book

Book Review

Building a Character - Stanislavski

Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski (1863-1938) was a Russian actor and innovative Theatre director. He viewed theatre making as a serious endeavour, and the work of an actor as an artistic undertaking. Many of you may have read Stanislavski's first book, An Actor Prepares, which focuses on the inner imaginative process. His next book, Building a Character, concentrates on the physical realization of character on the stage - expressions, movements, tempo-rhythms, accentuation of speech and so on.

Like an actor prepares, he uses fictional characters obviously based on the actors from the Moscow Art Theatre, with the director, Tortstov (think Stanislavski) being the one with all the knowledge. Through the chapters Stanislavski is as detailed as ever in describing precisely how one may come to be human on stage.

He goes on to discuss that one should not lose themselves when performing a "character". It should simply be a division of the self, an alter ego, in order for the actions and physicality to be true. The character should be a creation of the individual not a stereotype, for example; when we think of an old person we may picture a walking stick, a bulge of grey hair, a hunched back, yet one must delve deeper in to their circumstances - imagining the pressure on every joint in the body, the inability to freely bend the knees and back etc.. In order to give examples he often refers to exercises he approached in his first book, such as the Given Circumstance or Magic "IF". Stanislavski believes it to be essential that an actor be able to control his body, to feel the fluidity of his movements like a ball running through the muscular system in order for his motions to be believable and not plastic. Torstov uses rehearsal methods with his actors that allow this ability to develop; an actor could easily mirror these techniques to further develop his skills.

Further on in the book Stanislavski goes on to discuss the diction, pronunciation of the voice, and the use of pauses. He expresses the importance of bringing the text to life - a musical score is not a symphony until it is executed by the orchestra. To an actor a word is not simply a sound but 'the evocation of the images'. 

It is difficult to simply summarize Stanislavski's descriptive methods as his artistic writing is so specific; almost every sentence provides a detailed analysis of the self as an actor. There are many useful exercises throughout the book that if used in the rehearsal process correctly could further develop an actors ability and understanding of how to become true. Above are only a couple of brief explanations regarding his self-reflecting process and the book goes on to subject the actors to a rigorous process of self-analysis. After reading this book one should go on to read his third book, Creating a Role.

An Acrobat of the Heart Emily Defries

Emily's Book review

An Acrobat of the Heart

Stephen Wangh depicts a physical approach to acting inspired by the work of Jerzy Grotowski.

Stephen Wangh wrote this book for all actors who wish to connect their bodies more fully with their acting work. In this workbook Wangh writes detailed directions for exercises that connect the mind to the body. In this blog I am going to talk about 'An Actor's Warm-Up' as I feel this is essiential in our current work, and is a start in connecting the mind with body. Wangh calls this 'Tuning your inner strings.'

Konstantin Stanislavski wrote:

'You know that a sculptor kneads his clay before he begins to use it, and a singer warms up his voice before his concert. We need to do something similar to tune our innr strings, to test the keys, the pedals, and the stops[Stanislavski, 1936,p.250]

Wangh questions 'how does an actor do this?' and if there a warm-up that can prepare all these different parts of the actor's instrument and at the same time connect the body, voice, and emotional life with each other?Wangh comes to the conclusion when reflecting what he had learned from Growtowski, that it is in the awareness of the connections between the body, the mind, and the emotions, an awareness that can be reawakened and strengthened every day as part of the warm-up process. This warm up should not be a fixed regimen, it is a practice that will grow and change as your acting skills and your circumstances change.

The first question asked by Wangh, is what space to choose.

'One must create an atmosphere, a working system, in which the actor feels that he can do anything, and that nothing he does will be mocked, that all will be understood...Often, the moment the actor understands this, he reveals himself'-Jerzy Grotowski, Les Lettres Francais.

The process of finding a space is the first step toward connecting our unconscious. Wangh gives a detailed by point guide to finding a 'safe space' and it is surprising what affect the chosen space can have on your warm up.The body sense of actual, physical space acts as a barometer of inner, emotional space. Often we are unconscious of the connection between our outer actions and our inner state.

This simple space exploration of Wangh, helps to develop an awareness of the connection between your external choices and your internal feelings- 'the perception that something as simple as moving your body from place to place can have an immediate effect on your mental and emotional state.

Some of the exercises Wangh uses to achieve the connection of the mind to the body we have used in class. A particular one that sticks out is the undulation from the pelvis up and from the head down.

