Polish Cultural Institute Press contact: Agata Grenda
350 Fifth Avenue, #4621 tel.212-239-7300, ext.3009
New York, NY 10118 email: a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
and
The Performance Studies Department,
Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
present
TRACING GROTOWSKI’S PATH:
YEAR OF GROTOWSKI IN NEW YORK
− from La MaMa E.T.C. to Lincoln Center Festival −
Celebrating the work and legacy of the revolutionary theatre director
Jerzy Grotowski
FEBRUARY 6 – JULY 13, 2009
Curator: Richard Schechner, NYU University Professor, TDR Editor
New York, January 22, 2009 – Tracing Grotowski’s Path: Year of Grotowski in New York is the first in-depth and extensive presentation in the U.S. of the innovations and influence of world-renowned Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski in all the phases of his artistic career. This broad spectrum of work is being presented through a variety of lectures, panels, films, and workshops organized by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Performance Studies Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The program, which runs from February 6 to July 13, will involve several prestigious institutions throughout New York City: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Performance Studies Studio, Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, Judson Memorial Church, La MaMa E.T.C., Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Lincoln Center Festival. And it will bring together some of the most important contemporary performance practitioners. These include early Grotowski collaborators, former Polish Laboratory Theatre actors, as well as theatre and performance scholars and historians from all around the world. By attending to aspects of Grotowski’s work usually overlooked or misrepresented, Tracing Grotowski’s Path will contribute to popular and scholarly discourses on one of the greatest artists and innovators of the 20th century.
The program will be enhanced by the exhibition Grotowski in Poland − The Photographs of Andrzej Paluchiewicz, presented from February 6 through March 20 in two locations: the Windows at the Kimmel Center, NYU andthe Riese Common Room at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Jerzy Grotowski from 1966 to 1976. He was not only an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre; but also the ensemble’s resident photographer. He is the author of some of the most iconic images of Grotowski and his collaborators.
The Year of Grotowski in New York Opening will take place Friday, February 6, 7:30 to 11:00 PM at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Cantor Film Center
The opening of the exhibition Grotowski in Poland − The Photographs of Andrzej Paluchiewicz will take place in the Riese Common Room, NYU Tisch Schoolof the Arts, 721 Broadway, on Friday, February 6, at 6:00 PM. The exhibition opening and reception is by invitation only. Press invitations:a.grenda@PolishCulture-NYC.org.
Detailed information for February events and an overview of the March-July program follow.
A Grotowski Chronology is attached and is also available at www.PolishCulture-NYC.org.
UNESCO has designated 2009 as “The Year of Grotowski” – 50 years after the founding of the Polish Laboratory Theatre and 10 after the death of the world-renowned Polish theatre director, master teacher, and, for many, a spiritual leader.
Considered one of the most important and influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century, JERZY GROTOWSKI revolutionized contemporary theatre. Beginning in 1959 with his early experiments in the Polish town of Opole and later with the Polish Laboratory Theatre in Wroclaw, Grotowski changed the way Western theatre practitioners and performance theorists conceive of the audience/actor relationship, theatre staging, and the craft of acting. This phase of his theatrical work, also called “poor theatre,” was the basis for one of the most influential theatre books of the 20th century: Towards a Poor Theatre (1968). After abandoning the “theatre of productions,” Grotowski continued to push the boundaries of conventional theatre, first in his paratheatrical work, and later in his performance research, which took him to India, Mexico, Haiti, and elsewhere, in search of the traditional performance practices of various cultures (Theatre of Sources, 1976-82). This work led Grotowski to his identification of particular abiding elements of ritual traditions (Objective Drama, 1983-86). In the final phase of his work Grotowski explored the far reaches of the performance continuum, which he traced from “Art as presentation” toward what has been called “Art as Vehicle.”
Tracing Grotowski’s Path: Year of Grotowski in New York is organized by the Polish Cultural Institute and the Performance Studies Department, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Curator: Richard Schechner, Associate Curator: Dominika Bennacer, Project Coordinator: Agata Grenda. Generous support for the program was granted by the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Italian Cultural Institute, New York.
FEBRUARY PROGRAM
(unless noted otherwise, all events are free and open to the public):
Exhibition: Grotowski in Poland – Photographs by Andrzej Paluchiewicz
Friday, February 6 – March 20, 2009
• Windows at the Kimmel Center, New York University (located on the exterior of the Kimmel Building)
La Guardia Place and West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012
• NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Riese Common Room, Ground Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Jerzy Grotowski from 1966 to 1976. He was not only an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre; he was also the ensemble’s resident photographer. He is the author of some of the most iconic images of Grotowski’s productions. Combining images of Grotowski’s work with more rarely seen photographs, this exhibition traces the trajectory of Grotowski’s work in Poland from the “Theatre of Productions” phase to the “Theatre of Sources” phase.
