Within the atmosphere of the Laboratory Theatre, Grotowski attempted to develop confidence and comfort, which I can also see being cultivated in the environment of our movement. Grotowski suggested that the ripening of the actor requires a carefully constructed environment of intimacy within which the students are comfortably able to go to the limits and extremes of their physical exploration. It was under these conditions that the actor would achieve a sense of "rebirth and liberation"(98). Grotowski also stressed the importance of developing a strong relationship of trust between the trainer and the actor, which should not be perceived in a traditional sense but rather as "the revelation born of total acceptance of one human being by another" (99).

Grotowski talked of the actor as a prostitute (99). He further explained by suggesting that part of the actor’s craft required him to give himself to the audience completely. The actor was to present his most intimate essence of being though gesture, attitude, posses, and physical expressions (99). He/she was to make a gift of himself to the audience and all of the efforts should have been completely directed towards the spectator. Their every action on stage should have presented the actor's most intimate and authentic self, which is stripped down to its most honest expression and laid completely bare for the audience to receive (99).

Furthermore, within the Laboratory Theatre the focus was placed on the actors' training, which was personalized and centered on individual challenges. Due to the fact that every actor has individual physical obstacles - heaviness, awkwardness, a toneless voice - which limit their physical potential, they work on overcoming these obstacles by mastering exercises especially devised for their challenges (105).

According to Grotowski, the most desired attitude of the actor is non-voluntary or active, but rather a near passive readiness, where one "resigns from not doing something" instead of "wanting to do something" (17). I think that there might be a connection between this state of "passive readiness" and what we call "dynamic neutral." Upon complete mastery of certain practices they were combines with improvisation, which was considered to be another key tool for the actor (Temkine, 111). An example of an exercise practiced in the Laboratory Theatre is one where the students were instructed to choose an animal and attempt to express its physicality by employing the impulses of the body. They would be asked to include the voice or soft humming of the text (111). Throughout the execution of this exercise they were also instructed to avoid any means of traditional illustration of stereotypical behavior.

Within the Laboratory Theatre the training was mainly oriented in two directions. The first was centered on using the actor’s body as a means for all possibilities, and the second attempted to articulate the role through the employment of signs, thus providing the actor with a score (which is a composition of the role and a construction of form) (Grotowski, 17). These rhythmically articulated signs provided a formal articulation and a structure of the role. Grotowski suggested that this artificial composition would lead the actor to spiritual awareness and invite the audience to share this awareness (Temkine, 106). In composing the role as a system of signs, he hoped to demonstrate what was hidden behind the mask of human behavior (Grotowski, 17). This mask is also referred to as "common vision", which is a socially constructed code that dictates the limits for self-expression and only provides artificial methods of communication (17). He explained this by suggesting that during moment of extreme terror, joy, happiness, or anger; one begins to express him/her self through dance or song, and one does not act in the way that the society deems to be ‘natural’ (17). It is the spirit and the authenticity of those moments that Grotowski wanted to further explore. He wished to take away those aspects of "natural" behavior, or the socially constructed codes, which blocked the actor’s ability to give his whole self to the audience.

Vocal, plastic, and physical exercises were essential in the process of training because they allowed the actor to free his body and voice and further develop his/her instrument (17). The actor's technique was referred to as the trance, which was like a spiritual "trance-lumination", and a combination of the actor’s psychological and physical powers, which were derived from his most organic layers of being and his instincts (16). One of the most essential aspects if Grotowski’s training was the notion of evoking freedom of mind and body where there was no distraction or time-laps between inner impulse and outer reaction (16). The ideal would be where inter impulses immediately translated into outer reaction and all that the spectator whiteness is an organic sequence of one impulse transitioning into the next. Grotowski referred to this as "eradication of blocks via-negative" (17). Grotowski longed for his actors to eliminate all that created a barrier between impulse and outer reaction such as hesitation, self doubt, physical constraints, and emotional blocks (17).

Grotowski stated that "This work is something like a scientific investigation. We are trying to discover those objective laws which govern the expression of an individual" (Grotowski, 5). I believe that approaching actor training in this non-traditional, physically-oriented manner is quite revolutionary. I feel that Grotowski was very successful in providing the actor with a tangible and effective "method", even though he refused to label it as one. The techniques based on physical and vocal exploration allowed the actor to approach his/her instrument and craft in an authentic and organic fashion, which I feel is very necessary in a world comprised of artificial methods of communication and dishonest masks of human behavior. Grotowski created something unconventional and was able to successfully translate his theories into a practical form. Through the freeing of impulses, this form enables the actors to strip themselves of all that hinders the expression of their true being. I believe that there is significant merit in approaching actor training from this position. To be able to transform his vision into a practical form is rather admirable considering the fact that in the past many brilliant theatre theorists and directors have not been successful at doing so. Antonin Artaud for instance, had a very ambitious vision for of his own theatre; however, he was never able to translate this vision into a live form. Grotowski criticized Artaud for this very reason.

Works Cited

Grotowski, Jerzy. Towards a Poor Theatre. New York: Simon and Schuster,1968.

Temkine, Raymonde. Grotowski. New York: Avon Books, 1972.