In a way, spinal movements act as a kind of massage for the entire nervous system- (Yoshi Oida, The Invisible Actor)

I found this exercise tricky in class however Wangh gives a step by step guide and describes the bodily process of this exercise. Wangh speaks of the spine 'as the central energy transporsition and communication lines for our body.' This is a great exercise of physical expression which Wangh goes into detail about in the book.

I would definitely recommend this book if you feel after a lesson that you have not quite understood a reason for one of the exercises or simply cannot get your head around it. This book is a great physical guide, and when you read it , it makes you want to get up on your feet and experiment!

class summary first week back

We started off the session by getting into partners and in turn stretching and massaging each other's bodies, concentrating on our partner's individual needs. We also vocalized the sense of touch we felt using our breathing, sighing and yawning. This allowed a stretch to go further with the help of the partner than if we were stretching individually.

 

After stretching we then proceeded to 'Wind' dance, making full use of the space and concentrating on our weight placement and the sense of energy from the floor and receiving energy from the rest of the group. We also explored our awareness of others, aiming to become more loose and ready with our bodies to prevent collisions. We then picked an animal to embody within our spines and made encounters in pairs, exploring the relationships that's formed. The rest of the group remained at the sides of the room throughout the encounters to ensure the rhythm continued.

 

We then moved onto a 'calling' exercise, experimenting with our vocal range in terms of calling to a place or person near or far. We then started to incorporate the body whilst calling, aiming to find the natural physical action that was appropriate. This allowed the exploration of the different interpretations and emotions e.g. negative or positive behind a phrase such as 'go away' or 'come here'.

 

We then applied this experimentation into the different sides of 'go away' and 'come here' to an exercise that we will call 'The Alien Game'. It started with experimenting with intonation and inflection to convey a meaning to a 'being' that does not understand the words. The next task was to isolate certain body parts whilst still aiming to convey the same meaning but without the use of physical action or facial expression. For example, using only the hips to accompany the phrase.

We found that not only was it difficult to not rely on the use of facial expression but also being the 'alien' within the exercise was challenging as it was hard to consciously block out the meaning behind the words and just concentrate on the other's use of movement.

 

To finish the session we moved onto an exercise that tried to find a walk that used conflicting physical actions e.g. feet pushing away and hands pulling in. We then used this positive/negative within encounters with a partner, pretending to cross them on a street.

 

We hope we have covered everything, if we have forgotten anything please feel free to add it!

 

 

Ali and Alannah xx

Verity's book review- The Paper Canoe

Eugenio Barba's "The Paper Canoe" was conceived during his silent
rehearsals, on journeys through his life and meeting people from around
the world. In the preface he questions the presence of a performer and
what makes a performer's actions believable.

A part of the book which I found interesting was Barba delving into his
memories and explaining what stuck out most in his mind and how this could
affect theatre which he later produces. The first example was as a young
boy, walking on his knees for a religious festival, the smell of incense
and rich colours around him and how it filled him with a sensation which
still stirs his senses now and can still feel the burning pain he suddenly
felt in his knees from walking for so long and seeing his mothers friend.
The other memory is that of his grandma, wearing a long white nightdress
with very long white hair. He remembers vividly the image of his
grandmother sitting at her dressing table, her withered old body looking
like a young girl in a wedding dress. He explains that these images both
contain a "moment of truth" because he believes that there are opposites
which seem to embrace each other and it's not just a visual memory, the
pain in the knee's is a physical memory.

He talks about "Transition" being a culture within itself and explaining
how a culture must have three components within it- material production,
biological reproduction, and the production of meanings, he believes that
it is very essential for a culture to have meaning, if it doesn't, it does
not exist.
Later on in the book he also notes how performers are performers- "they
are accustomed to controlling their own presence and translating their own
images into physical impulses" I found this very interesting as it related
back to the work we had been doing in class about what makes you move, how
do you move and recognising those impulses so you could surprise yourself,
making it more believable for the audience to be surprised.

The history of Theatre and Dance is mentioned and how it is confined by
the spectator and is made to be seen as superficial because there is no
logic behind the creative process, however he then goes onto say how the
history of theatre is essential in understanding new theatre, he see's
theatre from the past as "a pool of knowledge" which every once in a while
you can pick from and use in your own way, this emphasising his unique
intercultural performance.

The term Sats is explained within the book and how he started to form the
idea, it was at the Odin Teatret in which he started to see beyond the
monotonous reciting text and try to save the performance by concentrating
on just one part of the actors body either a hand or a foot or an eye. He
goes on to say that most actors held the impulse the move or "sats" when
their knees were slightly bent, it was through the realisation of of
recognising the knees importance in that he began to form the first
principles of theatre anthropology, the change of balance.

