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Notes
1 The first issue of Journal of Theatre Anthropology, ‘The Origins’, features articles and studies translated into English or written in their original languages (Spanish and French), with a foreword by Eugenio Barba and an editorial by Julia Varley. It is available as open access: https://jta.ista-online.org
2 The history of ISTA records 1979 as the year of origin and foundation but the first sessions, which comprised four weeks of practical workshops and studio-based explorations (and a symposium) were held in Bonn, Germany, 1 to 31 October 1980.
3 The better-known Kaufmann and Hollingdale translation being:
The most desirable thing is still under all circumstances a hard discipline at the proper time, i.e., at that age at which it still makes one proud to see that much is demanded of one. For this is what distinguishes the hard school as a good school from all others: that much is demanded; and sternly demanded; that the good, even the exceptional, is demanded as the norm; that praise is rare, that indulgence is nonexistent; that blame is apportioned sharply, objectively, without regard for talent or antecedents. One needs such a school from every point of view: that applies to the most physical as well as to the most spiritual matters; it would be fatal to desire to draw a distinction here! (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, trans., p. 912)
4 A digitised version of the full booklet, A Living Theatre, can be found on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/cu31924026123368
5 John Balance was one of the sixty plus pseudonyms that Craig used in The Mask – from ABC to Yu-no-who (via Stanislas Lodochowskowski).
6 Dorothy Neville Lees moved from Wolverhampton, UK, to Florence, Italy, in 1903 and was a writer and poet in her own right, in addition to assisting Craig with The Mask. She published two books, Scenes and Shrines in Tuscany and Tuscan Feasts and Friends, in 1907. She rescued Craig’s archives and built up a collection that can now be accessed at the British Institute in Florence. Dorothy Lees’s papers are held in Harvard University Harvard Theatre Collection of theatrical portrait photographs.
7 John Nicholson is not listed as one of Craig’s pseudonyms, but I cannot trace any records about him and this account of his experiences at the ‘School’ are published at the point of formation of the ‘School’. William Nicholson (1872–1949), the famous painter and engraver, taught Craig the art of woodcut and wood engraving.
8 In addition to offering a further £2,000 for the second and third year of the School’s operation.
9 Craig collaborated with Stanislavski in Moscow in 1911–12 on what was to be the highly successful and influential production of Hamlet for the Moscow Art Theatre.
10 According to Rood, Craig made one final attempt to continue the School in Rome in 1914.
11 Barba often writes and speaks about his formative training in Oslo and his apprenticeship as a welder; ‘engraved in my nervous system are Eigil Winnje’s actions his welder’s workshop’, together with his experiences as a merchant seaman on the Norwegian ship Talabot.
12 The term ‘laboratory’ was only in the process of being added to the ‘Theatre of the 13 Rows’ during this time to become ‘The Laboratory of 13 Rows’.
13 Barba describes this trip to India in his books The Land of Ashes and Diamonds and in The Moon Rises from the Ganges.
14 Barba described the eye exercises in his writing about Kathakali, and in Towards a Poor Theatre photographs capture Grotowski’s actors having adopted them from Barba’s description (Grotowski did not visit the Kerala Kalamandalam).
15 15 In 1966 the Mayor of Holstebro (then only 18,000 inhabitants) Kai K. Nielsen inaugurated an extraordinarily far-sighted cultural policy for this remote Danish province. The city not only welcomed the Odin Teatret but also a Music and Dance conservatoire.
16 Barba first wrote on Kathakali after his visit in 1963 and the text was published in French in 1965; an English language version appeared as ‘The Kathakali Theatre’ (1967) in the Tulane Drama Review (TDR) 11(4) (1967): 165 – 69.
17 Lightfoot’s thirty-three essays, ‘reflecting her broader worldview as a dancer, choreographer, and impresario’, were gathered into a book: Louise Lightfoot in Search of India. Available as print on demand or eBook.
18 Only when Grotowski, Flaszen and the company moved from Opole to Wrocław in 1965 did they rename it Teatr Laboratorium (Laboratory Theatre).
19 The full listing of the TTT issues and content (and, for many issues, access to original texts) can be found via Odin Teatret website: https://bit.ly/2TLPguJ
20 Il Milione and The Book of Marvels of the World are alternate titles to The Travels of Marco Polo written by Marco Polo circa 1300, that described his travels in the previous thirty years along the Silk Route into the ‘East’, and his extraordinary encounters in India, Japan, Persia and China, the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties.
