DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2022.1.37381

Abstract: This article reveals the basic techniques and approaches formed at the dawn of two important and relevant vector of interaction between theater and cultural anthropology in modern theater art, anthropological theater and theatrical anthropology. The goal of this research lies in the analysis of basic techniques and terms that emerged at the early stages of establishment of practical and theoretical approaches towards studying the ritual and theatrical forms. P. Brook's expeditions raised the question of the key elements of theatrical art. For achieving the result, the English the director and screenwriter used bodily techniques and work with space and objects existing in ritual forms. E.Barba, while working in Amazon jungle, resorted to the tactics of participant observer B. Malinowski. The technique of cultural exchange, which appeared in 1970s, is used by K. Kazimierzczuk and modern Polish anthropological theater. The methods of cultural anthropology underlies the formation and development of new ways of interaction and communication between the actors and audience. The experimental works of Peter Brook and Eugenio Barba of the 1970s are analyzed from the perspective of using the methods of cultural anthropology by stage directors. Anthropological theater and theatrical anthropology reveal to modern practitioners and theorists of theatrical art a wide variety of unique methods of work with corporeal nature of the actor, and become the foothold for the development of new relations between the actor-performer and viewer-copartner in performative practices and multicultural phenomena.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2021.8.36248

Abstract: This article explores the classical terms and concepts of cultural anthropology, which have found practical application in the performances, paratheatrical experiments and actions of the Polish experimental stage director Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) and collectives of the modern anthropological theater that continue the pursuits of Grotowski of the late XX century. The methods and terms of cultural (social) anthropology by A. van Gennep, V. Turner, M. Eliade, B. Malinowski and structural anthropology by C. Levi-Strauss give a better perspective on the specific terminological apparatus of Grotowski, unique practical discoveries of his works, and conceptual basis of theatrical anthropology as one of the paramount phenomena in the development of modern art. This article is first to discuss the problems of the emergence and formation of anthropological methodology as the framework for creating a scientific apparatus for understanding ritual-theatrical forms, as well as practical tool for artistic expression in the theatrical and paratheatrical experiments. Based on the fundamental works of the school of cultural anthropology, the author reveals the key terms of modern anthropological theater. As a result of studying the methods and approaches of cultural anthropology, the author determines the new unique technique of the modern Polish theater ensembles based not on the reconstruction of theatrical forms of the past, but rather reactualization of the mythological structures in the process of creating ritual-theatrical action.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2019.4.30347

Abstract: Visual anthropology is viewed from the perspective of usage of the dominants of corporeal apparatus of the actor within a film frame, as a script of archetypical images structured by the filmmaker, as well as individual corporeality of the actor. The article analyzes the roles of Fyodor Nikitin in F. Ermler’s films of the late 1920’s : Katka's Reinette Apples (1926 with E. Ioganson), The House in the Snow-Drifts (1927), The Parisian Cobbler (1927), Fragment of an Empire (1929). The author applies the method of cultural anthropology, leaning on the works of M. Bakhtin, M. Eliade, and C. Jung. The article is firs to touch upon the problem of creating a screen image based on the two independent from each other scripts: visual is created using the corporeal nature of the actor and film editing approach of the director, and has powerful influence on the emotions of the audience; the inner is based on the unique actorly nature and can be autonomous from the created by an actor image, reaches the level of personal sensible experience of an actor. Similar principles of the work of actor and film director were also used in the theatre of Jerzy Grotowski in the 1960’s, The author concludes that the key principles for creating the unique screen images that can become the basics for a modern film actor have already been formulated and developed.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2019.2.28862

Abstract: Paratheatrical experiences of the 1970s by Jerzy Grotowski boosted the development of anthropological theatre in modern Polish art. Based on the theory and methodological principles of cultural anthropology, in modern theatre studies, there are two equal terms: E. Barba's theoretical theatrical anthropology, which is based on the study of the body of an actor at the time of performance in European and Eastern theatrical forms, and J. Grotowski's practical anthropology, creating ritual actions in order to recreate the pre-theatrical forms of interaction between the actor and the viewer. The research methodology is based on the basic terminology of cultural and theatrical anthropology, a historical approach and comparative analysis are used. The brightest followers of a paratheatrical period of Grotowski work are searching for the new philosophy of space. In paratheatre, Grotowski himself relies on the concept of "memory of the place", creates a process of unity of an actor and a viewer-participant with the help of historical context of the place of action. In The Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices V. Staniewski attempts to create a unified place and time of action for the actor and the viewer with the help of reconstruction of the syncretic model of the performer's existence. In Chorea Theatre T. Rodowicz immerses the viewer-participant in the polemic space of discussion after the performance. "Wegajty" Theatre is as close as possible to the syncretic model of the complicity of the performer and viewer-participant through work with the fabric of the religious ritual in the space of the church. The modern Polish anthropological theater tries to prove and implement in practice a new way of participation of the performer and the viewer in the space of a single theatrical and ritual action by recreating the syncretical awareness.