AMU-PIE

POLISH EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

Prof. Grzegorz Ziółkowski Teacher Drama, Theatre and Performance Department AMU [email protected]

Hours 20

ECTS 4

Theatre Studio, Collegium Maius, 10 Fredry street, entrance from the library hall Place behind the main building (with a big dome), from small Kowalczyka lane

The course focuses on the most influential contemporary Polish theatre directors who centered their work on performer, as well as on their achievements corresponding with other aspects of theatrical event. Among those whose Course experimental work will be presented and contextualized there are: Jerzy Grotowski, description , Włodzimierz Staniewski, and . Also the work of Polish ensemble theatres from the alternative theatre movement (such as the Poznan- based Theatre of the Eight Day) and the outcomes of younger generation of theatre directors (e.g. ) will be discussed and interpreted.

• To provide students with knowledge on tradition of experiments in Polish theatre; • To map the post-war Polish theatre and put it in historical, social and cultural contexts; Module aims • To present and interpret the work of major figures and the key ensembles in the post-war experimental theatre in . • To improve students’ ability to reflect on the artistic and the social categories regarding Polish theatre in its postwar period.

This course may be regarded as a theoretical supplement to and a contextual frame Pre-requisites for the practical, parallel course ‘Acting Craft in Polish Theatre’ so it is recommended (but not mandatory) to participate also in the other course.

Attendance is required. Students who miss more than two classes (except for illness Assessment or other serious matters) will not be assessed. Students are assessed on the basis of criteria a test at the end of the course.

Programme

Week 1 Tradition of experiments in Polish theatre

Week 2 Mapping post-war Polish theatre in historical, social and cultural context

‘Does theatre need a laboratory?’ Week 3 Presentation on Jerzy Grotowski’s (1933-1999) work in the Laboratory Theatre

Towards the ‘art as vehicle’ Week 4 Focus on Grotowski’s explorations beyond theatre

‘Theatre of Death’ Week 5 Presentation on Tadeusz Kantor’s (1915-1990) work with his Cricot 2 theatre

Week 6 ‘Practicing the humanities’ Lecture on Włodzimierz Staniewski’s (1950-) work in the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice

Tradition of Gardzienice Week 7 Song of the Goat Company, Węgajty Village Theatre, Schola of Theatre Węgajty, Chorea Theatre Association

Polish alternative theatres Week 8 Theatre of the Eighth Day, Travel Agency Theatre, Kana Theatre

Utopia of laboratory Week 9 Krystian Lupa and the next generation of theatre artists (among them Krzysztof Warlikowski)

Week 10 Test

1. Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre, edited by Eugenio Barba, Holstebro: Odin Teatrets Forlag, 1968. 2. Tadeusz Kantor, A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944–1990, ed. and trans. Michal Kobialka (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993). 3. Włodzimierz Staniewski and Alison Hodge, Hidden Territories: the Theatre of Reading list Gardzienice, London and New York: Routledge, 2003. 4. Krzysztof Pleśniarowicz, The Dead Memory Machine: Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre of Death, trans. William Brand (Kraków: Cricoteka, 1994); new editon: Aberystwyth: Black Mountain Press, 2008). 5. Peter Brook, With Grotowski: Theatre is Just a Form, edited by Georges Banu and Grzegorz Ziółkowski with Paul Allain, Wrocław: Grotowski Institute, 2009.