Gardzienice: Polish Theatre in Transition

Description

In 1977, the Gardzienice Theatre Association, an experimental theatre company, was founded in a tiny Polish village. It has become one of Poland's leading theatre groups. In this volume, the author describes and analyzes its performances, strenuous physical and vocal training, and anthropological fieldword amongst marginalized minorities. This is a detailed assessment of developments in Polish experimental theatre and its future.

Paul Allain is a lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London. As a movement director he has collaborated with Katie Mitchell for many years and has trained actors at the Royal Shakespeare and Royal National Theatre companies for productions including The Dybbuk, Ghosts, Rutherford and Sons, The Machine-Wreckers and Henry IV Part 3. His own company, Bodywork, had its premiere at Sadler's Wells' Mosaics Festival in 1996. Dr Allain is co-editor with Professor Vera Gottlieb of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Chekhov.

"A much needed in-depth study of one of the world's most important experimental and community-based performance groups. Allain situates Gardzienice both as part of Poland and as part of world theatre. Even as he tells Gardzienice's history and practices, he relates the work to contemporary performance theory and the intercultural performance movement."-Richard Schechner of Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and Editor of "The Drama Review "Allain successfully evokes the intensity of these producitons....[A] well-researched and authoritatively written study of a fascinating theatrical phenomenon."-Theatre Reseach International, Vol 24, No. 3 "Paul Allain is both an academic and a practitioner. This is a rare combination, and in writing about the Gardzienice Theatre Association he provides a sharp critical analysis with an insider's understanding of what it is to make theatre. As a director, I have been inspired by Gardzienice and welcome this illuminating account of their work. I am sure this book will inspire many others."-Katie Mitchell of Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Director of The Other Place