Stephanie Taylor's Book Review

'An Actor's Work' Constantin Stanislavski, trans. Jean Benedetti.

Constantin Stanislavski's 'An Actor's Work' contains both his works 'An
Actor Prepares' and 'Building a Character', in a new translation by Jean
Benedetti. The book is split into two parts, 'Year 1: Experiencing', and
'Year 2: Embodiment'. Stanislavski was of the opinion that to portray
'absolute truth' on stage, an actor must achieve 'psychological realism.'
During classes in which we have studied Stanislavski, this has been
pressed upon us; however, we are told in Jean Benedetti's introduction to
the book the reasons for him putting the two parts together again.
Throughout history the two parts have become separated, and the
'psycho-physical technique' lost. Benedetti says, "Stanislavski had
serious misgivings about dividing the book. He feared that the first
volume, dealing with the psychological aspects of acting, would be
identified as the total 'system' itself, which would be identified as a
form of 'ultranaturalism'. His fears were justified." (pg. xvi) Benedetti
goes on to explain, "directors have seen the 'system' as purely
'psychological.'" (pg. xvi.) By bringing the two together, Benedetti has
tried to bring about a change in the way we view Stanislavski, in a way
other than completely concerned with psychology.

Stanislavski's technique of writing throughout the book does at times
cause confusion; it is written in the form of the diary of a first year
acting student, substituting people's names for those which Stanislavski
believed "reflected the essential nature of their personalities." (pg.
xxi). Stanislavski labels himself Tortsov, meaning 'creator' and the
student essentially writing the diary is intended to portray the young
Stanislavski, as he would be if learning his own system.

The book begins with the 'Original Draft Preface' by Stanislavski,
included by Benedetti but left out by other translators. The point he
impresses upon us from the start is that his system has "no pretensions to
be scientific." He talks about his views on other acting training
programmes, believing that the intuitivism of actors is being rapidly
replaced by an almost scientific equation; we know from the beginning of
the book that it will be concerned mostly with employing the use of the
actor's subconscious feelings, and using instincts. However, he does
counter this argument with the point that although this use of instinct is
true to a certain degree, the actor must have almost a 'bank' of personal
experience and knowledge on which to draw from when acting; it becomes
difficult when there is nothing to relate to. This is what 'Part 1' is
concerned with.

We see the young students surprised at the lack of technical equipment;
the naïve diary entry discusses how it was difficult to become their
character and act properly when they were surrounded by a bare stage. This
is when they are first taught that the literal surroundings must be
forgotten, and the setting of their scene must be completely rooted within
their mind, the environment is of the utmost importance. It is pressed
upon them that these feelings that must be felt are not dependable upon a
camouflage of lights and make-up, although these do ultimately assist one
in gaining absolute realism. Stanislavski talks about 'Action, 'IF',
'Given Circumstances''. He says that action is arbitrary and looks forced
and wooden if there is no intention; these are the given circumstances –
why a character is doing something, what is their intention or their
motivation.

In a later chapter the students are taught about 'Units and Objectives';
in Benedetti's translation, he uses Stanislavski's original 'home-grown'
terms, 'Bits and Tasks'. Our student splits his walk home from the theatre
into units and objectives but finds himself hundreds. Stanislavski here
teaches us to be far less specific with our tasks and, in a positive
sense, make them more vague.

'Part 2', 'Building a Character' deals with what happens after
'Experiencing'. The students must apply what they have learnt about the
psychological side to their approach to embodying a character. This
section of the book deals with the physical side of the acting; the
expressions, speech and movement of a character. This is briefly touched
on when we see Kostya (young Stanislavski) attempting to recreate the
character of Othello by changing his facial expression in front of a
mirror. This is referred to again at the end of the book when the students
look back at how much they have learnt, intended to be echoed within the
reader.

Alice Gardiner's book report

 

Jennifer Kumiega – The Theatre of Grotowski

 

In 1984 Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre closed down after twenty-five years of endless experimentation pushing at the boundaries of the nature of theatre. Their work had experienced extensive change, from rigid practitioners of 'holy art' working with little resources in provincial Poland, by the end of the sixties internationally renowned for their technical ability and supremacy of their acting. They were not received so well in their home country as they were in the west where Grotowski's influence spread to Europe and the United States, fuelled first by the international tours of his remarkable company and then by 'paratheatrical' participatory projects, which attracted adherents all over the world.

 

The commercial competition of the technology industry in cinema and television became a necessity with lighting and sound, worked against keeping the actor alive with the decline of theatre. Grotowski fronted his work and research into the vitality of truth in theatre, the relationship between actor and spectator. Eliminating the dependence on what is unnecessary in this communion, which resulted in the model of 'poor theatre'.

