{"id":2450,"date":"2016-03-21T23:59:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T03:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2016-03-21T23:59:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T03:59:04","slug":"embodiment-in-jerzy-grotowskis-poor-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/embodiment-in-jerzy-grotowskis-poor-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Embodiment in Jerzy Grotowski&#8217;s Poor Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The experimental Polish theater director, Jerzy Grotowski,\u00a0envisioned the body as a vessel for otherworldly spirits and for ancient traditions. Perhaps best known for organizing &#8220;happenings&#8221; in the 60s and for his disciple Andre Gregory&#8217;s appearance in\u00a0<em>My Dinner with Andre,\u00a0<\/em>Grotowski had a varied practice ranging from ritual to physical theater to performance art. In all of these forms, though, the body is a way to access things beyond the bounds of daily life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ksiaze-niezlomnynajcenniejsze-20.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2453\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2453\" src=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ksiaze-niezlomnynajcenniejsze-20-273x300.jpg\" alt=\"ksiaze-niezlomnynajcenniejsze-20\" width=\"273\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ksiaze-niezlomnynajcenniejsze-20-273x300.jpg 273w, https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ksiaze-niezlomnynajcenniejsze-20.jpg 546w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0558_1008w_7099h.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2451\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2451\" src=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0558_1008w_7099h-300x181.jpeg\" alt=\"0558_1008w_7099h\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0558_1008w_7099h-300x181.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0558_1008w_7099h-768x463.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0558_1008w_7099h.jpeg 1008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In his manifesto,\u00a0<em>Towards a Poor Theatre, <\/em>Grotowski compares the actor to a Christlike figure; the actor sacrifices their body\u00a0onstage\u00a0for the benefit an audience. In return, the body can capture intense states of emotion. In his work in physical theater, this meant channeling a character or an action. In his period making what he called\u00a0&#8220;art as a vehicle,&#8221; he hoped to capture spirits of ancestors and traditions\u00a0from a primitive past (as an antidote to the modern world).\u00a0Grotowski understood that motion contains emotion and that the body can contain\u00a0the spiritual in addition to the material. His vision of physical theater and of the performer&#8217;s sacrifice continues to inform many directors and performers (myself included).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jerzy_Grotowski.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2452\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2452\" src=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jerzy_Grotowski-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jerzy_Grotowski\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jerzy_Grotowski-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jerzy_Grotowski.jpg 238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The experimental Polish theater director, Jerzy Grotowski,\u00a0envisioned the body as a vessel for otherworldly spirits and for ancient traditions. Perhaps best known for organizing &#8220;happenings&#8221; in the 60s and for his disciple Andre Gregory&#8217;s appearance in\u00a0My Dinner with Andre,\u00a0Grotowski had a varied practice ranging from ritual to physical theater to performance art. In all of &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/embodiment-in-jerzy-grotowskis-poor-theater\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Embodiment in Jerzy Grotowski&#8217;s Poor Theater&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":938,"featured_media":2453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1002,1004,1001,23,365,1003,890],"coauthors":[372],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-embodied-knowledges","tag-art-as-a-vehicle","tag-happenings","tag-jerzy-grotowski","tag-performance","tag-performance-art","tag-poor-theater","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjsymuleski.com\/artofthemooc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}