Thursday 11 June 2009

Gardzienice Ancient Theatre





Today I’d like to write a few words about “Gardzienice Theatre”. I’ am not an expert on a subject (far from that), but I had a wonderful experience in participating in one of Gardzienice Theatre events and it was incredible. Gardzienice were founded in 1977 by Włodzimierz Staniewski, who is one of the most important polish theatre directors. He worked out a new actor training method, which is considered as one of most significant methods of XX century.




The idea was to create theatre in a natural environment, with a huge of attention to detail and originality of ethnic expression.
Staniewski made impressive research on ancient culture, especially Greek. With his team he reconstructed the original songs that were being performed in ancient theatres of Greece. They did that by reconstructing original instruments and working on original pieces of text. There are some samples on Gardzienice web page.
http://gardzienice.art.pl/en/posluchaj2.html
In one of their performances they sang a song, which they had reconstructed and which wasn’t performed for 3000 years. Of course they had just few pieces of the original so, they sang just parts which survived and the rest they filled with silence (they paused singing leaving just reconstructed music). Whole performance was incredible and those silent moments just made it more impressive.





Another important element in this natural-eko theatre method is authenticity. Actors performing in Gardzienice live together in a commune, they are modest, and they are focused on training (moving and singing), meditation and self development. Effects are incredible. Every gesture of every actor is meaningful, carefully planned and so expressive! What’s very nice, before performance, Staniewski made a short briefing about the meaning of symbols and play, so such a layman like me could understand what’s going on? I’d like to encourage you to visit Gardzienice and their performances. All info is on their www page. www.gardzienice.art.pl . Do you enjoy theatre? What performances could you recommend?

5 comments:

  1. Difficult topic ;P
    I followed this link and I listened to one of the songs and… I don’t like it :)
    I prefer more natural and simple theatre where actors play in natural way.
    In general, I prefer cinema to theatre, but I like to see some performance from time to time.

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  2. I'm not an enthusiast of this way showing art. Telling the truth I do not remember when i last time was in theatre. But choosing this kind of theatre show or more traditional I would choose the second one.

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  3. I enjoy going to theatre from time to time.
    I prefer more dynamic plays though. Theatre presented in the topic looks interesting. I would like to see one of its plays.

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  4. I go to the theatre sometimes. When I have such an opportunity I try to get aquainted with new polish comedies. In general I prefer going to the cinema. I heard that the performances in Gardzienice are amazing, but I have never been there. I would like to go there.

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  5. I enjoy theatre as well as cinema, in theatre you have 'real' action and you can see exactly how actors do their work, it's great experience. Two months ago I was on "Upior w operze" in Roma theatre and it was great (except this uncomfortable seats;])!

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