Towards a Poor Theatre

In 1968, Jerzy Grotowski published his groundbreaking "Towards a Poor Theatre," a record of the theatrical investigations conducted at his experimental theater in Poland. This classic work on acting and performance is now available once again. In his preface to the original edition, Peter Brook wrote: "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 as Grotowski." More recently, Richard Schechner has called Grotowski "one of the four great directors of Western theater." Jerzy Grotowski was born in Poland in 1933. In 1982 he moved to the United States and worked at the University of California. He later moved to Italy, where he continued his unique and intense theatrical investigation. He died in 1999.

Chapter 1 Towards a Poor Theatre; Chapter 2 The Theatre's New Testament; Chapter 3 Theatre is an Encounter; Chapter 4 Akropolis: Treatment of the Text; Chapter 5 Dr Faustus: Textual Montage; Chapter 6 The Constant Prince; Chapter 7 He Wasn't Entirely Himself; Chapter 8 Methodical Exploration; Chapter 9 Actor's Training (1959-1962); Chapter 10 Actor's Training (1966); Chapter 11 The Actor's Technique; Chapter 12 Skara Speech; Chapter 13 American Encounter; Chapter 14 Statement of Principles;