Stumbling around Polish Theatre with Katie Mitchell: A Personal Reflection

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Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.

Notes

1. Paul Allain, Gardzienice: Polish Theatre in Transition (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997).

2. Gabriella Giannachi and Mary Luckhurst, eds., On Directing: Interviews with Directors (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), 100.

3. Hodge’s subsequent connection to Gardzienice was long and substantial and included her book with Gardzienice’s artistic director Włodzimierz Staniewski with Peter Hulton’s CD-Rom, Hidden Territories (London: Routledge, 2004). Rice’s connection to the company was more fleeting but it still made a significant impression on her.

4. Katie had been president of OUDS, Oxford University Drama Society, so presumably was, in such a capacity, quite well known there.

5. I was movement director on the following productions: Ernst Toller, The Machine Wreckers, Royal National Theatre, 1995; William Shakespeare, Henry V1: The Battle for the Throne, Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Githa Sowerby, Rutherford and Son, Royal National Theatre, both 1994; John Arden, Live Like Pigs, Royal Court Upstairs and Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts, The Other Place, Stratford, Royal Shakespeare Company, both 1993; Solomon Ansky, The Dybbuk, Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican, 1992; Vassa Zheleznova, Gate Theatre, London, 1990; Assistant Director, Arden of Faversham, Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 1990; director of rural theatre project and co-director of performance of Diarmuid and Graine, 1991.

6. The film also shows members of Devon-based Theatre Alibi, co-founded by Hodge, who were participating in Gardzienice’s training then. After finishing my BA, I worked for a year as a performer in Alibi. Rice, also an Alibi member, can be seen at 4.14. See the Routledge Performance Archive, https://www.routledgeperformancearchive.com/multimedia/video/for-a-new-natural-environment-of-theatre (accessed October 21, 2019).

7. Giannachi and Luckhurst, eds., On Directing, 100.

8. Benjamin Fowler’s edited collection, The Theatre of Katie Mitchell (4x45) is a case in point: in his introduction he refers to the ‘almost monastic culture of the Polish theatre company Gardzienice’. It was far from monastic, and, however ‘rural’, there was a constant stream of visitors and collaborators to the village and regular performances. See Fowler, ed., The Theatre of Katie Mitchell (4x45) (London: Routledge, 2018), 6–7.

9. Charlotte Higgins, ‘The Cutting Edge’, Guardian, November 24, 2007 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/24/theatre.stage (accessed January 5, 2020).

10. Paul Allain, ‘Polishing up on the Classics’, The Stage, January 9, 1992.

11. For more on this, see Liz Schafer’s chapter ‘Troublesome Histories: Performance and Early Modern Drama’, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, ed. Ton Hoenselaars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 244–68. The specific review is from The Independent August 11, 1990.

12. See Paul Taylor’s review for some idea of the impact such physical work had on the production. See Paul Taylor, ‘THEATRE/Spirit of the moment: Paul Taylor on the RSC’s production of Anski’s The Dybbuk’, Independent July 16, 1992, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-spirit-of-the-moment-paul-taylor-on-the-rscs-production-of-anskis-the-dybbuk-1533537.html (accessed January 5, 2020).

13. See ‘Research’ for Katie’s view on this aspect of rehearsal in Katie Mitchell, The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre (London: Routledge, 2008), 145–7.

14. I have been unable to confirm the original record, title, and date of this piece but it was probably November 2, 1992.

15. From personal notes written by Katie about her connection to Polish theatre and Gardzienice in particular as well as our early collaboration for potential producers Stage International. Property of the author.

16. Reviewer unknown, Time Out, August 15, 1990. For more reviews and analysis, see Liz Schafer, ‘Troublesome Histories’, 244–68. Schafer used my rehearsal notes and annotated script for her chapter.

17. Paul Allain, The Theatre Practice of Tadashi Suzuki. A Critical Study with DVD Examples (London: Methuen, 2009).