Good morning!
The Polish theatre is built on an earthy, physical and searching pursuit of authentic and rich imagery and narrative. You can see the ease with which these actors threw themselves into the physicality of the workshop that this way of working is in the Polish DNA, and of course its one of the biggest influences on my work. It was exhilarating to find myself back at source.
So its no surprise that the director and actors at Arka were so generous in their welcome to me. On top of that Maciej and I haven't worked together for over 30 years, but I guess a common training at TAT and our practice history doesn't go away. However I rather shamefacedly had to admit that I was less than forthcoming in telling him anything about the detail of the workshop, whilst at the same time expecting him to translate on the hoof! It was only afterwards that I realised the assumption, when of course it had worked easily and well and history had done its job.
The workshop was broken into three sections, and focused for the first two on opening physically and establishing unbroken connection. I used my newly acquired Polish 'truth' stick and you can see some of the actors working in pairs with it.
After all the emotion access work, we moved on to the archetypes work, and explored access points to specific characters chosen by the actors. The work they produced was powerful and in the case of one pair profoundly moving.
The morning finished late at 1.30 and was followed by an exciting meeting with Renata about a transnational collaboration between the two Arcs. I won't say much about that here for the moment, but suffice it to say watch this space!
So back to old Blighty after an amazingly rich and creative trip, and a confirmation that my sense of connection to the soulfulness of Polish theatre is grounded in truth. I will now also be working on the preparation for my four day Soulful Actor workshop in London in August.
Art and poetry are teeming in this city, and I can't wait to return and to bring some of our Arc UK team with me.
Below is a short video snippet of the stick connection exercise.
I got in this morning at 1am from Wroclaw, and then very cleverly found that I had left my purse on the plane, only me! This presented me with a little bit of a challenge as all my cards, driving licence etc are safely tucked up in it. I had booked a cab but now I had no money to pay the cab driver. As it was so early in the morning I really didn't want to call anyone to pick me up so I talked to a couple of airport police officers who were having a coffee in Starbucks. Their guns were marginally off putting but they were helpful and a bit funny about the bureaucracy of the airport which would mean that even though I left it only twenty minutes before it would now be shipped off to some lost property office overnight. I deliberated on what best to do. I called the taxi driver back. 'Mad Mick' had already been waiting for me and gone home when I told him about my purse. The nice police officer suggested I call him back and ask if I could call on his mercy! I did, and he came straight back to pick me up on the understanding that when I recover my purse today I will pop into his office and pay him. I refer you to my earlier blog about little acts of kindness. Here was one in action - and it was a big one actually or I might have been destined to sleep at the airport! Thanks to Mad Mick for his generosity - if you ever need a cabbie in Bishop's Storford, call Associated cabs and ask for Mick.
The day had been long already, not least because we had been late the night before after a performance at Teatru Polski and a late night interesting time talking to some young Polish actors from the company.
And yesterday was the first outing for my 'Soulful Actor' workshop, which was exciting. Teatru Arka is nestled in a small court yard behind the larger Teatru Polski which has four spaces in the city. Arka is unusual in Poland, its an inclusive professional company of disabled and able bodied actors much like our excellent companies Graeae and Chicken Shed and to boot 35 of them are on the payroll. Imagine that? Their director Renata is a feisty and energetic woman of about 50 and has been running the company for 12 years. They are coming to Edinburgh for the festival in August.
We had a small upstairs room to work in, typically messy but warm and inviting. The focus of the workshop was on accessing emotion, maintaining open connection with each other in the space and the use of archetypes in character development.
The Polish theatre is built on an earthy, physical and searching pursuit of authentic and rich imagery and narrative. You can see the ease with which these actors threw themselves into the physicality of the workshop that this way of working is in the Polish DNA, and of course its one of the biggest influences on my work. It was exhilarating to find myself back at source.
Grotowski of course is the Grandaddy of Polish theatre along with other luminaries like Kantor, both of whom I have written blogs about before. And of course Grotowski's Laboratorium (Now Institute) has its home in Wroclaw, across the square from Arka. Indeed Maciej and I were reminiscing about our performances of Ulysses at the Lab in 1981. Some of the old guard actors still frequent the many bars on the square.
So its no surprise that the director and actors at Arka were so generous in their welcome to me. On top of that Maciej and I haven't worked together for over 30 years, but I guess a common training at TAT and our practice history doesn't go away. However I rather shamefacedly had to admit that I was less than forthcoming in telling him anything about the detail of the workshop, whilst at the same time expecting him to translate on the hoof! It was only afterwards that I realised the assumption, when of course it had worked easily and well and history had done its job.
The range of disability in the ensemble was wide including a number of people with learning difficulties and coupled with translating there may have been some apprehension. However when it comes to the work of imagination and soul in performance the shared language is deeper than any surface or structural differences.
The workshop was broken into three sections, and focused for the first two on opening physically and establishing unbroken connection. I used my newly acquired Polish 'truth' stick and you can see some of the actors working in pairs with it. After all the emotion access work, we moved on to the archetypes work, and explored access points to specific characters chosen by the actors. The work they produced was powerful and in the case of one pair profoundly moving.
The morning finished late at 1.30 and was followed by an exciting meeting with Renata about a transnational collaboration between the two Arcs. I won't say much about that here for the moment, but suffice it to say watch this space!
Art and poetry are teeming in this city, and I can't wait to return and to bring some of our Arc UK team with me.
Below is a short video snippet of the stick connection exercise.
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