Situating Apocalypsis cum figuris as a turning point in Grotowski's efforts to move beyond theatrical representation, Salata considers the trajectory in Grotowski's work from acting to doing . Emphasizing the centrality of Buber's concept of the I-Thou, Salata examines the implications of Grotowski's search for unmediated perception through the lens of such theorists as Heidegger, Deleuze, and Levinas.

This previously unpublished text originated as Grotowski's response to a worksession convened at Odin Teatret in 1968. An extended address to artists claiming to work “in his spirit,” this stinging rebuke of dilettantism and exhibitionism highlights Grotowski's stringent criteria for evaluating artistic work.

While it has its origins in a talk given at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February 1969, this key essay has never previously appeared in English. Publications in Italian, Polish, and Spanish, however, have ensured the circulation of this historically crucial text in European and South American theatre culture, resulting in a far more accurate historicization of Grotowski's work and its indebtedness to Stanislavsky.

In his book, Pamięć Reduty (Memories of Reduta), Zbigniew Osiński gives a historical account of the work and legacy of a theatre laboratory from the interwar period in Poland, one that Grotowski considered his company's predecessor. In the excerpts presented here, Osiński pursues a comparative analysis of similarities and differences between the two theatre companies and their respective leaders.

Derived from a talk given following the opening of Grotowski's final theatrical performance in 1969, this text traces the artistic process that led Grotowski and his actors away from their initial point of departure, Juliusz Słowacki's Samuel Zborowski , and through their work on a staging of the Gospels, Ewangelie , before they finally discovered the creative seed that led them to devise Apocalypsis cum figuris .