 

By 1970 he had abandoned his strictly theatrical context for his work and began experimenting with 'paratheatrical' forms. The laboratory theatre had not finished to allow themselves to transform and change and was closed in 1984, grotowski and laboratory theatre was somewhat frozen into a formed public image, work seen as inaccessible to some members of the public.

 

Laboratory theatre aim was to force theatre to redefine itself, Grotowki's incessant questioning directors and practitioners on their motives and work in theatre. This role of a watchdog peering intently to discover new forms in theatre in culture and country context is something that is necessary in the nature of theatre. 'Active culture' putting emphasis on the process rather than the product, self-questioning research and experiments to enlarge the accessibility of the creative process composes its heritage. To be used as an inspiration to evoke members of the audience in the issue of maintaining theatre as an arena, a space where living and creative have contact.

 

This book presents the development of grotowski and the laboratory theatre, providing the history, theory and post-theatre work of this most influential of theatre practitioners. The detailed description and analysis of past theatrical productions in the studies of Grotowski's and the Teatr Laboratorium's pioneering work up to the beginning of "Theatre of Sources". It also contains a detailed dramaturgical account of "Apocalypsis cum Figuris" including all texts and sources which is rare.

 

 

Julia Fresco Book Review

ANNE BOGART's 'Viewpoints'

Anne Bogart and Tina Landau are theatre directors that developed the 'Viewpoints' theory, based on Mary Overlie's discovery of 'The Six Viewpoints' of dance, and it involves theatrical techniques for actors using time and space.

I have found that the emotions Bogart focus' on are Terror, Disorientation and Difficulty. She also indulges in the role of embarrassment, violence, stereotype, humor, doubt, interest, cultural memory and tradition in theatrical directing. Her primary interest is the emotion of terror and how it plays an important role in the creative process of theatre.
Terror is used for its power of not knowing how to face the unknown, and the artists job is to instigate mystery and terror into the audience, which ultimately allows for diversity. In difficulty she believes we find the encouragement to push ourselves to alternate performances, and that the theatre's purpose is to 'remind us of our terror and our humanity' (p. 7). Without the emotion of terror we risk losing our energy and it is vital to open ourselves and our senses to it, in order to test our creative abilities. When directing Anne Bogart often begins rehearsals feeling uncomfortable and insecure, not knowing what she is doing, and the terror of the unknown pushes her to observing the actors and experimenting with ideas. Furthermore the actors should not be controlled, instead should contribute as much as possible through spontaneity or any other means.
Arguments and conflicts are seen as positive contributes to the creative process because they create diversity and contrasts, as agreements may well bore the production. The director should be intuitive and avoid sitting down, as they lose their connection to themselves, the stage, and most importantly the actors.
Courage is also very important when rehearsing, presenting new horizons. Finally Anne Bogart's sense of diversity overpowers her idea of theatrical success, as she believes that we need to embrace our personal differences, and that we are unique.

Tina Landau wrote about Source-work, Viewpoints, and Composition.
Source-work is Bogart's way of getting in touch with the work source, emotionally and intellectually, at the beginning of rehearsal for all individuals. It is the process by which you take time to enter into the chosen material, as most often the material contains in-depth concepts, and it may take up to as long as a month for every participant to comprehend.
The Viewpoints 'are a philosophy of movement translated into a technique for 1) training performers and 2) creating movement on stage' (p. 20). Anne Bogart's viewpoints include: TIME; tempo, duration, kinaesthetic response, repetition (internal/external), and SPACE; shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship and topography. Meanwhile the 'vocal viewpoints' involve pitch, dynamics and timbre.
Finally Composition is the process by which the artist selects and arranges the theatrical components of language into his/her piece of work to be presented for the stage. This 'provides a structure for working from our impulses and intuition' (p. 27), and it is the method for practicing the creator's art, as is the Viewpoints for the actors.

Rebecca Ros Book Review

The Grotowski Sourcebook.

The Grotowski Sourcebook is a collection of essays from critics and other
theatrical collaborators, including some of Grotowski's own texts,
discussing the influence he has had on drama and performance of today.

One way of discussing his influence is to read about Lisa Walford's
personal experience of being trained in accordance to his technique. She
participated in the 'Objective Drama Program,' at the University of
California-Irvine, a training programme that was developed as a result of
Grotowski's research into the ancient rituals of many different cultures.
He explored the basics of the rituals, stripped them down and worked on
the barebones of each performative movement.

