away from that
and used production
to compliment the
acting. When the
unnecessary was
Poor
Theatre
Techniques:
•Focus on body and voice control: It is of upmost
importance that actors must be in full control of
body and voice unaided.
•No bag of tricks: No stock motions/actions that
actors went back to for a particular emotion or
situation.
•Yoga: Used to calm bodies and centre minds but
Grotowski denied it was yoga. Yoga’s purpose is
the pursuit of inner knowledge while he wanted
the bodies of actors to be more available.
Grotowski’s Main
Idea
Theatre should not, because it could
not, compete with the spectacle that
is film. It should instead focus on the
actors in front of spectators, which
is purely the essence of theatre.
Lab Rules:
•Actors must wear all black
•Set must be all black
•Focus on actors rather than
production
During
Performances:
In the final performance
Grotowski never completely
dismissed costume, set and
lighting. Instead he used
them at a very basic level.
They were secondary to the
actors performance itself
and was only there to
compliment what was
already happening.
Performance
elements:
•Most performances
confronted a social and or
political issue which led
Grotowski to becoming a key
figure in political theatre of
the 20th Century.
“Priesthood”:
•Performances were not
meant for entertainment but After extreme physical and mental training an actor can
rather to create a “Pathway have the ability to enter a state of “holiness” on stage. It is
a severely intimate moment between the actor and
of new understanding”.
audience where they can reveal their innermost being.
•If a part of a script offered Allowing the audience to do this too, they can reflect on
nothing to the performance the performance and the emotions. It challenges them to
it was either re-edited until contemplate the issue being conveyed and their feelings
towards this.
it gave something or
completely thrown away.
The Audience Role:
The audience plays a significant role in all of Grotowski’s Laboratorium performances.
He wanted the audience to be involved however he knew that if they were physically in
the performance and acting they would be more reserved and self conscious. So instead
he focussed on the spatial relationship with the actor and audience. The distance and
angle become key factors in how he staged his shows. How the audience was seated
played a huge role in how they interacted and were involved with the show. He wanted
them in positions that made them feel very much part of the scene without being
involved with the action so their responses and immediate reactions were not reserved
and far more natural.