Assignment 1: Task 4

Promenade and Immersive

Promenade Theatre is when the audience stands or follows the actors around through their performance. This type of theatre is used to get the audience involved in what is happening it is mainly seen in tour like performances. 

Immersive Theatre is when the audience participates in the action of the story, by either speaking some of the lines or influencing the outcome of the story. This again gets the audience involved by allowing them to converse with the actors and interact with their surroundings and breaks the 4th wall.

The Globe research / Performance

-Refer to The Globe Project Blog - 

Jerzy Grotowski

Early Life / Introduction to him

Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director and theoretician, educator, creator of acting methods. He is considered to have been one of the greatest reformers of the 20th century. He graduated with a degree in acting in 1955 to which he then went on to study directing in Moscow between 1955-1956. That is where he learnt about different acting techniques and artistic approaches. He later returned to Poland to where he got a job as an assistant professorship at a school theatre between 1956-1960. He debuted as a director in 1957. 

Poor Theatre

In 1965 Grotowski published a sketch titled 'Ku teatrowi ubogiemu' (towards a Poor Theatre) which later became a book. Grotowski saw poor theatre as a way to express the value of an actors body and its relation with the spectator and do away with costumes, décor and music. Grotowski didn't believe in theatre attempting to match the spectacle and effects of film and television he believed it relied more on the element of the relationship between actor and spectator. He didn't want the lavish costumes or the detailed sets he just wanted the actors skill and only a handful of props. 

Relating to Halloween Project

Grotowski's poor theatre theory links in with our Halloween project at The Globe because we didn't go over the top with outfits since the majority of outfits were casual wear or suits and dresses, there was only a handful of props as well like for example me and Will for our vaudeville scene we just had umbrellas and small top hats, the Lion tamer had a whip and some hoops and so on. This also links into getting the actors involved in the performance as it was a tour, so the audience were fine to get involved and ask questions when getting took around. Our Globe piece was also a bit of promenade and immersive theatre, it links to promenade theatre since we got the audience standing and following us around and it also links to immersive theatre since we broke that 4th wall by answering questions that the audience asked.