Ch.27 Statement of Principles (Jerzy Grotowski, 1968) [P.217-224]

1. P.217 The rhythm of life in modern civilization is characterized by pace, tension, a feeling of doom, the wish to hide our personal motives and the assumption of a variety of roles and masks in life...Theatre provides an opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of physical and mental reactions. This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a full awareness of the responsibilities it involves.
2. P.218 Why do we sacrifice so much energy to our art? ... to learn to break down the barriers which surround us and to free ourselves from the breaks which hold us back, from the lies about ourselves which we manufacture daily for ourselves and for others; to destroy the limitations caused by our ignorance and lack of courage; in short, to fill the emptiness in us; to fulfill ourselves...Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light. {About art}
3. Art cannot be bound by the laws of common morality or any catechism. The actor, at least in part, is creator, model and creation rolled into one. He must not be shameless as that leads to exhibitionism...P.219 The actor must not illustrate but accomplish an 'act of the soul' by means of his own organism. {Actors}
4. The producer, while guiding and inspiring the actor, must at the same time allow himself to be guided and inspired by him.
5. An act of creation has nothing to do with either external comfort or conventional human civility; that is to say, working conditions in which everybody is happy.It demands a maximum of silence and a minimum of words...P.220 An actor has no right to mould his partner so as to provide greater possibilities for his own performance. Nor has he the right to correct his partner unless authorized by the work leader.
6. We must never exploit (利用...而自肥) privately anything connected with the creative act...our awareness and experience tell us that lack of strict adherence to such rules causes the actor's score to become deprived of its psychic motives and 'radiance'.
7. Order and harmony in the work of each actor are essential conditions without which a creative act cannot take place. Here we demand consistency. We demand it from the actors who come to the theatre consciously to try themselves out in something extreme, a sort of challenge seeking a total response from every one of us...P.221 The rule here is not just one's compulsory presence in the place of work, but physical readiness to create. {Actor}
8. Creativity, especially where acting is concerned, is boundless sincerity, yet disciplined: i.e. articulated through signs. The creator should not therefore find his material a barrier in this respect. And as the actor's material is his own body, it should be trained to obey, to be pliable (有適應性的), to respond passively to psychic impulses as if it did not exist during the moment of creation - by which we mean it does not offer any resistance. {relationship between actor and his body}
9. P.222 The main point then is that an actor should not try to acquire any kind of recipe or build up a 'box of tricks'...The actor's first duty is to grasp the fact that nobody here wants to give him anything; instead they plan to take a lot form him, to take away that to which he is usually very attached: his resistance...his habits and even his usual 'good manners.' {Actor}
10. Before an actor is able to achieve a total act he has to fulfil a number of requirements...It is easier, however, to define conditions under which a total act cannot be achieved and which of the actor's actions make it impossible...This act cannot exist if the actor is more concerned with charm, personal success...than with creation as understood in its highest form. {Actor}

Grotowski, Jerzy. (1968) ‘Statement of Principles’ in The Twentieth Century Performance Reader 2nd Edition . ed Huxley, Michael, and Noel Witts. New York: Routledge, 2002, (P.217 – 224).

Grotowski, Jerzy. ‘Statement of Principles’ in Towards a Poor Theatre. ed Eugenio Barba. London: Methuen Books, 1968, (P.211-218).