21 The Theatrum Mundi were, originally, the one off celebratory (often site-specific) performances that concluded a session of ISTA and involved all the ensembles participating in the session.
22 See Negotiating Cultures: Eugenio Barba and the intercultural debate edited by Ian Watson, Manchester University Press, 2002 and other essays on ISTA by Watson for accounts of ISTA.
23 Hans Jürgen Nagel (Director of Kulturamt Bonn) was the organiser/ producer of the inaugural session of ISTA in Bonn, and Roberto Bacci (Director of Centro per la Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale, Pontedera, Italy) organiser/ producer of the second session in Volterra, Italy.
24 I attended the symposium in Bonn (1980), and the full sessions in Bologna (1990), Brecon/Cardiff (1992), Londrina (1994), Copenhagen/Louisiana (1996), and Montemor-o-Novo and Lisbon (1998).
25 See Maria Shevtsova (Citation2002) for her analysis and critique of ISTA.
26 The Centre for Performance Research organized and hosted in Wales (UK) the 7th session of ISTA, 4–11 April 1992. The closed workshops sessions were held in Brecon and themed: Working on performance East and West/ Subscore. The open public symposium was held in Cardiff themed: Fictive Bodies, Dilated Minds, Hidden Dances.
27 The Theatrum Mundi began to have a life of their own, separate from a session of ISTA, becoming almost an ISTA ensemble with a sequence of short-run performances. This started with The Island of Labyrinths at the Copenhagen ISTA and led to Ur Hamlet (in Helsingor, Denmark in 2006 and Wroclaw, Poland in 2009), independent of an ISTA and yet involving almost fifty performers from the ISTA associated artists.
28 Craig’s vision for what can be created for the stage of the page are epitomised in The Cranach Press Hamlet (printed in 1929 and limited to 250 copies) and in the Oxford University Press A Production (printed in1930, large folio, containing 32 plates). The British Library describes The Cranach Press Hamlet thus: ‘illustrated by Edward Gordon Craig, is often regarded as the most bold and ambitious example of 20th-century book art. Elegantly put together, with obsessive attention to detail, it uses hand-made paper and decorated binding, fine images and beautiful typefaces to enhance the dramatic effect of Shakespeare’s play.’
29 The book was published by Routledge (London and New York) for the Centre for Performance Research (CPR), then based in Cardiff. The CPR determined to publish the book itself after many years of seeking collaboration with a UK publisher. In the final stages of production, a fruitful co-production was established with Routledge, that effectively saw the book ‘packaged’ by CPR – it was edited, designed and manufactured entirely in Wales – and ‘distributed’ by Routledge. See note 30.
30 In 1984 I was given a copy of Anatomia del teatro by Roberto Bacci (Director of Centro per la Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale, Pontedera, Italy) and was inspired by how his centre had collaborated with the Florence-based publisher La Casa Usher to realise such an ambitious publication. For four years I sought a similar collaboration within the UK but for no avail, until in 1989 Helena Reckitt, temporarily managing the theatre/performance list at Routledge, encouraged the prospect. A co-production was taken forward by Talia Rodgers (Publisher at Routledge 1990-2016) and thus the English language version (and subsequent editions) was realised.
31 Icarus Publishing Enterprise was initially a collaboration between Odin Teatret (Denmark), the Grotowski Institute (Poland) and Theatre Arts Researching the Foundations (Malta), that became adopted by Routledge, Taylor & Francis in 2012. Ten titles have been published.
32 ’Balance’ formed a major section in A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology and the early ISTA observations surrounding ‘extra-daily’ balance as a technique common to most world theatre/dance traditions (extreme ‘off balance’ feet positions and movement) led to notions of ‘luxury balance’ –’extra effort which dilates the body’s tension in such a way that the performer seems to be alive even before he begins to express’ (Barba and Savarese Citation1991: 34).
33 To the nine-volume set published by Casa Editrice Le Maschere, Rome, an additional Aggiornamento volume (a supplementary update 1955 to 1965) was added in 1966 and then in 1968 an Indicerepertorio (an Index-Directory) formed an eleventh, 1,000-page volume.
34 See Jorge Luis Borges fabulous short story about cartographers and the relationship between maps and territory in On Exactitude and Science (1946).
35 JTA is published in digital format as open access under a Creative Commons Attribution. It will also exist as a print journal, printed by Mimesis Edizioni of Milan-Udine, Italy.
36 As this issue went to print Odin Teatret announced that there will be another session of ISTA themed ‘The Actor’s Presence and the Spectator’s Perception’ to be held on the island of Favignana (Italy), 12–22 October 2021.