The art of Playing

Workshop « Grotowski & Stanislavski: The art of Playing »

« Grotowski -Stanislavski: The art of playing » conducted by Ryszard Nieoczym is inspired by and a continuation of the theatre research of these two giants of 20thcentury theatre. The focus of the Workshop is to prepare the Player, to move from the workshop context into direct experience of playing in the theatre.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKSHOP
The Training Process: like all professional athletes, Players in the theatre must always return to the BASICS of organic physical actions in rhythm, voice, song and texts to constantly re-tune the body to enhance the playing .

For both Grotowski and Stanislavsky the fundamental research question was: What is meant by “organic impulse”?

In the later stages of his own creative process Stanislavski left behind all methodologies and began to search for “the elementary psychophysical and psychological laws of acting”. Grotowski’s path led him to state: “ours then is a via negativa – not a collection of skills but an eradication of blocks.”

For the Player there can never be a final product, a final technique; there is only process: the continual return to the source to find the “moment of truth”. Everyone must find his or her own way; there is no one way; there is no one method or technique. There is only how can I find my own way?

Finally, both Grotowski and Stanislavsky stressed the ethical dimension of the Player’s craft; to be true to one ’s self. Or as old Plotinus says:
“to thine own self be true
and as the day must follow the night
thou can’st not be false to any man.”

BIOGRAPHY
As a former student and then collaborator with Jerzy Grotowski for over 20 years in both his theatrical and paratheatrical projects, Ryszard Nieoczym has developed a unique process of work and play based primarily on creating a safe environment for the Player to discover and overcome his / her limits and to find ways to surpass them through direct experiences. (Praxis first, then theoria.) He calls this process sounding the depths of the performer’s psycho-physical body.