I don’t know anyone else who can speak about the theatre with such precision, who could search like that and question both himself and us. She joined the Teatr 13 Rzędów (Theatre of the 13 Rows) in Opole in 1961 and collaborated with Jerzy Grotowski until 1968, with a break for nearly a year in 1964. I understood how important his thinking was: ‘a personal process which is not supported and expressed by a formal articulation and disciplined structuring […] will collapse in shapelessness’.An important point for me was that spontaneity and discipline are not mutually exclusive but rather the opposite, that ‘far from weakening each another, [they] mutually reinforce themselves’;There is a great temptation to quote Grotowski. Now, a new possibility emerges – to compose an étude of coiling oneself up. I left behind Kraków and my husband, Jerzy Tyszkiewicz, who was still studying law there. (Behind the Wall) because the screening had been organised especially for him.How did Grotowski address you? He was so surprised that his eyebrows went right up underneath his hat, under the skullcap he had on his head.And you had to keep the mask shaped like that; you couldn’t change it, from the beginning of the performance till the end. He wanted actors and audience to undergo an event wherein they might spiritually confront themselves. I remember that the floor on which we were walking was wet… it was extremely hard work… I will always remember this. Sometimes they were some distance from each other, as if poles apart. I remember a remark Jerzy Grotowski made when he was observing the exercises: ‘This is not being born, it is already ready’. Occasionally, Grotowski would ask those who had watched the étude what the story was about and whether they had understood it, and he would listen carefully to their answers. In this, the first of two parts, listeners will learn more about the work of revolutionary theatre director Jerzy Grotowski.This podcast aims to introduce listeners to the artists, scholars, and archivists who are working to bring the history of performance to life. You can listen to part two,Exploring the Work and Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski with the Stories from the Eastern West Podcast, Part 1.The Theatre History Podcast is proud to feature a two-part episode in partnership with Stories from the Eastern West, a fellow podcast that presents "little-known histories" from Central and Eastern Europe. It cannot exist if the actor conditions it according to the size of his part, his place in the performance, the day or kind of audience. I knew him from drama school in Kraków, as he’d also studied in the puppetry department; he was interested in photography and took beautiful pictures. He used to watch all the performances; he never missed any. Jerzy Grotowski was born August 11, 1933, in Rzeszow, Poland. For example, my head is tired and it would be great to lay it down somewhere to rest for a moment. But we also had to think about what would happen after this framing – how would we get out of this stillness? started. And I had to try to make sense of it all.Combining motherhood with work at the Teatr 13 Rzędów must have been extremely difficult, because even the rhythm of work in this group was very exhausting.Yes. We are wearing sacks full of holes with some pieces of plastic and heavy lace-up boots, prisoners’ boots.

I spoke about my experience of working at the Teatr Laboratorium. This stubbornness was necessary, because without it, I wouldn’t have been able to return to this group at all. But we also want to pay tribute to our biological selves, to what we might call physiological pleasures. Somebody has said that Jerzy Grotowski wanted you to cover your face with your hair because you were shapely and pretty….…well, I prefer not to think of it in that way; perhaps he wanted to bring something out of me of which I wasn’t aware? We prepared the costumes – sometimes someone would help with the washing and ironing, but in principle we did everything by ourselves. Only gradually did he agree to recording of “Actions” but would not allow any viewing unless he – or his close collaborator Thomas Richards - was himself present. Grotowski examined it, saw it, and it seems he needed such an experiment at that time. I think it was the right decision. At first, working on these scenes I had to provoke all these associations in myself, so that I was then able to translate them into a bodily language. What helped me? Those rehearsals of Jerzy Grotowski and Ryszard Cieślak together were the period when a new Ryszard was being born. Maja Komorowska is a well-known theatre and film actor, and pedagogue. It appeared that when I lay down comfortably, there was no expression in my body, even though I would try to find tension in my hands and legs. I went there with one suitcase and my wandering began. How do we do that? The decision was made by both of us [by Grotowski and me], as we both understood that I had to go and do ‘my own’ things. What did Jerzy Grotowski want to achieve with his "poor theatre" 8-4.
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Based on the example of the finger exercise, I’ll tell you what happened in the particular stages of movement. It was our idea – the youth of horses, their love and their growing old. Today, people often ask me why. Was it at all possible for an actor with a child to be in this group?