| Into the Sound |
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Workshop led by Jaros³aw Fret and actors of Teatr ZAR Wed-Thu 23–24 October, 2pm–5pm Le Centquatre, 5 rue Curial, Paris, France Contact and application Please send your application form to Marie Magneron: marie@grotowski-institute.art.pl by 13 October 2013. The number of places is limited. Fee: 60 EUR The workshop will be conducted in English. In this two-day workshop we will work with different polyphonic traditions: Georgian, Corsican, Svan and Sardinian. The presented material will become a starting point for coordinating song and breath progression and for harmonic improvisation based on different scales. We believe that research into source techniques shapes the performer’s vocal identity, providing an answer to the question, “What kind of person your voice is?” Cultivating an ethos of ensemble work, Teatr ZAR develops productions through a long process of creating its own theatrical language, which draws on music from numerous traditions found in the East and West. The company is a multinational group that was formed during annual research expeditions to Georgia between 1999 and 2003. During these expeditions, they collected much musical material, including a core of centuries-old polyphonic songs that have their roots in the beginning of the human era and are probably the oldest forms of polyphony in the world. Zar is a name of funeral songs performed by the Svaneti tribe who inhabit the high regions of the Caucasus in north-west Georgia. Teatr ZAR attempts to demonstrate that theatre does not only relate to thea (Greek seeing) but it is something that above all should be heard. Performances are just part of a long process of research, expeditions, personal explorations and transformation. ZAR brings back theatre as it was before art ruptured into different disciplines and styles. Its work addresses themes that, in the contemporary world, seem to be reserved only for the religious domain. It comes from conviction, influenced by Polish Romantic ideas, that art is not only complementary to religion but can fill the dynamic chasm between the everyday and transcendent life. Juliusz Osterwa, one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Polish theatre who tried to put these ideas into practice – and one whose ideas had a great impact on Jerzy Grotowski – once wrote: “God created theatre for those for whom the church does not suffice.” More: www.teatrzar.art.pl Supported by the Minister of Culture and Cultural Heritage  |