The Year of Grotowski in New York Opening: The Theatre of Thirteen Rows (1959) and The Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw (2009)
Friday, February 6, 2009, 7:30 – 11:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Cantor Film Center, New York University
36 East 8th Street, New York, New York 10003
This event brings together former literary director and co-founder of the Theatre of Thirteen Rows (later the Polish Laboratory Theatre), Ludwik Flaszen and the current directing team of the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland: Jaroslaw Fret and Grzegorz Ziolkowski. What brought the Polish Laboratory Theatre into existence? What was the Polish theatre scene like in those days of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain? What is the current work of the Grotowski Institute? How is the Institute preserving, researching, and using Grotowski’s archives and his Polish heritage? The panel discussion, moderated by Richard Schechner, will be preceded by a screening of a film on Jerzy Grotowski.
Ludwik Flaszen: Grotowski’s Devil’s Advocate
Sunday – Monday, February 8 – 9, 2009
Sunday 5:00 PM; Monday 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio, 6th Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Limited seating available. Please RSVP to yearofgrotowski@nyu.edu
At this intimate lecture-meeting, former literary director and co-founder of the Polish Laboratory Theatre, Ludwik Flaszen will speak about various practical, theoretical and historical aspects of Grotowski’s work from the perspective of his closest collaborator. In this cycle of lectures, Flaszen will address the mystifications and errors that have arisen in interpreting the early period of Grotowski’s work, and through personal testimony trace the trajectory of Grotowski’s development.
Actors of the Polish Laboratory Theatre:
Mieczyslaw Janowski and Andrzej Paluchiewicz
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Riese Common Room, Ground Floor
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Mieczyslaw Janowski worked in Grotowski’s Polish Laboratory Theatre for 8 years, playing in all their core productions. In 1999, he was honored by the President of Poland for his entire artistic work with the Golden Order of Merit. Andrzej Paluchiewicz worked with Grotowski for over a decade as an actor in the Polish Laboratory Theatre and as a participant in the paratheatrical work. The two actors will discuss daily life inside the Polish Laboratory Theatre – from rehearsals, role preparation, and performances, to what it was like to work with Grotowski then. Moderated by Dominika Bennacer. Q&A will follow
Grotowski and Maud Robart: Encountering Afro-Haitian Tradition
Thursday, February 19, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Screening Room 006
721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Maud Robart is an artist and master teacher whose lifelong investigations draw on her direct experience with the traditional practices of her native Haiti. She is the co-founder of the artistic group Saint-Soleil. Grotowski’s first encounter with Robart took place in 1977 in Haiti. She later became a co-creator of the “Theatre of Sources” project in Haiti and Poland from 1978 to 1980, which was conducted under Grotowski’s direction. Robart’s position is significant and unique in that she is the only collaborator who was involved in all of the post-theatrical phases of his research from “Theatre of Sources” to The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski. The discussion will be devoted to Grotowski’s initial encounter with the living Afro-Haitian tradition and his consequent long-term collaboration with Maud Robart. Moderated by Dominika Bennacer.
OVERVIEW: MARCH-JULY PROGRAM
Grotowski in the Americas
Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Work Demonstration by Taller de Investigacion Teatral UNAM – National University of Mexico
Friday, March 13, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio
Anthropocosmic Theatre Techniques: A Workshop by Taller de Investigacion Teatral – UNAM National University of Mexico
March 14 – 15, 2009, 10:00 AM – 1:30 PM
NYU Performance Studies Studio
Grotowski’s Influence on American Actor Training
Saturday, March 28, 2009, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Women in the Grotowski Diaspora: Training, Transmission, Creativity
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center
Grotowski in Communist Poland
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
The Way – A Workshop with Rena Mirecka
April 18 – 22, 2009
Judson Memorial Church
This workshop is not open to the public.
1967: Grotowski in New York, The First Encounter
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
La MaMa E.T.C., The Club
Grotowski and Kantor
Monday, May 4, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Paratheatre, Theatre of Sources, and Objective Drama
Friday, July 10, 2009, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
GROTOWSKI AND HIS LEGACY. A THREE-DAY EVENT AT LINCOLN CENTER
Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre and Theatre of Sources Period: Film Documentation
Saturday, July 11, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards: Film Documentation
Sunday, July 12, 2009, time TBA
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
The Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini: Grotowski’s Legacy and the Workcenter
Monday, July 13, 2009, 6:30 – 9:30 PM
Lincoln Center Festival
The Polish Cultural Institute, established in New York in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United Statesand Poland, both through American exposure to Poland’s cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts.
The Institute takes an active collaborative role in the organization, promotion, and actual production of a broad range of cultural events in theatre, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as BAM (Krum by TR Warszawa in BAM’s 2007 Next Wave Festival, which received aVillage Voice Obie Award), Art at St. Ann’s (TR Warszawa’s recent production of Macbeth), La MaMa E.T.C., Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, PEN World Voices Festival, Poetry Society of America, Yale University, and many more. PCI co-produced the off-Broadway run of Irena’s Vow, with Tovah Feldshuh, which will run on Broadway in 2009.
The Performance Studies Department at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU takes as its object of inquiry and instruction the whole range of performance from the aesthetic to the social, from popular entertainments to ritual, from law and medicine to business, from gender to the performances of everyday life. Students and faculty in the Performance Studies Department’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs explore the myriad ways that performances in many cultures and widely differing circumstances create meaning and identities while shaping social life and inhabiting the arts. In addition to its many courses, the Performance Studies Department is home to the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and two journals: TDR: The Journal of
Performance Studies and Women and Performance.
