This writing is an account of the last workshop given by Zbigniew Cynkutis in the United States before he returned to his native Poland to form Drugie Studio (Second Studio) in the former Laboratory Theatre space. Material is from five transcribed audiocassettes of the workshop, from detailed notes I made at that time and from recollections by others and by myself. Although much has been written about Grotowski and the work of the Laboratory Theatre, I feel compelled to write this account because events that happened in this workshop are not documented or spoken of elsewhere. Another aspect of interest to theatre teachers and practitioners is how Cynkutis used this unique approach to explore the creation of a character as well as scenes and monologues from traditional theatrical texts, in this case, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.
Diane Edgecomb
Photo of Zbigniew Cynkutis by Marek Grotowski
What was the idea of theatre from the beginning? The idea was not to show to the people something like stories, but to provide them with food for their spirit, food for feelings, food for this life that we have inside of us.
~ Zbigniew Cynkutis, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 1984
Sound File link to Cynkutis improvising with animal association of bat. To accompany text of upcoming book: Source Work for Actors: a workshop intensive with Zbigniew Cynkutis of Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre
As I have worked on this writing over the years, Zbyszek’s words have accompanied my own process. While I was preparing my solo piece RESTRAINTS, I was listening through the recording where he was instructing us how to link an image to our text. He called upon us to, in his words, “attack an image.” What he said and the intention behind it followed me into the rehearsal space where I was to begin work on a section of text that had not yet revealed its secrets….
“We have, with determination and courage, to select a tool and to select a task to attack our image. Even if we don’t believe too much. But we have to attack, because if we do attack with our courage, if we try by our voice, or our movement to reach something which seems to be impossible to reach, not the moment in which we are trying is so important, but this energy which from this decision comes to our body and comes to our voice, later works for us.“
~ Zbigniew Cynkutis