With training from James Slowiak, Lisa experienced this intense training
programme. Lisa describes the main elements of her training. First is
physical action; each partaker had to be in top physical condition,
working on 6 individual exercises that were designed to work on certain
weaknesses of that person, not as a group training exercise. 'Along with
the physical structure of the training, participants developed a precise
flow of associations.' By using memory recall, the performers could
perfect the movements and move onto the next part of training.

Vocal work; at the core of Grotowski's research is the 'yantra.' It comes
from ancient Sanskrit and it is believed to 'connect with the laws of the
universe, or nature.' He wanted the performer to link sound with movement,
but from the core, using instinct, but then perfecting it so that when it
'arrived' it would be a pure sound by concentrating on the vibrations
produced.

Group activities; these activities had no narrative or dialogue, but
concentrated on specific, pre-determined movements, or very restricted
improvisation. In these exercises, they would also play games, such as the
'watching' game. 'The participant is required simultaneously to maintain
active engagement and detached awareness.' There are different sections of
the game, led by a leader in the group, ensuring that each performer is
pushed to their limits, both in attention and endurance. This is to
develop the 'physical dialogue' between the performers and the connections
or disconnections that can occur.

Individual actions; having worked in groups, it was time to concentrate on
solo performances. These projects required research into a 'literary,
historical or mythological figure' of their own gender for their first
'action.' With spectators having two questions in mind, did you believe
it? And did you understand it? Slowiak would then bring certain performers
together and the group would decide whether it worked or not. Grotowski
believed in 'art as vehicle,' a way for performers to 'encounter his own
cultural traditions in order to further his journey of personal
development.'

Performance structures; by using inspiration from The Egyptian Book of the
Dead and Indian Tales to create performance that wasn't rehearsed and
didn't follow the traditional performance structure with narration and
characterisation etc. Instead he wanted to concentrate on the 'rendering'
of the performance structure, using song rather than dialogue and what
would be instinctive as a result of the training.

For many, Grotowski's research and experimentation of training style,
bringing it back to the basics, lead the way for many other practitioners
to do the same. Not to concentrate on any text until the movement is
perfected, only then will performance be true and believable.

Alannah Foster's book review

The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau

'The Viewpoints Book' by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau is a practical guide
to theatre practices regarding the composition of work and the training
and rehearsal process associated with the notion of Viewpoints. The
practice of Viewpoints within theatre and its history is summarised within
the book, which serves to both instruct and inform in a clear and concise
manner.

Viewpoints gained momentum in the 1960s after the Cultural Revolution that
exploded within America around this period, instigated by pioneers of
postmodern thinking. Through the process of experimentation, Viewpoints
evolved from the work of Mary Overlie who created the 'Six Viewpoints'
regarding space, shape, time, emotion and movement, which subsequently
evolved into the nine Viewpoints now studied. They aid a structure to
dance improvisation and encourage the process of problem solving to be
become the actual work or end point in terms of theatre.

The notion of Viewpoints and compositions are outlined through a series of
definitions by Bogart, who divides the two elements and breaks them down
into their relationship with time and space, tempo, duration and kinetic
response of the body.

'Viewpoints is a philosophy translated into a technique for (1) training
performers; (2) building ensemble; and (3) creating movement for stage.

Viewpoints is a set of names given to certain principles of movement
through time and space; these names constitute a language for talking
about what happens onstage.

Viewpoints is points of awareness that a performer or creator makes use of
whilst working.'

The body in space and the shape of gestures in relation to space is a
major consideration with The Viewpoints Book as well as in the practice
itself and is discussed from an analytical and practically instructing
standpoint. The element of instruction found within the book is a vital
element in the importance of viewpoints and composition, an art that finds
it's grounding in collaboration. The possibility of evolution and freedom
found through experimentation and the exploration of the limitations of
working within theatre is discussed, including consideration of the limits
we as artists impose upon ourselves.

The book also outlines the practicalities of fusing the individual
Viewpoint exploration into ensemble work, giving examples of specific
experiences that have informed Bogart's own technique. The choice of text
to apply Viewpoint work to and specific writing exercises, are additional
and vital aspects of the rehearsal process that accompany the actual
movement.

'In creating new work, you work from a source, whether it is a question,
an image, a historical event etc. In working on a play, you also encounter
a source. The play becomes your source, and in itself, contains others.'

The book is an extremely informative and accessible collection of
information, vital for any student looking at drama.

