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ANTERO ALLI has been creating original performance works using paratheatre processes since 1977 and, producing feature-length art films since 1991. Alli's 2005 docufiction feature, "The Greater Circulation", incorporates a paratheatre performance in a critically acclaimed cinematic treatment of poet Rainer Maria Rilke's "Requiem for a Friend". His 2008 experimental feature, "The Invisible Forest" (2008; 111 min.) resurrects the radical ideas of French Surrealist playwright, Antonin Artaud. Alli's extensive paratheatrical research is documented in his book, "Towards an Archeology of the Soul" (Vertical Pool, 2003) and in videos. He conducts three to five paratheatre labs each year in Berkeley where he resides.
(1970 to present)
updated: 1/11/2012.
EARLY MIME AND THEATRE TRAINING
My earliest theatrical training came in 1970/71 from Mime Artist Keith Berger (who studied with Paul J. Curtis and the American Mime Theatre, NYC) and from the Lee Strasborg Institute in Hollywood (1971-72; method acting). Between 1975 and 2005, I wrote, produced and directed numerous original works of theatre and/or paratheatre (see Production History section below). Between 1976 and 1978, I participated in a series of paratheatrical experiments directed by David Rosenbloom and inspired by the early paratheatre work of the late Polish visionary of theatre, Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999).
THE GENESIS OF A PARATHEATRE MEDIUM
In 1977, I began to develop my own paratheatre medium combining principles and techniques of theatre, dance, Zazen meditation, voice/song to access the internal landscape within an asocial setting. Over the next thirty-plus years and three cities (Berkeley CA, Boulder CO, and Seattle WA), I worked with hundreds of individuals from all walks of life, each bringing their own unique backgrounds and influences to this medium. Though I call this ongoing group work "Paratheatre", I have no ambitions or pretense for emulating or replicating anything "Grotowski" or "Brook" or "Artaud". It is enough to continue learning from my own ongoing experiments and its bounty of new mistakes, corrections and insights.
Paratheatrical ReSearch workspace and Pinnacles Wilderness
PRIVACY, WILDERNESS, & FALLOW PERIODS
Most of our ongoing work occurs in privacy (no audits or audience allowed) at the Paratheatrical ReSearch workspace in Berkeley with occasional sojourns to wilderness settings. If and when this private work develops into something worth sharing, we begin structuring a performance vehicle. Advancement in this medium necessitates fallow periods -- usually four to eight weeks between labs -- where no paratheatre work is pursued and when the lingering consequences of this work can find integration in daily life.
NOT A THEATRE COMPANY
No established theatre company exists. We are a core group of individuals who come and go according to our own needs to work together and part ways until the next lab, theatre, or film project brings us together. We are no "cult" nor am I a "guru". We hold ourselves to specific work ethics guided by the core values of individual integrity and autonomy. Though individual motives for doing this work may differ, the overall aim is the development of an asocial group ritual dynamic while achieving enough commitment and self-discipline to persist in our efforts.
from "The Invisible Forest" (2008) and "The Greater Circulation" (2005)
DOCUMENTATION, PUBLIC EVENTS, FILM PRODUCTION
After three decades of non-performance oriented ritual labs, certain themes and directions have developed into public events, lectures, demonstrations, video screenings and public performance rituals (also see Production History section below). The techniques, principles, and many of the rituals applied in this work are also documented in my workbook, "Towards an Archeology of the Soul" and in three video documents (clips from these video documents can be seen here). An audio CD, Songs as Vehicles (2005; 43 min.) documented the 2004 Song As Vehicle lab.
In 1996 singer/composer Sylvi Alli and I established Vertical Pool Productions as a ParaTheatrical ReSearch affiliate to serve our ongoing artistic collaborations in video, film, and music production. Since 2000, paratheatrical processes have inspired and informed the music, story, character, and themes of six feature-length art films: Tragos (2000), Under a Shipwrecked Moon (2003), The Greater Circulation (2005), The Invisible Forest (2008) To Dream of Falling Upwards (2011) and Flamingos (2012).
FROM DREAMING RITUALS TO THE MUSE ARCHETYPE
In early 2008, I reached a personal crisis around the purpose of paratheatre. Tracing it back in time, I realized this crisis actually began twenty-three years earlier during an initiatic encounter with Australian Aborigine (koori) elder Guboo Ted Thomas -- a meeting that upstaged my assumptions around the nature of dreams, the dreambody, the dreamtime, and their links with the living Earth. Throughout 2008 and 2009, over four separate ritual labs, a recalibration of intent occured through the group workings of a "dreaming ritual" -- a precise choreography borrowing kinetic properties from our night dreams that aroused images, emotions, and currents originating in the dreams themselves (without interpretation or analysis of the dream).
