Jerzy Grotowski, one of the masters of modern theater along with Stanislawski, Meyerhold, Artaud and Brecht, has died. He was 65. PAP reported that Grotowski, who was suffering from leukemia and a heart condition, died January 15 at his home in Pontedera, Italy, near Pisa.

Grotowski's work stressed the importance of the actor, and is known for a physically demanding style of theater bordering on dance choreography. Wojciech Krukowski, a fellow director who runs the Academy of Movement, an experimental Warsaw theater, said Grotowski ``discovered a specific role of an actor who releases not only his own energy but also that of a spectator. He created a kind of spiritual process of acting.''

In his seminal theatrical work Towards a Poor Theater (1968), Grotowski stressed performance that challenges the expectations of the audience and called for theater that does not merely serve as a mirror of human deeds but underscores the process of self-discovery in the act.

Grotowski in effect returned theater to its roots in ritual and insisted on uniqueness of each performance, often playing to small audiences. The idea was to make theater engaging, an interactive, shared personal transformation. Grotowski's staging of the 1904 Wyspianski play "Akropolis" is available on a 60-minute film narrated by the British actor and director Peter Brook.

Born in Rzeszow, in south-eastern Poland, Grotowski studied acting and directing at the State Theater School in Krakow and in Moscow. He made his directorial debut in 1959 at the Old Theater in Krakow with "Chairs" by Eugene Ionesco. He found world recognition with his Laboratory Theater, which he founded in the town of Opole.

Grotowski left Poland in 1982 for the United States, and the company closed in 1984. Three years later, he moved to Italy and opened a theater center in Pontedera. He received honorary degrees from Pittsburgh University and DePaul University in Chicago.

"For Grotowski, theater itself was a kind of religion. He described himself not as an artist, but as a craftsman, a spiritual instructor,'' said Krukowski. Grotowski aimed to change his audience, to undermine ideology and to inspire creative transgression through an unsettling experience.

According to his wishes, Grotowski's body will be cremated and his ashes dispersed in India. There will be no funeral, the Italian news agency ANSA said.