Sixth Form Recommended Reading

“ We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are. ” Laurence Olivier

Towards a Poor Theatre by Jerzy Grotowski

Systems of Rehearsal by Shomit Mitter

The gap between theory and practice in rehearsal is wide. Many actors and directors apply theories without fully understanding them, and most accounts of rehearsal techniques fail to put the methods in context. Systems of Rehearsal is the first systematic appraisal of the three principal paradigms in which virtually all theatre work is conducted today - those developed by Stanislavsky, Brecht and Grotowski. The author compares each system to the work of the contemporary director who, says Mitter, is the Great Imitator of each of them: Peter Brook. The result is the most comprehensive introduction to modern theatre available.

Grotowski created the Theatre Laboratory in Opole, South-West Poland, in 1959. His work since then, with a small permanent company, became one of the most potent sources of information for modern actors and directors. This is a record of the ideas that motivated the work of the Theatre Laboratory, and of the company's methods and discoveries. In his Preface Peter Brook writes: "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no one else in the world, to my knowledge no one since Stanislavski, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply and completely as Grotowski." Grotowski's Theatre Laboratory Company was first seen in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival in 1968 and went on to international fame.