To Be or to Have

Abstract

Ed. note: This essay began in I983 when my friend, Zbigniew Cynkutis, was a visiting professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Cynkutisdirector, teacher, and former actor in the Polish Theatre Laboratory directed by Jerzy Grotowski-wrote a lengthy proposal to Edwin B. Barrett, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, to fundamentally restructure the department into a Department of Active Culture. At the time he askedfor my help, translating and editing his remarks (originally translatedfrom Polish to English by his daughter, Magdalena) for the faculty and administration of Hamilton College. In it, he offered to contribute his expertise toward its realization, saying that he would be happy to remain at Hamilton College to do so. His proposal, however, was accepted, and he prepared to return to Poland with hisfamily in June of I984. The last time I saw him was in Clinton in the latter part of April. He seemed frustrated that his proposal had been rejected, but he was dedicated to continuing his efforts wherever he could. In Poland, he later assumed leadership of the Theatre Laboratory's facilities in Wroclaw after the official breakup of the company which had taken place in January 1984. Under his direction, the new Theatre Laboratory was named The Second Studio of Wroclaw. Sadly, Cynkutis was killed in an automobile accident in January of 1987. In a recent phone conversation with Professor Barrett (emeritus), I asked him about Cynkutis's proposal and why it wasn't accepted. He said it was regarded as 'far-seeing and demanding at the time, but it was hard to move an American college that operated on precedents and procedures. It was not thought possible to achieve the radical reorganization of educational priorities Cynkutis suggested (Barrett I993). Inspired by Richard Schechner's keynote address, A New Paradigmfor Theatre in the Academy, given at the August i992 conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) in Atlanta, I have retrieved Cynkutis's remarks and re-edited them for the purpose of adding another voice to Schechner's revolutionary callfor a reevaluation of our educational systemsfor theatre in higher education. At a time when world cultural, social, and political systems are experiencing unprecedented change, can we afford to do otherwise?