Editor’s note: The first time I heard about Jerzy Grotowski was in 1963 when I received an article from James Hatch — a playwright and classmate of mine at the University of Iowa during the academic year 1957/58. Hatch, working in Cairo at the time, sent me Eugenio Barba’s account of Grotowski’s production of Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592). In his cover letter, Hatch noted something to the effect of, “You’re the only person I know crazy enough to appreciate this.” In our 1964 Marlowe issue, TDR published Barba’s “Doctor Faustus in Poland” (8:4). After that, many articles by and about Grotowski appeared in TDR. In 1986, the Polish master moved to Pontedera, Italy, to found and lead the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski. In 1996, recognizing the decisive quality of their relationship, Grotowski named Thomas Richards as coleader of the Workcenter. When Grotowski died in 1999, Richards continued to develop Grotowski’s notion of “Art as vehicle.” Alongside Richards, Mario Biagini explored the ramifications of Grotowski’s paratheatrical work. These two leaders, each in their own way, propelled Grotowski’s legacy into the 21st century. In January 2022, Richards announced the closing of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. Here, we publish his statement as well as two items by Biagini. An important episode in European and global performance has ended. What comes next in the Grotowski world?
— Richard Schechner31 January 2022Footnote 1
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic a time of international crisis has arrived. The National Theatre of Tuscany, primary funder of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, is not immune to this crisis. For some time, I have been aware that the National Theatre has had to make financial adjustments. With great respect for the Workcenter’s performing arts programs, they have resisted modifying their financial relation with us over the last two years. The directorship of the National Theatre has just informed me that in 2022 they wish to continue funding the performing arts path that I conduct, even though they will no longer be able to fund the expenses of our historic workspace at Le Vallicelle nor provide the continuous financial support in the same modality as before. They have proposed that their funding flow project by project, for which I am deeply grateful.
The call of the National Theatre to transform our relation initially seemed like a drawback, since one result will be that the Workcenter will no longer be able to sustain a large team of participants engaged in year-round formation. With further thought, I realized that this call for a new direction finds an accord with certain necessities that exist within. I will turn 60 this year, and am entering a new phase of life. As I strive to understand the inner callings of this phase, I encounter a need to reflect about the practice in which I have been engaged for the last 35 years, in order to have the chance to uncover its next steps.
Taking this into consideration, I wish to acknowledge as well the decision of my long-term colleague, Mario Biagini, to disconnect from the Workcenter and begin a process of work that is independent from it. I fully support his decision. In his recent text, he pointed out that in 2007 a kind of bifurcation of the river took place within the Workcenter; the river divided into two branches, one conducted by him and one by myself. Since then, with a decision to acknowledge his years of experience and creative autonomy, I no longer had direct contact in practice with the work he conducted, being a spectator principally at public and semi-public events, after which I would occasionally give him feedback. These branches have gradually taken distance from one another, and his statement that our works are developing in divergent directions and are oriented with different aims, I believe to be accurate.
For many years, a question has occupied me: How to sustain and develop what may be seen as a kind of tradition/research — a place of investigation where discoveries arise from continuous practice, and the inquiry is enriched by a distillation of practical knowledge — and at the same time, adjust to the incessant changes in one’s life and society that occur on so many levels? How to do so, and at the same time remain constant face to the practice’s objectives and processes? It has been quite some time since the passing of Jerzy Grotowski, my teacher and founder of the Workcenter. Over recent years, on occasion I have felt that the moment may have arrived to take distance from his name, as a natural recognition of the passage of time. However, a conflict has always existed in me regarding this potential course of action. I have felt, and still do feel, not only an enormous debt to him, but, a direct connection between what he “transmitted” to me and the work I conduct to this day. Also, as the years have passed, and as the Workcenter evolved into a rather large-scale artistic phenomenon, gaining momentum due to its successes on a number of levels, a drastic break never seemed wise or pertinent, despite the undeniable and growing complexities involved in dealing with its leadership; the Workcenter having become an artistic entity that for me had, in moments, begun to seem a little unwieldy. The present historical moment of multidimensional international crisis, the turmoil and upheaval that it is causing, as well as factors I mentioned above, have led the work to a point of inevitable transformation. I suppose that without fundamental change at this point, there will be no discovery of the needed path forward.
These considerations have led me to the conclusion that a cycle in my work has come to a close, and it is with these thoughts that I have come to the decision to close the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.
I would like to extend my immense gratitude to all of the artists who have participated at the Workcenter over the last 35 years: to Roberto Bacci, Carla Pollastrelli, and Luca Dini for their perseverance and dedication for so many years; to Fondazione Pontedera Teatro and to the Centro per la Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale for their precious support; to Gül Gürses for her extraordinary efforts in a defining period of our history; to Massimo Carotti who has with such commitment carried forward our administration; to Marco Giorgetti and Pier Paolo Pacini of the National Theatre of Tuscany who have shown earnest interest in our performing arts project since the founding of the National Theatre in 2015; to all the scholars who have paid such keen and constant attention to our work; to Mario Biagini, to whom I wish all the best for his new route; to the innumerable individuals who have helped in so many ways that the Workcenter could flourish even in times of difficulties; to all of our friends; and to audiences worldwide who have so graciously lent us their attention and support.
