Essays on being with – Residency at the Grotowski Institute

During the residency we explored ways of being with instead of being for. Being with ourselves, being with the audience, being with the people, being with each other.

How can we challenge the structures of society based on production and hierarchy through the performance space? Can we reshape the rehearsal process and the end result focusing on reciprocity? Can the performers and the audience share agency? What are the borders of freedom? Roles are based on rules? Can we create a space with the audience, a space which performs itself? What happens if we take a break if we do not follow the principle: “perform or else” in our daily life? Can we examine the origin of this principle together?

We’ve created an international working group with the aim to explore these questions by revisiting Jerzy Grotowski’s paratheatrical phase, the notion of “doing instead of acting” and Grotowski’s thought provoking sentence: “Looking for connection one should begin with disconnection”

The residency resulted in an event: bearing the same name.

THE PRESENTATION
Being with: waiting for the performance to start, cracking of a chair, coughing in the audience.

Essays on being with is a celebration of simple things, the exploration of the effect of simply being there.

Bodies sitting in chairs looking forward. Another body is standing on a platform in front of them. How do we read this situation? What makes us read it in a certain way? What if the audience is unsure where to sit? And the performer where to stand? And to sit or stand?
How does this uncertainty create situations, movement, rhythm and dance?

It is a constantly changing play where we are all players.

language: English
duration: 75-80 min

Creators:
Emma Elefánti, Bence Huszerl, Hili Baruch Stern, Sara Pollari, Balint Barabas Szigeti

notes: audience participation