Born: 11 August, 1933, Rzeszow, Poland
Died: 14 January, 1999, Pontedera, Italy
Early days. He studied acting and directing at the State Theatre School in Krakow and in Moscow. When the war came in 1939, the strong familial bond that the family shared was severed. His father entered the war and did not return, and his mother, brother and himself moved to the small village of Nienadówka where he had several essential experiences that would shape him and his work in the future.
Career. Grotowski made his directorial debut in 1958 with the production Gods of Rain which introduced Grotowski's bold approach to text. Later in 1958 Grotowski moved to Opole where he served as Director of the Theatre of 13 Rows. There he began to assemble a company of actors and artistic collaborators which would help him realize his unique vision. It was also there that he began to experiment with approaches to performance training which enabled him to shape the young actors into the transformational artists. He debuted as a director in 1959 in Krakow with Eugene Ionesco's play Chairs. Among the many productions for which his theatre company became famous were "Orpheus" by Jean Cocteau, "Shakuntala" based on text by Kalidasa, "Dziady (Forefathers' Eve)" by Adam Mickiewicz and "Akropolis" by Stanisław Wyspiański. This last production was the first complete realization of Grotowski's notion of 'poor theatre.' In it the company of actors (representing concentration camp prisoners) build the structure of a crematorium around the audience while acting out stories from the Bible and Greek mythology. "Akropolis" received much attention, and could be said to have launched Grotowski's career internationally. A film was made of the production. In 1964 his theater premiered "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" based on the Elizabethan drama by Christopher Marlowe foregoing the use of props altogether. In 1965 Grotowski moved his company to Wrocław relabeling them a "Teatr Laboratorium", in part to avoid the heavy censorship to which professional 'theaters' were subject in Poland at that time. Work had already begun on one of their most famous productions, The Constant Prince (based on Julius Slowacki's translation of Calderón's play). Debuting in 1967, this production is thought by many to be one of the greatest theatrical works of the 20th century. The last professional production from Grotowski as a director was in 1969. Entitled "Apocalypsis Cum Figuris" it is widely admired. During the 1960s, the company began to tour internationally and his work attracted increasing interest. His company performed the Stanisław Wyspiański play Akropolis/Acropolis (1964) at the Edinburgh Festival. In this period of his work, Grotowski traveled intensively through India, Mexico, Haiti and elsewhere, seeking to identify elements of technique in the traditional practices of various cultures that could have a precise and discernible effect on participants. Always a master strategist, Grotowski made use of his international ties and the relative freedom of travel allowed him to pursue this program of cultural research in order to flee Poland following the imposition of martial law. He spent time in Haiti and in Rome, where he delivered a series of important lectures on the topic of theatre anthropology at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1982 before seeking political asylum in the United States. His friends helped Grotowski to settle in the US, where he taught at Columbia University for one year while attempting to find support for a new program of research.
However, he became increasingly uncomfortable with the adoption and adaptation of his ideas and practices so he left America in 1985 and moved to Italy where he established the Grotowski Workcenter in Pontedera near Pisa. At this center he continued his theatre experimentation and practice and it was here that he continued to direct training and private theatrical events almost in secret for the last twenty years of his life. Jerzy Grotowski was among a small group of actors and directors, who sought to explore new forms of theatrical expression without employing the spoken word.
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Other sources:
WorkCenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Culture.pl
Published on 7/25/2015
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