ABSTRACT
Jerzy Marian Grotowski ranks with Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Stefan Brecht as one of the four great stage directors of the twentieth century. But while it is generally understood that Stanislavsky transformed acting, Meyerhold, directing, and Brecht, playwrighting, Grotowski's influence on the craft is not so instantly recognizable. Grotowski often reprimanded young directors who try to develop a theatre piece without the structure provided by a script. Grotowski usually made an initial adaptation of the script before rehearsals began. He called this reworking of the script a textual montage. Montage does not only concern the editing work on the text, however. It also functions in another way in Grotowski's work. Grotowski believed that human beings play so many roles in their daily lives that the theatre should be the place where the actor does not play a character, but tries to seek a more authentic self.
