Slowiak James

(b. 1955), American director of Polish origin. He studied directing at the University of California, Irvine. In 1978 he co-founded the At Random Theatre Ensemble, which worked in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was one of its artistic directors until 1982. In 1983, he began collaborating with Grotowski as part of the Objective Drama project and was primarily involved as assistant director of work on Main Action. In 1986 he moved together with Grotowski to Italy. He worked at the Workcenter until 1988, initially leading the work of the ‘upstairs’ group before working individually with Grotowski. He was an ever-present companion on the trips Grotowski took to the United States in order to supervise the activities taking place within the framework of Objective Drama. In 1989, Slowiak returned to the United States in order to become director of that project. During this period he focused on developing performative structures that used hymns of the Shakers, an American ecstatic religious group. In 1992, together with Jairo Cuesta, he founded the New Word Performance Laboratory in Akron, Ohio. He still works as its artistic co-director and also directs the majority of its performances. Since 1989 he is Professor of Theatre at The University of Akron, where he has taught acting, directing, voice, movement, and contemporary theatre on both the graduate and undergraduate levels, educating several generations of students to the workof Jerzy Grotowski. In 2007, together with Jairo Cuesta, he published the book Jerzy Grotowski (Routledge Performance Practitioners series).