This two-year dreaming ritual project eventually acted as a bridge to developing rituals for engaging the Muse archetype (an autonomous numen also known as Daemon, Genius, and the hermetic occult ritual of the Holy Guardian Angel). The Spring 2010 Muses Lab proved revelatory and productive by inspiring the scripting and production of my 2011 feature film, To Dream of Falling Upwards and Sylvi's 2010 music CD, Vessel.
On the night of Winter Solstice 2010, we returned to the Muses in the "Ritual Actions of the Muses" Lab to advance our research. This second Muses Lab delivered new insights into the distilling actions of the creative process which set the tone for my next film, Flamingos, (2012); click this for Muse Lab2 notes. On November 7th 2011, we returned for the third time to dialogue with this archetype in the Muses Trinity Lab. From March 19th through April 30th, 2012 eight vets and I will be in production for CIRCA 2012, the fourth in a series of paratheatre video documents (Autumn Equinox 2012 release).
-- Antero Alli
Director, ParaTheatrical ReSearch
[email protected]
voicemail: 510-464-4640
P.O. Box 10144, Berkeley CA 94709
production history
Antero Alli, writer/director/producer
(unless otherwise noted)
from "Requiem for a Friend" (2005)
Rainer
Maria Rilke's "REQUIEM FOR A FRIEND"
Intermedia Performance Ritual
incoporating Rilke's text (circa 2005)
Leah Kahn, Sylvi Alli, Felecia Faulkner, Paradox
Pollack, Nick Walker, Lee Vogt, Antero Alli
A reprise of the 1990 paratheatrical treatment
of Rilke's lyrical lament as a live
performance
ritual which was filmed and incorporated
into "Rilke's Requiem"
a feature
dv-film.
Translated
by
Stephen Mitchell. Music by Sean Blosl and Songs
as Vehicles.
ParaTheatrical ReSearch.
May
21, 22, 28, 29, 2005. Finnish Brotherhood Hall,
Berkeley .
from "Songs as Vehicles" (2004)
"SONGS
AS VEHICLES":
Winter Solstice Performance Ritual
Towards
the embodiment of songs in a cross-cultural context
Ten
vocal performers work for
three months on one song each, chosen from their
ancestral
culture, towards their ritualistic embodiment
in solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, and
mass cacophonies. Performers
and their ancestral sources: Lily Nova (France),
Julian Simeon
(Philippines), Olga Kupriyanova (Bulgaria), Gary
Belanoff (Russia), Antero
Alli (Finland),
Sylvi Alli (Deep South, USA), Linda Rose (Sicily),
JoJo Razor (Scotland), Robin
Coomer
(Ireland), and Nick Walker (Autism). Dec. 20,
2004. Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley.
Audio
document recorded (CD)
from "Orphans of Delirium " (2004)
"ORPHANS
OF DELIRIUM"
Paratheatrical performance
rites incorporating Coleridge's "Kubla
Khan"
An actor drifts
through reveries of an absinthe binge that erupts
in a bevy of ritualistic dreams
where aspects of his psyche materialize before
him. PARADOX POLLACK, SERENE ZLOOF,
ALASKA
YAMADA, BRIAN LIVINGSTON, NICK WALKER,
GABRIEL, JULIAN SIMEON, DESMONDE DAISY,
ADAM
PALERMO, JUSTIN PALERMO, JAKOB BOKULICH.
Live music by SYLVI
ALLI. Text
also by
Paradox
Pollack. Video
document recorded. ParaTheatrical ReSearch. March 2004, Berkeley & SF
from "Hungry Ghosts of Albion " (1999)
"HUNGRY
GHOSTS OF ALBION"
Two-act Intermedia Dream
Play
Two lovers attempt to make
a short film based on a monologue from Chekhov's "The Sea Gull."
When they sleep at night, the ghosts of William
Blake and Isaac Newton appear in their dreams;
when Blake and Newton sleep, they dream the lovers
awake. Meanwhile two mythic archetypes,
Anima and Daemon, intervene and orchestrate
the dreamers into a ritual of mystical union.
Neil Howard, Dan Wilson, Gary Barth, Sylvia Burboeck,
Nick Walker, Deanna Anderson.
With additional text by William Blake and Isaac
Newton. Video document recorded.
Live
music by SYLVI
ALLI. ParaTheatrical ReSearch & Vertical
Pool, May 1999, S.F.
from "Hungry Ghosts" (1998)
"HUNGRY
GHOSTS"
Two-act Intermedia Dream
Play
with sean john walsh, Jennifer
Pratt and Kevin Haggerty, Ed Byrne.
