Teksty z lat 1965–1969 (Texts: 1965–1969)

the first authorised book published in Poland containing selected texts by Jerzy Grotowski, issued for the first time in 1989, with an amended second edition that gained the author’s full acceptance coming in 1990 (the third edition of 1999 was an exact re-issue of the second edition). The book was edited by Janusz Degler and Zbigniew Osiński, who collaborated closely with Grotowski. The editors’ initial objective was to publish a Polish translation of Towards a Poor Theatre, an idea for which Grotowski did not, however, grant assent, although he proposed issuing a selection of texts instead. In effect, he prepared for Polish readers a new, re-constructed and up-to-date publication which provided both information and inspiration, thus having an impact similar to that which Towards a Poor Theatre had had around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. The fundamental core of the book comprises Grotowski’s texts from the 1960s which had already appeared in the Polish press, some of them in versions different to those that appeared in Towards a Poor Theatre (the texts ‘Towards a Poor Theatre’, ‘Aktor ogołocony’ [The actor stripped bare], ‘He Wasn’t Entirely Himself’ and ‘Actor’s Training’), while others were replaced with the full versions from the earlier book (‘Teatr Laboratorium 13 Rzędów’ [Laboratory Theatre of 13 Rows], Teatr a rytuał [Theatre and ritual],‘Ćwiczenia’ [Exercises],‘Głos’ [Voice] and ‘Reply to Stanislavsky’ – these last three texts were edited and submitted for publication by Leszek Kolankiewicz in the 1970s). The book’s Appendix was a separate section and included articles by other authors about Grotowski in which they presented his achievements after 1969 (two reviews of Apocalypsis cum Figuris by Konstanty Puzyna, Tadeusz Burzyński’s text ‘Grotowski – wielkość nieurojona’ [Grotowski: A non-delusional greatness] and Zbigniew Osiński’s outline of Grotowski’s activities after 1983). The entire book was topped off by the first authorised Polish translation of ‘Performer’. The book’s composition ensures it is a coherent and expressive volume which also serves to demonstrate how Grotowski wanted to be perceived in Poland at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s.