Jerzy Grotowski focused on the elimination of unnecessary movement, often referred to superfluous movement, as Grotowski believed that the theatre had become too infected with extravagant costume, makeup, acting and staging he states, “theatre can exist without make-up, without autonomic costume and scenography […] without lighting and sound effects” (Grotowski, 1968, 19).
The relationship between the actor and the audience was also key in Grotowski’s methodology, he further states “our productions are detailed investigations of the actor-audience relationship” (Grotowski, 1986, 15). Grotowski believed theatre at the time did not focus on building a relationship and therefore created theatre that included the audience more.
I tried to make sure that the scenes in which I choreographed help develop the actor -audience, I did this by getting the actors Oliver Samuals and Eden Shortt for the ‘Catholic vs. Church of England’ verbatim scene to connect to their character. By having the actors connect to their characters and their characters relationship to each other, they would enable to audience to also connect to the scene and its theme as Grotowski stated, “we consider the personal and scenic technique of the actor as the core of theatre art” (Grotowski, 1986, 15). Therefore, to create good theatre one must remember the actor’s technique is on trial and to develop the scene the acting technique must be at a high standard.
For the opening number, I choreographed it to have the most movement in the centre to entertain the audience through the physicality whilst also making sure the actors are able to be physical whilst singing. I had been told by the writers that the ‘I Want Song’ is to replicate children and then at the end of the song they are in secondary school and so I tried to illustrate this through the movements. I took inspiration from musical numbers such as “Hairspray” (2002) with the bigger and move fluid movements were being used, acknowledging the melodramatic acting and this is what I aimed to do. By implementing larger movement directed towards the audience I was trying to have the actors play with their movements and for them to inject life and energy to the opening scene. Therefore, by having the actors play I was implementing a part of Grotowski, “[…] infinite variation of performer-audience relationships is possible. The actors can play among the spectators, directly contacting the audience and giving it a passive role in drama” (Grotowski, 1986, 20).
Work cited:
Grotowski, J. (1986) Towards a Poor Theatre. London: Methuen London Ltd.