Zbigniew Osiński, Jerzy Grotowski's Journeys to the East, translated by Andrzej Wojtasik and Kris Salata, Icarus Publishing Enterprise and Routledge, 2014, pp. 220.

Jerzy Grotowski's Journeys to the East is an unusual collection of facts, quotations, and commentaries documenting the real and metaphorical journeys of the Polish theatre director and 'teacher of performers' into a geographical and cultural dimension which we used to and still call the Orient. Grotowski's contacts and meetings with the East are placed here in the context of his biography. Painstakingly researched by Grotowski's main biographer Zbigniew Osiński, this book is necessary reading for those interested in Grotowski's deep relationship with the East and in the inspiration he drew from its various cultures. The book will appeal to all readers who feel a need to have a glimpse of the East from the perspective of one of the main theatre reformers in the twentieth century.

Zbigniew Osiński (born in Poznań, Poland, in 1939) is a theatre scholar, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw, and Professor at the Theatre Studies Department at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He was the originator, co-founder and first director of the Centre of Studies on Jerzy Grotowski's Work and of Cultural and Theatrical Research in Wrocław, Poland, where he also served as Artistic and Research Director from 1990 to 2004. He has published extensively on the history, theory and anthropology of theatre.

His major works include: Grotowski and His Laboratory (1986); Grotowski wytycza trasy. Studia i szkice [Grotowski blazes the trails: Studies and sketches] (1993); Jerzy Grotowski. Od 'divadla predstaveni' k rituálnym hrám [Jerzy Grotowski: From theatre of productions to Ritual Arts] (1995); Jerzy Grotowski. Źródła, inspiracje, konteksty [Jerzy Grotowski: sources, inspirations, contexts] (1998); Pamięć Reduty. Osterwa, Limanowski, Grotowski [The memory of Reduta: Osterwa, Limanowski, Grotowski] (2003); Polskie kontakty teatralne z Orientem w XX wieku, tom 1: Kronika, tom 2: Studia, [Polish theatre contacts with the Orient in the twentieth century; vol. 1: The chronicle, vol. 2: The studies] (2008); Jerzy Grotowski. Źródła, inspiracje, konteksty, tom 1: wydanie drugie zmienione, tom 2: Prace z lat 1999-2009 [Jerzy Grotowski. Sources, inspirations, contexts; vol. 1: second edition, revised; vol. 2: Works, 1999-2009] (2009); Jerzy Grotowski e il suo Laboratorio: Dagli spettacoli a L'arte come veicolo (2011); Spotkania z Jerzym Grotowskim. Notatki, listy, studium [Encounters with Jerzy Grotowski: Notes, letters, and a study] (2013).