Performer- with a capital letter is a man of action. He is not somebody who play another. He is a doer, a priest , a warrior: he is outside aesthetic genres.¹
Following the questions and thoughts present in Jerzy Grotowski’s text Performer, as well as those that have appeared on my personal path of exploration, I propose a work session that will allow you to confront the basic issues of the performer’s practice and shed light on the extremely important issue of working on yourself. The one indicated by Konstantin Stanisławski and then taken up by Jerzy Grotowski. Listening to his (Grotowski’s) searches, combining the baggage of my experiences both theatrical and those related to practicing and teaching Aikido, I invite everyone interested to travel together between the fascinating worlds of precise practices, the main goal and issue of which is the question of working on oneself, pushing boundaries, discovering possibilities, potential and shaping it by working on technique. As part of the workshop, I will propose exercises in the field of aikido basics, physical and vocal training, and those related to the so-called “internal martial arts” with an emphasis on focus, attention, mindfulness, relationship to space and partner / partners, lively responding to their impulses. Training, movement, breath, sound, voice, word, text, rhythm, timing, structures – these elements will be the right working environment. Through observation, provocation, confrontation and recognition, together with the participants, we will deconstruct both the above-mentioned functions and ourselves – to discover the potential of the body-mind instrument of both the performer and the warrior. We will check whether it is possible for these two functions to wake up, activate in one acting person. The key here is the concept of continuous, careful work on oneself, deepening awareness in action, which naturally refers to Stanisławski and his concept of the actor’s work on himself and the method of physical actions.
Przemysław Błaszczak