Theatre Practitioner - Grotowski.
Background.
Jerry Marian Grotowski (1933-1999) was a polish director and theorist who founded experimental theatre. He was born in Rzeszów, in south-eastern Poland and studied acting and directing at the Ludwik Solski Academy of Dramatic Arts in Kraków.
He set up a theatre company which gained international interest in the 1960s and so he began work in America. However, the adoption and interpretation of his work in the states horrified him - he left the US for Italy and set up the Grotowski Workcentre in 1985.
For the last two decades of his life, he practiced in secrecy in this Workcentre and trained actors in his strange techniques. One of the most interesting parts of his life was ww2 which broke out when he was 6. The horrors of the war may have contributed to his fascination with absurd theatre.
Philosophy - Total Truth.
Grotowski is very similar to Stanislavsky in their theories on theatre. Both believed in the idea that the actors MUST truly believe their characters in order for the audience to do so.
However, Grotowski took this idea further by extending it to the exaggerated physicality of the character - the character does not have to be naturally believable but all aspects of the character have to reinforce their personality.
Poor Theatre.
The main element of Grotowskian theatre is the idea of poor theatre. Poor theatre takes the emphasis off the set/costume/sound/lighting design and places it back on the actor and their ability to tell the story. This clearly links in with the ideas of physical theatre and exaggerated vocal sounds as both need to be employed to tell the story when props and set and minimised.
Grotowski liked poor theatre because he felt that modern theatre (the theatre of his day 1950-70) places too much emphasis on elaborate and overly designed sets and costume. The main elements of poor theatre are:
- Extremely simple lighting - lighting in poor theatre is often just a blank white wash or a single spotlight. By removing the added story-telling and emotional power of lighting, Grotoswki forces the audience to engage with the actor more.
- Props are replaced with every day objects - if a prop was absolutely required in a scene it was either mimed or replaced with an everyday object that often bore no resemble to what it represents in the scene. For example, if a book was required, an apple might be used. It is important to note that the actors still treat the apple as though it is a book.
- Plays not necessarily performed in the theatre - rather than devote an entire a building to theatre, poor theatre pieces were often performed in traditionally non-theatre spaces. Examples of these include libraries, schools and even prisons.
Vocal Work.
'The means of verbal expression have been considerably enlarged because all means of vocal expression are used, starting from the confused babbling of the very small child and including the most sophisticated oratorical recitation. Inarticulate groans, animal roars, tender folksongs, liturgical chants, dialects, declamation of poetry: everything is there. The sounds are interwoven in a complex score which brings back fleetingly the memory of all forms of language.' - Actor under Grotowski.
Grotowski fervently believed in exploring theatre without speaking actual words. He still used dialogue but all the non-dialogue parts of the speech were highlighted and exaggerated.
This would range from whispers to cries, coughs to grunts. The exaggerated and over-the-top nature of these sounds was part of Grotowski's idea that the actor uses all parts of themself to express the character. He believed all aspects of the human psyche could be expressed in this manner.
Silence.
Grotowski was fascinated by the idea of silence within a piece of theatre. He used silence as both a rehearsal technique and as a performance technique:
Rehearsal - in the process fo creating a piece of theatre, actors under Grotowski were encouraged to "begin by doing nothing." This practice, known as creative passivity allowed actors to achieve inner silence. This basis of inner silence was then the blank canvas upon which emotions were layered - this links to Stanislavsky emotional memory.
Performance - Grotowski was a big believer in the idea that silence enhances the emotion and (therefore the impact) of pieces of theatre. Many of his works include long, drawn-out silences which are used to either create suspense or draw out a moment.
Physical Embodiment.
Linking back to the idea of truth (and more importantly the actor believing their character), Grotowski believed in the idea that the actor should physically embody their character.
This leads to the over exaggerated physical movement and stance of Grotwoski characters. These characters are similar to Berkovian ones in the way that all of their motions are stylised and have a choreographed, dance-like feel.
In the rehearsal process, Grotowski spends lots of time emphasising this physicality. In some of his rehearsals, actors spend hours doing extremely wacky warm ups (see below) in order to achieve the control over the body needed to physically show their character.
Grotowski Warm Ups.
Warm ups for Grotowski fall under two categories: vocal ones and physical ones.
Physical ones include the cat (where actors pretend to be a cat just waking from sleep), walking with your hands on your ankles and mimicking animal physicality. All of these are designed to ready the body for the stress of the physicality in pieces.
Vocal ones include mimicking animal sounds, overly exaggerating all your non-vocal sounds and humming from deep in the chest whilst lying curled in a ball. These are all intended to make the actor ready to employ the whole of their voice in their role.
Reflective Report part 2.
How is your theatrical interpretation influenced by style of play, SCHP context and practitioner?
Our theatrical interpretation of the piece is that the pointless nature of the play, and in particular our chosen extract reflects the pointless nature of existence. This interpretation was heavily influenced by the style of the play which is absurdist theatre. Theatre of the absurd
context: hippie movement in 60s
Evaluation:
-our aim was to show the absurd nature of everyday life and was successful.
-more successful with props and costume.
-successful relationship between R and G who are so different it is absurd.
-best bits: R+G relationship (mutual dependence), Fin's character,