The Stanislavsky-Grotowski lineage: part I

ABSTRACT The connection between Konstantin Stanislavsky and Jerzy Grotowski is often overlooked or underplayed because there are substantial distinctions between them in terms of practices and approaches. In Part I of this essay, I examine Grotowski’s reflections on the significance of Stanislavsky’s final experiments for his own artistic research, I identify key points of connection between the Russian and Polish directors’ respective investigations of performance processes, and I foreground these convergences as particularly consequential in the context of the often-divergent genealogies of twentieth century theatre historiography. In Part II, I explore the implications of the Stanislavsky-Grotowski lineage for contemporary performance research in light of current explorations of embodied experience in neuroscience and phenomenology.