Jerzy Growtoski

Born                     Jerzy Grotowski 11 August 1933 Rzeszów, Poland
Died                     14 January 1999 (aged 65) Pontedera, Tuscany, Italy
Occupation Theatre director
Alma mater Russian Academy of Theatre Arts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was an innovative theatre director and theorist whose approaches to acting training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. 
In his influential publication Towards a Poor Theatre (1968), Grotowski explained the focus of his work in the Laboratory Theatre and outlined the following agenda:

We are seeking to define what is distinctively theatre, what separates this activity from other categories of performance and spectacle…our productions are detailed investigations of the actor-audience relationship. (11-15)


His experiments investigated the suggestion that the actor is the core of theatre art and he used the term ‘poor theatre' to explain his desire to explore and utilise basic dramatic elements that could enhance communication between actors and audiences. Like the theorist Artaud, he noted that theatre has its own language and that this form of language is quite distinct from the words of a text. He argued that dramatic literature offered only a framework for actors' explorations of themselves and that theatre only had meaning if it could enable actors and audiences to transcend stereotyped visions and conventional or habitual behaviours and responses. In many ways, he saw theatre as a spiritual process that could enable the discovery of truth and compassion and he wrote that he hoped that his work would enable personal and social transformations. 

http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/siryan/academy/theatres/grotowski,%20jerzy.htm

Theatre - through the actor's technique, his art in which the living organism strives for higher motives - provides an opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of physical and mental reactions. This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a full awareness of the responsibilities it involves. Here we can see the theatre's therapeutic function for people in our present day civilization. It is true that the actor accomplishes this act, but he can only do so through an encounter with the spectator - intimately, visibly, not hiding behind a cameraman, wardrobe mistress, stage designer or make-up girl - in direct confrontation with him, and somehow " instead of" him. The actor's act - discarding half measures, revealing, opening up, emerging from himself as opposed to closing up - is an invitation to the spectator. This act could be compared to an act of the most deeply rooted, genuine love between two human beings - this is just a comparison since we can only refer to this "emergence from oneself" through analogy. This act, paradoxical and borderline, we call a total act. In our opinion it epitomizes the actor's deepest calling. 

- Jerzy Grotowski (19 June 2004). "Source Material on Jerzy Grotowski's Statement of Principles". Owen Daly. Retrieved 2008-09-18.


My thoughts: 

Looking into Grotowski I interpreted that his ideas were based around the skills of the actor and their abilities. I believe he wanted them to use what they knew to work instinctively and organically, not having to rely on costumes, prop, set etc.

I find that he wanted to explore the actors raw emotions and physical limits which from my view is good to help any actor, no matter what style of theatre is their preference. I find that by pushing limits, as an actor I then know how far I can go and then suit it to whatever I'm having to do, using elements in all performances and saving the extremes for when specifically needed.

I also found that Grotowski believes that theatre can make a difference to both the actors and audience, and to this I agree because I feel that we can address taboo subjects in an entertaining manner. This often effects the audience making them think and want to address the issue, because although TV and film can do this too, audiences often feel as though, through theatre they have an intensified personal connection with the actors because it seem they are witnessing it first hand and in the flesh, even though it may not be portrayed in a naturalistic way. Therefore much like Grotowski I think it is our duty, as actors, to help address the worlds issues, helping to create personal and social transformations.