Interview with Adrian Lester: taekwondo and actor training

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Notes

1 A Korean martial art based on karate and northern Chinese martial art styles. All footnotes come from the editors.

2 A training hall in Korean martial arts.

3 A traditional Southern Chinese kung fu style.

4 A system of Japanese close combat.

5 The short shouts employed to strengthen attacking moves.

6 The largest of the three theatres at the National Theatre in London.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Allain

Paul Allain is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. He collaborated with the Gardzienice Theatre Association of Poland from 1989 to 1993 leading to his first book Gardzienice: Polish Theatre in Transition (1997). His research since has focused on actor training including Tadashi Suzuki and the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski. He has been a research consultant internationally and recently advised WAAPA in Perth, Western Australia on their research strategy. His latest project for Methuen Drama Bloomsbury’s Drama Online platform is ‘Physical Actor Training – an online A-Z’, containing over 60 films of training, supported by the website The Digital Performer. He wrote about the A-Z in an article in the TDPT special issue ‘Digital Training’ 10.2, 2019.

Grzegorz Ziółkowski

Grzegorz Ziółkowski is professor of theatre and performance at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Alongside his latest book, A Cruel Theatre of Self-Immolations: Contemporary Suicide Protests by Fire and Their Resonances in Culture (Routledge, 2020), he has published monographs in Polish on the work of Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski. He has also co-edited special issues of Polish Theatre Perspectives (Voices from Within), Performance Research (On Performatics), and Contemporary Theatre Review (Polish Theatre After 1989). From 2004–2009 he worked as Programme Director of the Grotowski Centre, later Grotowski Institute, in Wrocław. From 2012–2017 he directed theatre explorations in the framework of the Study ROSA and the Acting Techniques Intensive Seminar ATIS. He has practised Yang style taijiquan for more than 25 years. www.grzeg.home.amu.edu.pl.