Athol Fugard and Jerzy Grotowski

We continued looking at Fugard, but we also looked at Grotowski. Jerzy Grotowski supposedly influenced a great deal in Fugard's theories. Despite their different nationalities, they seem to have connections.
Here's a bit of information on Grotowski.

He was a polish director who worked with experimental theatre.
He had similarities with Artaud, believing that the actors should shock the audience to "[strip] away of the mask of everyday and revealing the innermost core" (quote from worksheet), meaning that fear will alert the audience and will make them forget their everyday lives and reveal their inner self.

Grotowski was also a minimalist. He believed that the actor should not have any help (such as make-up, costume etc) in developing a character. The costumes were not to reflect the character, but rather the set. He believed that the actors should use their own body and skill to create a character.
With this, Grotowski developed the Poor Theatre.
Poor in the sense that there were no tricks in the theatre but rather just the actor revealing the character.

He also developed The Holy Actor, which was an actor who does exactly what he believed; an actor who does not rely on tricks and depends only on their skills and creativity.

Although Grotowski had activities to train actors, he rather have the actor think on their own, and create a character with their own creativity.


Fugard first thought that the actors should have to use their creativity and on stage, the actor should "[fill] and [define it] by movement and gesture." He also did not have the script be the main part of the play, but rather the actor (which is very opposed to Brecht's ideas).
However, after his encounter with Grotowski's work, he took out the text of his plays, and based it on just improvisations.
They always had a stimulus, which was often a photograph, and this was how Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act was created.