From the effect of actor’s art to the effectiveness of an actorTowards the postmodern anthropology of histrionics

Paper attempts at initial diagnosis of the parameters of actors’ activity in the world of post-modern theatrical and quasi-theatrical practices. The starting point is philosophical and rhetorical tradition of ancient Greece and Rome (Protagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Saint Augustine), then follows a critical analysis of opportunities and constraints (regarded as a complementary tools of description) of the proposals arising within semiotics (Sławomir Świontek) and phenomenology (Tomasz Kubikowski, Bert O. States), as well as the findings of Eugenio Barba and Ferdinando Taviani within the International School of Theatre Anthropology.

The proposed approach assumes a consistent application of the principle of scalarity (introduced by Świontek in his description of the types of acting) to the field of actor’s activity, extended on the findings of the post-modern anthropology of experience (Edward M. Bruner) and representation theory (Jacques Derrida). The whole discussion is placed in the modal frame designed by the performative-cognitive dynamics of the interaction of the actor-spectator (treated by Jerzy Grotowski as an axiom of the art of theater), with particular emphasis on efficiency understood as a threefold phenomenon (perspectives of the actor and of the spectator, and phenomenally understood the event and experience of theater).