de fnt.ro
ACT Theatre
It’s been ten years since Jerzy Grotowski‘s death and 25 years since the legendary Laboratory Theater closed its doors. In 2009 UNESCO and the theatrical world celebrate The Grotowski Year, a series of events managed by Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw and major cultural centers in Poland, New York, Rome, Barcelona, Moscow and Paris.
Under the sign of The Grotowski Year, the Polish Institute in Bucharest and Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation, with support from the National Theater Festival and Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, organize a day dedicated to the great Polish theater man Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at ACT Theater.
Program
10 hrs. ACT Theater. In Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory colloquium.
Lectures:
George Banu (moderator): Brancusi and Grotowski, two modern “anti-moderns”
Leszek Kolankiewicz: The Alchemy of the Laboratory
Dariusz Kosinski: Grotowski and the Polish Theater of Transformation
George Banu, a prominent critic and theoretician, essayist and professor, is the author of many theatrical studies, of which the following were also published in Romanian: The Memory of Theater; Red and Gold; The Actor on the Traceless Path; The Cherry Orchard, Our Theater; Oblivion; The Last Quarter-Century in Theater; Peter Brook – Towards the Theater of Simple Forms; Man Seen from Behind. President of the International Association of Theater Critics, director of the Experimental Theater Academy, professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and Louvain la Neuve (Belgium), editor of important books dedicated to Jerzy Grotowski.
The great figures of the “stage revolution”, Craig and Grotowski, stand at both ends of the 20th century. As kindred spirits, they transformed theater and its thinking, rejecting the adoption of the “spirit of the time” and its consequent symptoms, expression or imperatives of modernity. They were the only ones with the courage to be radically “anti-modern”, and by this refusal – not reactionary, but unexpectedly productive – their originality was an inspiration throughout the century. The modernity of “anti-moderns” is the paradox of Craig and Grotowski in theater, one cultivated in sculpture by Brancusi. Their intransigently polemical stance allowed them to be “modern” without being “modern”. George Banu makes an analysis of this exemplary inversion.
Leszek Kolankiewicz is a theorist of culture, a specialist of theatrical anthropology, professor at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy in Warsaw, and Director of the Polish Culture Institute of the University of Warsaw. He collaborated with Jerzy Grotowski between 1973-1982 and edited the Polish edition of Towards a Poor Theater.
He published many books, among which Na drodze do kultury czynnej. O działalności Instytutu Grotowskiego. Teatr Laboratorium w latach 1970–1977 (The Road to Active Culture. On the Activity of the Grotowski Institute. Laboratory Theater between 1970–1977, Wrocław, 1978). He edited several writings by Jerzy Grotowski: Świat powinien być miejscem prawdy (The World Should Be A Place of Truth), Wędrowanie za Teatrem Źródeł (Following the Theater of Sources), Ćwiczenia (Exercises), Głos (The Voice), Hipoteza robocza (Working Hypothesis), O praktykowaniu romantyzmu (On the Practice of Romanticism), Odpowiedź Stanisławskiemu (Answer to Stanislavski), Teatr Źródeł (The Theater of Sources).
Grotowski named his theater Laboratory. Throughout his career, until the end of his life, he used very frequently terms that reminded of the laboratory specifics of artistic creation. But art is not science. Grotowski’s artistic laboratory resembled rather the alchemists’ laboratories, where ars magna was practiced. If Grotowski approached gnostic themes in his art, he did it like the alchemists of yore. This line of tradition will be presented in the lecture.
Dariusz Kosiński teaches at the Theater Department of the Faculty of Polish Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He published several books of theory and history of the actor’s art, and the essay Polski teatr przemiany (The Polish Theater of Transformation, Wrocław, 2007). Recently he published Grotowski. Przewodnik (Grotowski. A Guide, Wrocław, 2009). He contributes to Dialog magazine and is a member of the Scientific Council of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute in Warsaw.
The Polish Theater of Transformation is a specific Polish theatrical tradition originated in the thought and works of the Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz; it tends to use theater and its methods as tools of personal development and revolutionary transformation of the world. In theatrical practice, this tradition was embodied by Reduta Theater, to which Jerzy Grotowski makes a direct reference. In my lecture I present the fundamental characteristics of the Polish Theater of Transformation, emphasizing the aspects that create an important context in understanding the accomplishments of the creator of Laboratory Theater.
_____________
12.15 hrs. ACT Theater. Book launchings
Books published by Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation with support from the Polish Institute (series “Great Stage Directors”)
Peter Brook, With Grotowski, Theatre Is Just A Form, George Banu and Grzegorz Ziółkowski editors. Preface by George Banu. Translation by Anca Maniutiu, Eugen Wohl and Andreea Iacob.