Harriet Smith

Grotowski As A Director by Harriet Smith

Grotowski's aim was not to preach or school people with his work, his main
aim was finding meaning within his works. He always started using a
pre-written text by someone else usually; this was his stimulus that he
would use to work with his actors. Grotowski's basic principles of acting
were

1. Archetypes: Grotowski felt it was necessary to look at and tackle the
archetypes in the texts he chose to use. He would use this to help choose
the themes that he wanted to focus on, he tended to look our side of the
box with his ideas and themes.
2. Improvisation: Firstly Grotowski did not like the word improvisation.
This is because it has connotations of unplanned uncoordinated work. It
appears from reading about his works that he liked to have a structure to
his process and chaos was not acceptable for him. Despite this his work
on improvisation involved him reading some kind of text to his actors who
would take some time to absorb this and find costumes to fit the
improvisation. They would then spend time working with the text, not
necessarily literally. Grotowski would sometimes watch, making
adjustments and giving words of advice along with occasionally joining in
physically. He also liked to mould the actors himself while they continue
to work seamlessly. After this the actors would note down all they have
found and they would keep work that was good and get rid of the useless.
3. Montage: This process is ongoing throughout rehearsals, Grotowski
worked through the texts with his actors editing and reworking the texts
to suit his piece, getting rid of useless ideas and keeping the ones that
worked well, this could go on for a very long period of time with the text
and work changing all the time.

The Space: Grotowski felt that any space could be usable as a workspace to
develop work, and that it was not an excuse to delay because an
appropriate space has not been found. It was also imperative that the
space be clean and completely devoid of clutter. This was so important
that actors would often spend considerable time cleaning, mopping and
sorting the space before any work was started; this became something of a
ritual.

The Silence: The idea of the silence was to make sure that actors were
completely involved in the exercises taking place. It was forbidden to
bring any social talking or similar activities into the space even during
break times, which were usually spent silently. This was to remove any
interaction from outside the performance area so that the work could be
the primary focus. It was also important that there was no question
asking or commenting during the class, if an actor wasn't sure If they
were doing the exercise or task correctly they should either try to work
it out or wait for instruction from the person taking the class. The idea
was to keep the workspace not only physically clean but also clean from
unrelated thoughts and intrusions.

Becca C-B book report

Land of ashes and diamonds
By Eugenio Barba
Land of Ashes and Diamonds includes 26 letters written from Jerzy
Grotowski to Eugenio Barba during the early stages of Grotowski's work in
the 1960's. The letters are extremely difficult to understand as they
appear to be in written in a fabricated (almost magical) language shared
between two friends. Barba attempts to decode the letters for his puzzled
reader through an autobiographical essay which encompasses his
apprenticeship in Poland-where he was to meet his close friend and
collaborator Grotowski as well as many other associates who played a huge
part in his life and his own work. The reader is introduced to detailed
encounters during his time in Poland as well as his adventures around the
world-India and Norway being greatly profound in his life and two
countries which inspired him and aided in the development of his work. As
his remarkable journey unfolds the reader is enlightened with their
struggle as playwrights working in a corrupt and censored country at this
time; the war evidently leaving lasting and irreversible damage long after
it was over taking Poland years to recover.
As the book comes to an end the extent of Grotowski's influence on Barba's
life and work is apparent-Barba throughout refers to Grotowski as master.
But by no means was it unreciprocated. It was Barba who supported
Grotowski throughout his career, believing in his genius and doing
everything in his power to see Grotowski's Laboratorium succeed. Barba's
mission was to put Polish theatre on the radar, to make it recognised
worldwide, to try and make others aware of, and appreciate the depths of
this unique style of theatre (and culture) which had stolen him. Poland,
for Barba was the land of ashes and diamonds.
This book is highly comical at times particularly when Barba talks about
his relationship with Grotowski and through his attempt to interpret the
letters written by Grotowski. But this book was also hard hitting. A
moment in the book which took hold of me was when Barba reflects the
importance of Grotowski's production of Studium o Hamlecie in his artistic
career often ignored or overlooked with Kordian, The Constant Prince and
Akropolis, three of Grotowski's greatest works taking centre stage. Barba
includes an article which he wrote when the production was presented
publicly and it moved me to the core. An exceptionally well written piece
which paints a vivid picture of what the production of Studium o Hamlecie
encapsulated. The reader is told that the themes reflect those of his
previous productions but push the boundaries of Polish socialism even
further it is a production which is outrageously political and evidently
connected with Poland's history. The production was immediately taken-off
the repertoire leaving the Polish authorities, Barba admits understandably
irritated. I have to read this play.
However, the most prominent emotion I felt throughout my reading was
frustration; I often felt Barba's frustration regarding Grotowski's
Laboratorium that his revolutionary work was being unrecognised and
unappreciated. But in turn by the end of the book the feeling of
admiration takes over. What these zealous practitioners have achieved,
both individually and collectively is inspiring but, perhaps more
importantly it is what they inevitably conquered on their road to success
which grabs you. You are left, unknowingly with almost the moral of never
giving up on what or who you believe in; determination is key to any
success as Barba and Grotowski have shown-Grotowski Laboratorium is a
resounding international success (to the authorities annoyance) and Barba
eventually 'finds himself' in the form of his established Odin Teatret.