ParaTheatrical
ReSearch workshop
production; May 1998, Seattle WA
(Video document recorded)
"MASS OF THE ICONOCLASTS"
Winter Solstice performance ritual
with Stephen Pitts, Richard Bradshaw, Camille Hildebrandt, Steven Miller,
Gavin Greene, & others. Video document recorded. ParaTheatrical ReSearch;
Oct-Dec 1992, Masonic Temple, Seattle WA
from "Archaic Community " (1991)
"ARCHAIC COMMUNITY "
Paratheatre Experiment/Video Document
with Richard
Bradshaw, Camille Hildebrandt, Steven Miller, Kenny Telesco,
Gavin
Greene, Julian Simeon, Troy Skeels & others. Video document recorded.
Music by Sylvi Alli. ParaTheatrical
ReSearch;
Fall 1991, Masonic Temple Seattle WA
from
"Requiem
for a Friend" (1990)
"REQUIEM
FOR A FRIEND"
Performance ritual incorporating
poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
with Jadina Lilian,
Sylvi Pickering, Camille Hildebrandt and Kia Sian;
Kara Amundson, cello
Rilke's tribute to friend and artist, Paula Modersohn-Becker,
in the wake of her sudden death
stemming from childbirth complications. Text by Rilke
translated by Stephen Mitchell. Music by
Sylvi
Alli. Video
document recorded.
ParaTheatrical ReSearch. Oct.
1990. Bell Gallery, Seattle.
"CROSSING THE WATER"
Performance ritual incorporating poetry of Sylvia Plath
Antero Alli, Camille Hildebrandt, Richard Bradshaw, Steven Miller, Gavin Green
(ParaTheatrical ReSearch; Spring 1990, Wonderful World of Art Gallery, Seattle)
"ANIMAMUNDI"
Performance
ritual inspired
by the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
Created & performed by Antero Alli & Camille Hildebrandt.
Music by Sylvi
Alli
(ParaTheatrical ReSearch; Autumn 1989, Victoria
BC/Seattle/Portland/Berkeley/Santa Cruz)
"CHAPEL
PERILOUS"
Dreaming Phases for
Lovers
a 2-act play based
on archetypes
of the "anima" and "animus"
Antero Alli, Leesanne Modine, Marc Sabin, Molly
Dwyer, Julian Simeon,
Cedrus Monte.
Directed w/Marc Sabin. Executive producer, Cathleen
O'Connell.
Theatre
23.
Jan/Feb. 1983
(Cinnabar Theatre, Petaluma; Studio Eremos,
S.F. Helen Schoeni Theatre in Mendocino)
"WHERE
I ?"
Mimetic
treatment of Robinson Jeffers' poetry
with
Antero Alli, Jacob Shefa and Johanna Modisette.
Barbara Rose Shuler, recitalist; Peter Metcalf,
cellist
(Point Blank Mime Troupe; Spring
1982, Carmel CA)
"THE
CONJUNCTION"
Two-act
Alchemical Mystery Play
A writer's night dreams force
a confrontation between his craft
and pending fatherhood.
with Carole Swann, Harvey Wasserman,
Ben DiGregorio,
Theresa Laferriere, Antero Alli.
(The Chamber Theatre Troupe; 1978, Berkeley).
"SONGS
OF INNOCENCE & EXPERIENCE"
Performance ritual utilizing
William Blake's poetry
with Leslie Mahler, Antero
Alli, Ben DiGregorio, Theresa Laferriere
(The Chamber Theatre Troupe; 1978, Berkeley)
"CORONATION
AT STILLNIGHT"
Two-Act Play inspired
by Dante's "Divine Comedy" (utilizing
choir)
In his dreams, a man unexpectedly discovers
he has passed away and about to
be
judged
in his
afterlife.
with
Antero Alli, Ben DiGregorio, Theresa Laferriere,
Sima Wolf, Terri Shell, David Cohen, John Rock
(The
Chamber Theatre Troupe;
November 1977, Berkeley/Crown Hall,
Mendocino)
"HIM"
A 3-Act Poem Play by e.e.cummings
Paul Townsend, Antero Alli, Dan Risko, Sima Wolf, Mary Forcade
and many others
(1976, Mendocino Art Center Theatre)
"CIRCLES"
A Full-length Mime Play with Music and Accompanying Text
Seven mute characters portray aspects of one psyche interacting within
itself and
and
unravelling
in the wake of a series of outside interruptions.
Antero Alli, Brian Wasserman, Julie B. Oak, Leigh Lightfoot, Sima Wolf.
Spring 1975, Berkeley; Mendocino Art Center Theatre)
DUDESHEEP
THEATRE COMPANY
Experimental theatre
company living and working communally in a
downtown
Oakland mansion.
Performances included a paratheatrical
treatment
of sections from "Tibetan Book of
the Dead" (San Francisco).
With Dale Fast, Judith Kangar,
Dean Webb,
Antero Alli, Bruce Sorentsen,
David
Luddington & others.
(1972-73, Oakland and SF)
ANTERO ALLI, director/founder
P.O. Box 10144, Berkeley CA 94709 USA
voicemail: (510) 464-4640
[email protected]