Ryszard Cieślak, An Emblematic Actor of the 1960s, collective book coordinated by George Banu. Translation by Andreea Dumitru.
Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theater, 2nd edition. Translation by George Banu and Mirella Nedelcu-Patrueau.
Presented by: Jarosław GODUN, George BANU, Anca MĂNIUŢIU, Florica ICHIM
_____________
13 hrs. ACT Theater. Documentary film projection
“The Total Actor”. A Memory about Ryszard Cieślak (1937–1990), directed by Krzysztof Domagalik. Production of Polish Television, 1994. Duration: 66 min.
_____________
22 hrs. Elvira Popescu hall (French Institute). Documentary film projection
Jerzy Grotowski. A Portrait Attempt¸ directed by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. Production: Polish Television/ARTE, 1999. Duration: 58 min.
The Body Speaks, CBS, 1975.
_____________
Between October 30-November 20, the Polish Institute will host the exhibition: LABORATORY THEATER: HALF A CENTURY OF ACTIVITY (Półwiecze Teatru Laboratorium) on the exterior wall of the National Museum of Art in Bucharest on Calea Victoriei.
organised by the Polish Institute in Bucharest and Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation, with support from the National Theater Festival and Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw
It’s been ten years since Jerzy Grotowski‘s death and 25 years since the legendary Laboratory Theater closed its doors. In 2009 UNESCO and the theatrical world celebrate The Grotowski Year, a series of events managed by Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw and major cultural centers in Poland, New York, Rome, Barcelona, Moscow and Paris.
Under the sign of The Grotowski Year, the Polish Institute in Bucharest and Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation, with support from the National Theater Festival and Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, organize a day dedicated to the great Polish theater man Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at ACT Theater.
Program
10 hrs. ACT Theater. In Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory colloquium.
Lectures:
George Banu (moderator): Brancusi and Grotowski, two modern “anti-moderns”
Leszek Kolankiewicz: The Alchemy of the Laboratory
Dariusz Kosinski: Grotowski and the Polish Theater of Transformation
George Banu, a prominent critic and theoretician, essayist and professor, is the author of many theatrical studies, of which the following were also published in Romanian: The Memory of Theater; Red and Gold; The Actor on the Traceless Path; The Cherry Orchard, Our Theater; Oblivion; The Last Quarter-Century in Theater; Peter Brook – Towards the Theater of Simple Forms; Man Seen from Behind. President of the International Association of Theater Critics, director of the Experimental Theater Academy, professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and Louvain la Neuve (Belgium), editor of important books dedicated to Jerzy Grotowski.
The great figures of the “stage revolution”, Craig and Grotowski, stand at both ends of the 20th century. As kindred spirits, they transformed theater and its thinking, rejecting the adoption of the “spirit of the time” and its consequent symptoms, expression or imperatives of modernity. They were the only ones with the courage to be radically “anti-modern”, and by this refusal – not reactionary, but unexpectedly productive – their originality was an inspiration throughout the century. The modernity of “anti-moderns” is the paradox of Craig and Grotowski in theater, one cultivated in sculpture by Brancusi. Their intransigently polemical stance allowed them to be “modern” without being “modern”. George Banu makes an analysis of this exemplary inversion.
Leszek Kolankiewicz is a theorist of culture, a specialist of theatrical anthropology, professor at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy in Warsaw, and Director of the Polish Culture Institute of the University of Warsaw. He collaborated with Jerzy Grotowski between 1973-1982 and edited the Polish edition of Towards a Poor Theater.
He published many books, among which Na drodze do kultury czynnej. O działalności Instytutu Grotowskiego. Teatr Laboratorium w latach 1970–1977 (The Road to Active Culture. On the Activity of the Grotowski Institute. Laboratory Theater between 1970–1977, Wrocław, 1978). He edited several writings by Jerzy Grotowski: Świat powinien być miejscem prawdy (The World Should Be A Place of Truth), Wędrowanie za Teatrem Źródeł (Following the Theater of Sources), Ćwiczenia (Exercises), Głos (The Voice), Hipoteza robocza (Working Hypothesis), O praktykowaniu romantyzmu (On the Practice of Romanticism), Odpowiedź Stanisławskiemu (Answer to Stanislavski), Teatr Źródeł (The Theater of Sources).
