"Physical Theatre" - Part One

Physical Theatre. What is this? The term has become trendy in Academic circles and with people who are young or looking for alternatives to the status quo. To see it or hear it explained generally might be to hear it described as "movement based." But there is much, much, much, to unpack and to find if we are going to get at a more detailed and real answer. Let the fun begin. First of all, who do we have to thank (or curse) for this "concept?" Let's begin with Grotowski. When Grotowski returned to Poland after a year of study in Moscow, he held out the idea of a Studio Theatre with it's potential for power based squarely on the activities of the actors. In Grotowski's head also was Stanislavsky's ideas on Improvisation and Active Analysis. Now for Stanislavsky that work included the quest for the actor to return to actual and real biological function within or under the specific conditions of the stage. Mind you, that does not refer to or indicate a desire for a style of theatre, i.e. "realism" or "naturalism" but rather refers to what Stanislavsky knew was the central basis of theatrical art - the ability of the actor to literally process the fiction of the stage through his or her body and biological means, fully, expressively. Grotowski took Stanislavsky's notion of this, which in part was called the "Action" of the actor. And for Grotowski the work and the talk begin to be about "Physical Actions." His questions to himself and to his actors was what constitutes a "physical action," one that produces a real and true biological response in the actor (and in the spectator)? How could they produce them, how would they identify their authenticity? And then how could they arrange them logically in sequence? It came down to this - the actor must somehow experience or have a full-fledged biological event take place for them, feeling, sensing, aware, etc, and that in turn must alter or change the biological status of the spectator. The trick or danger for the actor was not to become completely manipulative to ones self - but rather allow that thing which Stanislavsky called Affective Memory and that thing called Creative Unconscious to come to fruition and to guide. If that happened, the action was lifted from the "mundane" and became "theatrical" or alive, with biological implications set in motion. Without human biological experience you have no event and no theatre. And so you now-a-days you might hear the phrase or saying "If it's not physical, it's not theatre." This is, or was originally, reference to this concept. -TO BE CONTINUED.