'Heart of Practice' Book Report By Polly MacFarlane.

'Heart of Practice': Within the Workcentre of Jerzy Grotowksi and Thomas
Richards.

The 'Heart of Practice' is a collection of detailed interviews with Thomas
Richards, a close former student of Grotowksi's. What I have found to be
particularly interesting about this book is that for such an organised
account of the recollection of the workshops; in which we learn about the
styles and techniques used and practiced with, what comes out of it
entirely speaks of the organic growth of the work. It seemed that the more
I read, and the more Richard's would submerge himself into telling the
story of his work with Grotowski, the more I felt there was a link with
the human spirit, (or at least our inner selves) and performance.
Richard's responses in describing Grotowski's work are in some respects
similar in how he described Grotowski himself: 'There was a specific
quality of silence before each of his responses that was not at all
artificial.' It's made very apparent all the way through that Richards
dedicates himself to the work of Grotowski, perhaps partly due to what he
himself as a young student achieved with him and how much this made a
positive impact on his personal life. The training he participated in
reached a climax for Richards when Grotowski showed an interest in him
because of his performance in which he presented a clear 'intention'.
Clearly this turning point gave him a new train of thought that entirely
transformed his way of living, and his attitude within Grotowski's
workshops. Each time Richard's would answer a question within this book he
would always respond with a detailed account of a past rehearsal/workshop,
and this would appear as a well constructed train of thought. What would
consistently follow this however would be a sudden burst of electric
descriptions. He would often use the word river, repeatedly to paint us
with a picture of how inherit perhaps the work of Grotowski is to us as
humans, or how it is something that can be used spiritually, not just as a
performance tool. The use of the word river stood out to me also because
of my own experiences with our physical theatre classes. The 'wind dance'
in which we use every part of our body, and all of our energy to
participate and move in gives me images of native settings. The idea of
being lifted effortlessly off the ground and gracefully back down again in
ways echo's a lot of Richard's descriptions. The rhythms and patterns are
organised and constructed so we can perform the dance or movement again,
but as we move our mind set changes in order to keep the performance a
'truly alive process' (Thomas Richards's p.13).
Considering the work within our classes, in which we aim to use pedestrian
movement in order to ask what it means to move in this way, to make this
gesture, to produce this movement with our bodies; 'Heart of Practice'
proves highly relative in its analysis. Through reading this collection of
interviews with Thomas Richards and using it to reflect back on class work
I am progressing more towards truly understand why 'the creation of lines
of little beats of human behaviour…'(Thomas Richards) is so vital to
unleash and physically work as performers ourselves.

Alannah Foster's book review

workshop day

Here are two accounts of the workshop day and what we learned from it.

On the day of the workshop the option groups got split up into groups of six or seven, with at least one student who had been studying either directing, physical performance, approaches to text, or design. Once we were assigned to a group the ensemble were given the task to devise a five minute piece on a stimulus that we were given. The stimulus was an object and a piece of text from one of the Alcestis text's that we had read. Initially my group shared ideas and discussed what they had learnt and the practical work they had been doing in their own option groups. The group then started to get up on their feet with some short warm up exercises in which physical performance came into use. I shared some of the exercises that had been carried out in class; such as walking around the room using different sides of the foot. The group found this useful as the different way one walks created a character for the individual. I showed the group the wind dance which instantly brought energy into the space. After a satisfied warm up, ideas in the group were further shared. Interestingly each reaction to the stimulus was different depending on the different option groups people were in. One reaction was to pick out the text and analyse the meaning. Another was to see how one could create a scenographic picture from the text by incorporating the prop, which was a mask. At first there was conflict in solely focusing on the mask. The groups automatically decided to do ensemble work, which interestingly all the groups did in performance. When the group began to work more practically our ideas developed, and a narrative was formed. It was clear that the group needed a narrative to devise a performance. The final perfromance was dissappointing. The group's ideas were not clearly communicated. This exercise showed how important it is to get straight into practical work and to not waste time getting caught up in discussions. It was interesting to see the different ways one can approach a stimulus. The workshops were a brilliant way to share ideas and engage in other group's practical work.

