Academy for Theatre Practices

Educational activity of the Centre for Theatre Practices 'Gardzienice' (OPT 'Gardzienice') .

started nearly from the beginning of its theatrical activity - in the early eighties
in Poland as well as abroad (work sessions
in Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy,
the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom). One of most prestigious and most fruitful were the work sessions that took place in 1991-93 at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in Columbia University and New York University in NY - USA (2001) and at the Meyerhold Centre in Moscow - Russia (2001).

In the years 1989-1995 the long-term project
of Courses for Theatre Instructors and Culture Animators addressed to the Polish students' societies was carried out. The participants
of the project took part in the international symposia and work sessions (in England and Ireland), in the Artistic-Research Expeditions (to Gotland, 1992, and Ukraine, 1991 and 1993), in the Gatherings. The didactic co-operation with the theatre and film directors, with actors, musicians, voice and movement instructors as well as the culture animators
and representatives of indigenous cultures from many countries from all over the World was set up.

The project turned to be very successful
and highly evaluated be the cultural entities. The graduates of the Courses continue their creative activities referring to the experiences they obtained in Gardzienice.

The OPT "Gardzienice" continues its educational activity in the framework of the Academy
for Theatre Practices which was created in 1997 on the initiative of Wlodzimierz Staniewski,
the founder and artistic director of the Centre. The Academy has a solid organisational structure and co-operates with
the international group of professionals.
It is organized under the patronage and with the financial support of the Polish Ministry
of Culture. The uniqueness of this undertaking lies in putting together the forces of repertoire, experimental and alternative theatre and the indigenous traditional cultures.
The Academy sessions are held once a month and last for 5-7 days
(during a two-year- course) in Gardzienice
and Lublin, as well as - in case of the festivals, symposia and Expeditions - in other parts
of the country and the World.
The co-ordinator of the Academy is Mariusz Golaj - a leading actor and co-organiser
of all the undertakings of OPT "Gardzienice" since the very beginning of its activity.

Aims of the program:

- teaching theatre by using elements
of traditional cultures;

Training Kung Fu, led by Nam Bui Ngoc, 2004

- mastering humanistic and spiritual values by working with word, music, movement, theatrical space, with the emphasis put
on the indigenous culture;

- cultivating and restoring what is archaic for the common universal heritage of humanity contained in ideas, in spirit and in matter;
it's impossible to create modernity without connection with the heritage; the genes
of culture are alike biological ones;

- building bridges between low and high culture, from this mixture what is most precious in culture was created;

Participants:

- selected from many Polish and foreign candidates representing different backgrounds; students of drama schools, humanistic faculties, actors, members of theatre groups;

Morning training

Morning training

- the aim is to create a good constellation
of people who would work together intensively for two years, starting with small theatre etudes, in order to end up their course with
a stage composition;

- musicality and partnership are the most important qualities expected from candidates.

Leaders:

- the members of the CTP "Gardzienice" : actors, singers, musicians;

work with Krzysztof Globisz

- the co-operates of the Centre; professionals, actors, directors, musicians: among them representatives and experts
on indigenous cultures - as well as academics working on the theory and history of theatre, aesthetics, art.

The Academy for Theatre Practices is based
on the artistic experience of the theatre 'Gardzienice' and develops along the lines
of the 'philosophy' of the company, which was set up in 1977. In 1979 Wlodzimierz Staniewski spoke about his vision of the theatre at the international ITI in Sofia :

I believe that if there is to be a truly new theatre, one rooted in life, then we ought to fight for something more basic, a new natural environment of the theatre. For the past two years this idea, this concept has served the 'Gardzienice' company [which I am a leader of] as the elementary principle. This new natural environment in our experience consists of:
- leaving the city, leaving not only the theatre building but also the city street,
- addressing oneself to people (the audience, consumer) who are undefiled by "routine behaviour", undefiled by inculcated and modelled reactions or a stereotyped scale of values and conventional scale of assessment,
- entering space that is unknown or that has been abandoned by the theatre.
By space, I do not mean yet another "closed circle", fortified by dry rules, rituals. I do not mean yet another stage. By space I mean an area and the substance of the land and the substance of the sky bound by that area. [...] My concern is that these substances become the living participants in the event.