Grotowski named his theater Laboratory. Throughout his career, until the end of his life, he used very frequently terms that reminded of the laboratory specifics of artistic creation. But art is not science. Grotowski’s artistic laboratory resembled rather the alchemists’ laboratories, where ars magna was practiced. If Grotowski approached gnostic themes in his art, he did it like the alchemists of yore. This line of tradition will be presented in the lecture.
Dariusz Kosiński teaches at the Theater Department of the Faculty of Polish Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He published several books of theory and history of the actor’s art, and the essay Polski teatr przemiany (The Polish Theater of Transformation, Wrocław, 2007). Recently he published Grotowski. Przewodnik (Grotowski. A Guide, Wrocław, 2009). He contributes to Dialog magazine and is a member of the Scientific Council of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute in Warsaw.
The Polish Theater of Transformation is a specific Polish theatrical tradition originated in the thought and works of the Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz; it tends to use theater and its methods as tools of personal development and revolutionary transformation of the world. In theatrical practice, this tradition was embodied by Reduta Theater, to which Jerzy Grotowski makes a direct reference. In my lecture I present the fundamental characteristics of the Polish Theater of Transformation, emphasizing the aspects that create an important context in understanding the accomplishments of the creator of Laboratory Theater.
_____________
12.15 hrs. ACT Theater. Book launchings
Books published by Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation with support from the Polish Institute (series “Great Stage Directors”)
Peter Brook, With Grotowski, Theatre Is Just A Form, George Banu and Grzegorz Ziółkowski editors. Preface by George Banu. Translation by Anca Maniutiu, Eugen Wohl and Andreea Iacob.
Ryszard Cieślak, An Emblematic Actor of the 1960s, collective book coordinated by George Banu. Translation by Andreea Dumitru.
Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theater, 2nd edition. Translation by George Banu and Mirella Nedelcu-Patrueau.
Presented by: Jarosław GODUN, George BANU, Anca MĂNIUŢIU, Florica ICHIM
_____________
13 hrs. ACT Theater. Documentary film projection
“The Total Actor”. A Memory about Ryszard Cieślak (1937–1990), directed by Krzysztof Domagalik. Production of Polish Television, 1994. Duration: 66 min.
_____________
22 hrs. Elvira Popescu hall (French Institute). Documentary film projection
Jerzy Grotowski. A Portrait Attempt¸ directed by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. Production: Polish Television/ARTE, 1999. Duration: 58 min.
The Body Speaks, CBS, 1975.
_____________
Between October 30-November 20, the Polish Institute will host the exhibition: LABORATORY THEATER: HALF A CENTURY OF ACTIVITY (Półwiecze Teatru Laboratorium) on the exterior wall of the National Museum of Art in Bucharest on Calea Victoriei.
organised by the Polish Institute in Bucharest and Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation, with support from the National Theater Festival and Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw
7 October 2010, Articles
Actorul Șerban Pavlu vorbește despre spectacolele În care Îl vedem În Festivalul Național de Teatru.
În trei spectacole din FNT joacă În această toamnă Șerban Pavlu: „Sunset Limited” (regia: Andrei și Andreea Grosu), „Cutia Pandorei” (regia: Felix Alexa) și „Creditul” (regia: Mihai Constantin).
Ce spune actorul că și-ar dori să nu rateze În Festival, ca spectator? „Sunt curios să văd generația nouă.”
INFO:
The Sunset Limited
de Cormac McCarthy
Traducerea: Ioana Pelehatăi
Distribuția:
Black: Richard Bovnoczki
White: Șerban Pavlu
Regia: Andrei & Andreea Grosu
Scenografia: Vladimir Turturică
Light Design: Andrei & Andreea Grosu
Durata: 1h 35 min (fără pauză)
Teatrul UNTEATRU, Bucureşti
„The Sunset Limited e o Întâlnire. O Întâlnire autentică. Plină de bucurie. E felul nostru de a ne deschide. E o poveste despre fragilitate și Îndrăzneală. E despre tine. Și despre noi. Netrucat. E despre cele mai Întunecate gânduri și despre cele mai gingașe Încercări. E despre iubire sau despre absenţa ei. E despre prietenie. E despre Dumnezeu. Sau nu. E despre toate astea și despre nimic din toate astea. Probabil e unul dintre cele mai intime spectacole care ti se pot Întâmpla. Atât de personal, că ţi se face frică. Sau nu. Sau dor. E despre doi oameni care au nevoie. Atât.
Aceasta nu este o prezentare a spectacolului. E puțin mai mult. E o confesiune. Curajoasă.” (Andrei și Andreea Grosu)
Fotografie din spectacolul „Sunset Limited”.