In late May and early June 1959, Jerzy Grotowski became artistic director of Opole’s Theatre of 13 Rows, with Ludwik Flaszen as dramaturge. The small venue became a base for a “laboratory” approach, treating productions as experiments to reshape acting and the actor–spectator relationship. This leadership change set the conditions for what later became known as Poor Theatre.
On 8 October 1959, the Theatre of 13 Rows under Grotowski’s new management opened with Orpheus (after Jean Cocteau). The early Opole productions mixed provocation and formal experimentation, as the company searched for methods that could later support a stripped-down theatre centered on the actor. This launch marks the start of the 1959–1964 “Opole phase” that built the group’s working discipline.
Kordian was first performed publicly on 14 February 1962 (after a closed premiere on 13 February). The staging placed the drama inside a mental institution, signaling Grotowski’s turn toward psychological and physical precision rather than decorative realism. It also shows how classic texts were being reworked as vehicles for actor training and new performance structure.
On 1 March 1962, the group changed its name to the Laboratory-Theatre of “13 Rows.” The change made the idea explicit: daily training and research into acting were becoming as important as public performances. This naming shift helped frame the ensemble’s work as a systematic investigation of technique, not just a repertory theatre.
On 10 October 1962, Grotowski premiered Akropolis, a reimagining of Wyspiański’s text that relocated its action into a concentration-camp reality. The production became a key step toward Poor Theatre by relying on disciplined bodies, voices, and minimal objects rather than illusionistic scenery. It also triggered more intensive daily training as a permanent feature of the company’s work.
On 23 April 1963, the Laboratory Theatre premiered The Tragical History of Dr Faustus (Marlowe), the first Polish staging of the play. Grotowski radically re-edited the text and shaped action through tight actor coordination and controlled intensity. This production further clarified the company’s direction: the actor’s craft and live encounter were the core “materials” of theatre.
Studium o Hamlecie (Hamlet Study) was first presented on 17 March 1964. The piece used the idea of villagers attempting to stage Hamlet, exposing tensions between “outsider” and community and pushing Grotowski’s social and political subtext closer to the surface. It was performed only a small number of times, becoming an important transition toward the later, more mature laboratory productions.
Under growing local pressure and limited working conditions, the company moved to Wrocław in early 1965. On 2 January 1965 the ensemble transferred and adopted the name Laboratory Theatre of 13 Rows – Institute for the Studies of the Method of Acting. The new home enabled more stable research conditions and helped turn the group into an internationally visible center for experimental theatre.
The closed premiere of The Constant Prince occurred on 20 April 1965, followed by the public premiere on 25 April 1965. Built from rigorously composed physical and vocal actions, the production became one of the most famous examples of Grotowski’s approach to the actor’s “total act” (complete commitment in performance). International touring soon made the Laboratory Theatre a reference point for postwar avant-garde theatre.
In August 1968, Odin Teatrets Forlag published Towards a Poor Theatre, a widely read collection of texts and documentation connected to the Laboratory Theatre’s work. The book helped define “Poor Theatre” as an approach that removes non-essential elements so the actor–spectator encounter becomes central. By spreading Grotowski’s ideas beyond Poland, it strongly shaped experimental theatre training and theory internationally.
After long development, Apocalypsis cum figuris had its official public premiere on 11 February 1969 (following earlier closed performances in 1968). Often described as Grotowski’s last theatre production, it pushed the actor’s presence and the spectator’s proximity to an extreme, minimizing theatrical “display.” The work became a turning point that led Grotowski toward declaring a withdrawal from making new productions.
In 1970, Grotowski articulated Święto (Holiday: The Day That Is Holy), arguing that conventional theatre terms and structures were exhausted for his purposes. The manifesto proposed events focused on direct encounter, suspension of everyday social roles, and participation rather than spectatorship. This helped set the framework for the paratheatre period, where the group tested “post-theatrical” forms.
Beginning in 1973, the Laboratory Theatre used the label “Special Project” for intensive paratheatrical activities connected to the Holiday idea. These events aimed to remove the audience–performer split and blur rehearsal, action, and daily life within an isolated time and place. The work broadened participation beyond the company, but it also raised practical limits about scale, safety, and artistic focus.
In summer 1977, collaborators led by Jacek Zmysłowski carried out the multi-phase Mountain Project, built around a “fluid” sequence of actions and guided travel. The project was first announced earlier in 1975, showing how paratheatre was moving toward longer processes and open-ended structures. This phase helped prepare the shift away from paratheatre toward a new question: what “sources” underlie performance traditions across cultures?
From 4–7 June 1978, Grotowski publicly revealed the Theatre of Sources during an international symposium in Warsaw and Grzegorzewice. The project explored “source” practices—living traditions and pre-technique elements—without trying to fuse them into a single style. This marked a clear transition from paratheatre’s mass participation toward focused research with selected participants and masters of traditions.
In 1983, Grotowski launched Objective Drama in the United States, hosted by the University of California, Irvine as a focused research program. The project continued the “sources” direction by testing performative actions and traditional materials under controlled research conditions, rather than producing public theatre in the usual sense. It also positioned his later work within academic and laboratory-like frameworks outside Poland.
From 12 June to 12 August 1985, a two-month practical session in Botinaccio inaugurated the activities that led to a permanent center of work in Italy. This step created a stable base for long-term research, shifting from touring and large events toward sustained, private practice. It also set up the next stage of Grotowski’s legacy: an institution designed to carry the work forward through collaborators.
Jerzy Grotowski and the Poor Theatre (1959–1985)