'Gardzienice' have realised five performances: Gargantua and Pantagruel, Sorcery, The Life
of Archpriest Avvakum, Carmina Burana
and Metamorphoses. Each of them has its own history, its own life and developed its own, original theatre language. The process of creating every performance is based on
a long-lasting research: cultural ,historical
and philosophical, which refers pieces
of literature as a source of the performance.
This kind of long-lasting and focused way
of working brought as the result new and,
for each performance characteristic, kind
of training.

Actor Training lead by Jan Peszek

From the very beginning 'Gardzienice' stressed the importance of the training that now
is known as 'Gardzienice' training. It fulfilled many objectives being equally a study
of the state of body, as of the state of spirit
and psychic energy. It facilitated
the adjustment of human beings to each other within a group and created the basis for 'Gardzienice' acting. It became the origin of art.

The training based on spinal exercises has
a special importance, for it shapes
the movements of every actor and the group
- "the collective body". The effective utilisation of the source of strength located in the spine
is one of the most important achievements
of 'Gardzinice'. Spinal training, the basis
of which is mutuality, has a fundamental importance for the total formation of acting
in general, in a group or individual performance, and in the creation of an actor's attitude as an individual.
Voice training followed. It was inspired by various musical phenomena: the Lapp yoiking, the use of the voice in Korean Ku't, anti-phonic way of singing from Mount Athos, polyphonic way of singing in Ukraine and Balkan countries, "singing with the body".
The "night running" that starts every training session had a major significance. A group running in the dark creates particular energy and a group feeling of community with others; it broadens the field of perception, thoroughly transforms the relationship to the surrounding nature. The "night running" liberates a new energy of breathing which allows the actors
to do what is "impossible to achieve".

Actor Training lead by Philip Zarilli

Two original theatrical practices - Gatherings and Expeditions - have accompanied
the development of the training, becoming an integral part of the artistic life of 'Gardzienice'.
The aims of the Expeditions changed as the years passed. From the beginning the search for natural environment for theatre was linked with testing the reception of the performances (while Gatherings where organised) that had already been created and with finding the traces of past behaviour, flashes of which could be found in the use of gestures, in a clearly genuine emotion, or in the technique of using voice and the discoveries of the relics of dying cultures. The pieces that were found served later as material for the theatre.
It was becoming the basis for acting.
The Expeditions were a way of building the group - a school of co-operation and attitudes. They broadened the ability to perceive and, "thinking by landscape" emerging during the long hikes, became an initiation into
a pre-creative process.
In the beginning the Expeditions were organised every month - mainly to the eastern regions of Poland, where other traditions brought in by the Belo Russians, Gypsies
and Lemkos were alive. 'Gardzienice' have also gone abroad - to Italy, France, Lapland, Gotland, Ukraine, Egipt, the USA, Ireland
and to other countries.

Since the project of Academy for Theatre Practices emerged in the process of the development of 'Gardzienice' and is led by its artists, it is natural that the students become active participants of the work of the Centre and share the experience of 'Gardzienice' training with its emphasis on mutuality (partnership) and musicality.

The Academy for Theatre Practices is a unique form of teaching theatre that is understood as an outstanding human heritage opening mind to other people, other cultures and other dimensions.

The Academy organizes international projects:

Consortium for Theatre Practices
(in cooperation with "Double Edge" Theatre from USA) - the project aimed at students from the USA and East European countries;
Academy for Theatre Practices for German students.
Sessions took place in Gardzienice (1999, 2000, 2001), Germany (2000) and the USA (1999, 2000, 2001).