Our group first held a warm up where we did stretches and tried to teach each other a little of what we had been learning in our workshops. We tried walking around the space using differnt parts of our feet as we have been doing in our classes. Our piece of text was "A corpse on duty" and these movements, very staccato and jagged, reminded us of corpses. This in turn gave us the idea of an army of corpses returning from the dead. As we worked on this though, the movements seemed too contrived. We then decided to explore the idea that Alcestis had been a corpse in her life- weighed down by her responsibilities and her duty to her husband. To emphasise this idea, we thought of showing Alcestis repeating different acts from her life. As the Alcestis character repeated her movements, trying to get through her life, I was reminded of sats and the impulse of movement. Just as Alcestis tried to move forward in her life, the other characters would pull her back.

As each of the groups presented their pieces, it was interesting to notice the differences and similarities between the pieces. Alot of the groups incorporated exaggerated breathing within their pieces, which is understandable when exploring the theme of death and rebirth. It was good to see some of the work we have been exploring in class presented on stage. One group in particular (the one with the fruit), reminded me of our exercises with objects and repetition. It was interesting to watch all of the performances and explore how the work used in class can help when devising performances.

How did everyone else find the workshop?

At work with grotowski book report

Hi, please could you put the attached file or below text on the blog as I'm not sure what works better for you. Thank you. Ali.

 

 

At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions by Thomas Richards.

 

This book is full of worthwhile techniques and ideas that are important in creating performance and shows the amount of work that Grotowski and his assistants put into their research of this art. It also demonstrates that a decent piece of performance does not come from a few improvisations and rehearsal but months and even years of patience with repetition while editing throughout the creative process. I am going to recall parts I have learned from reading this book that I feel could be essential for the place we have arrived at in our studies.

 

The first point that stands out is in the initial chapter; that we should not forget the construction of the 'stairs'. Grotowski used this from the later work of Stanislavski with consciously preparing a structure which should then be reinforced by 'truth and conviction'. To illustrate this point, Thomas Richards described a Russian proverb 'If you go to your porch, look up at the sky, and jump to the stars, you will just land in the mud. Often stairs are forgotten'. Therefore to get to a successful result you must not rush but build a performance patiently bit by bit. These are the stairs that need to be constructed.

 

The second is that it is essential to connect your body and mind with physicality. This helps clarify the work we have been doing on our course with it equally feeding our minds with the critical reading, and bodies with the physical explorations in class. Another key element illustrated in this book is improvising with a pre-construct or basic outline. This makes sure that the performer does not just perform in general terms and that the work is repeatable to be further constructed. In the chapter on Ryszard Cieslak At Yale, Richards articulates that it is important for a performer to 'do' without hesitation and having no fear to just mentally let go of the minds' hold over the body. Personally I find this very difficult as so far in my experience of being taught how to perform it seems that no-one has ever introduced this before. Consequently looking back at the first half of our course I can now see that my mind is always present in every exploration that we have carried out e.g. with the objects, my mind is second guessing whether what I am doing is 'correct' or whether I am getting it totally wrong.

 

In the chapter Grotowski Speaks at Hunter, Richards talks of how he learnt that with memorising either a structure of a piece or a piece of text (in his case a song), it should be memorised to the extent that the mind no longer has to think about it. If this is completed it will allow the body to take over also coinciding with our work on using text.

 

As well as trying to achieve a physical connection with the body and mind, Richards also expressed the importance of the voice and body becoming one entity in the chapter The Work at Botinaccio. This is another aspect which many people find difficult as it calls for the performer to be less self-conscious of the sounds made from their voice. We explored some of this body and voice work nearer the end of the first half of the course where we had two people diagonally across the space in an encounter with each other. Watching as a spectator it was evident that the members of the group that felt more comfortable ended up, knowingly or not, creating a character or personality resembling caricatures. When taking part I remember trying to concentrate on my breathing and trying to react on impulse with my partner rather than planning what I was going to do next. At this point it felt more comfortable letting go of the mind more than usual because we were performing with a partner so all of the attention was not on the individual but on the relationship between the two.

This chapter of the book also stressed the importance of not giving up too quickly on a piece before every avenue of the idea was exhausted. Richards demonstrated Grotowski's term for the 'touristic' artist going from one improvisation or first draft to the next, therefore never really exploring an idea in depth. If nothing else, this book makes the reader realise the patience required in creating and building in the rehearsal process to achieve the result of a successful piece.