Peter Brook, is an English theatre/film director who has been based in France since the early

1970s. His work was influenced by Antonin Artaud, which is also a very well know and respect
practioner within the business.
One of Brooks main methods is using truthful human emotions to then connect with the
character, he said, this is the essence of good theatre. He uses this method by getting the actor
to discover the emotion on their own and then he would use different techniques to bring that
emotion out, so the actor can start to develop these emotions and put this into a character. If this
can be done successfully, then an authentic human connection will be made between the actor
and audience. I totally agree with his reasonings for letting the actor find truthful emotions, as I
personally think that you can take yourself to a place psychologically using techniques like
memory to find truthful emotions. I dont think a director telling you when and how you should be
feeling something is a genuine feeling as you would probably try to force the emotion due to
them asking this of you.
I think Brooks methods has had a massive impact on the acting industry as there are many
actors within the industry that use this type of methods to find truthful emotions to connect with
their characters. For example, I remember watching an episode of Will Smiths Fresh Prince of
Bel Air. In one of the scenes in this episode his character was talking about his dad, which Will
Smith could connect to this due to something he went through in real life with his actual dad, but
in this episode it was meant to say about hes dad leaving him. However, he broke down to tears
saying Why didnt he want me, which was not part of the script but hes actual real feeling
coming through the character that they ended up keeping this footage for the episode rather than
filming it again, due to the fact of how authentic the emotion from the actor was channelled into
the character.
Reference - http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/101/the-development-of-theatre-peter-brook-
and-the-human-connection





Jerzy Grotowski Influences were Stanislavsky,
Meyerhold and Brecht. Using Movement and acting
theorist, forced actors to use physicality to bring out
untapped emotions to make characters real and
genuine. Grotowski, thought the physical rehearsals and exercises are meant to make the
physical body stronger and flexible to make it more available for the actor. I totally agree with this
as you can train your body to do many things that can you make you have very versatile styles of
physicality with your characters. Also, Grotowski developed a series of physical and
psychological exercises which he called, Via Negativa. This was meant to force the actors to
dispose of their preconceptions, habits, proper techniques of breathing, speaking and moving.
He stated, These are meant to be stripped away from the actor so that he/she can find there
true self. I personally think Grotowskis methods are great for an actor especially in physical
theatre as I learned in our Ways of Seeing piece, that you can bring out a feeling through a
physical movement that is representing something.
Reference - https://www.scribd.com/doc/20263516/Grotowski-Movement-Theories
Vsevelod Meyerhold was influenced by Stanislavsky and
Chekhov. Meyerholds methods of realism was a type of
hypnotism which removed control of what happens on
stage from the actor and gave it to the character. He
thought that theatre should not try to mirror reality, but
should deliberately amplify and distort it by using stylised
theatrical techniques. Also, Meyerholds acting techniques
had fundamental principles at odds with the American
method actors conception. Where method acting melded
the character with the actors own personal memories to create the characters internal
motivation, Meyerhold connected psychological and physiological processes. I personally find
Meyerholds techniques incredible as you can find truthful emotions using psychological thoughts
or even memories through personal expeirances into your character. Also, he uses physical
processes to connect with the character as you can create feelings and emotions through
physical movement of the body and how each movement makes you feel. I think its incredible
how he intertwines these two methods together that other practioner has only used one or the
other.
- http://www.hsc.csu.edu.au/drama/hsc/studies/topics/3265/Meyerhold/overview.htm
Overall I think all three practioners have made and outstanding impact on the acting industry and
are very similar in certain ways, which many actors, directors and writers use within the film/TV
and theatre in industry today. For example, I feel Brook and Meyerhold are very similar in the
way they get an actor to channel emotion through to their character. However, Meyerhold and
Grotowski on the other hand is very similar as well. Brook and Meyerhold uses a psychological
approach in order to generate authentic emotions and channel them through the actor using, the
actors personal memory to then channel them through to the character. Whereas Grotowski uses
mainly physical techniques in order for actors to portray an emotion and then use that to channel
into the character. I find Meyerhold also uses this type of technique as well as using
psychological techniques to portray authentic emotions into the character. One thing that makes
them all similar in a way is they all believe that, you have to believe in something to be able to
move on and play with it, which is something I am very passionate about as an actor. They all
use many different techniques to gain different ways of believing in truthful emotions and
portraying a truthful character, whether its through physical or psychological techniques. Out of
these three practioners, I personally would prefer to use Meyerholds techniques, especially after
doing Ways Of Seeing, as I felt using physical movements made me feel an emotions to what I
was portraying. Also, I have used psychological techniques to help me portray truthful emotions
to connect to my character. Therefore, Meyerholds techniques would really benefit me with the
type of actor I am, but I am willing to try other practioners theories and techniques as in my
opinion its all about play.
Images reference Google Images.
Links:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=meyerhold&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=579&source=lnms&tbm=i
sch&sa=X&ei=6D9HVNvLE-Op7Abrz4GgAg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=peter+brook&biw=1280&bih=579&source=lnms&tbm=isch&s
a=X&ei=qT9HVK_0EovU7AaChYCwBQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=grotowski&biw=1280&bih=579&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=
X&ei=xz9HVOTdIIPm7gb-xYCQBw&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