Infrequently Asked Questions
written by Antero Alli (updated 1/18/2012).
Infrequently Asked Questions
written by Antero Alli
(updated 1/18/2012).
What is 'paratheatre' ?
JERZY GROTOWSKI
Aug. 11, 1933 - Jan. 14, 1999The term "paratheatre" was coined by the late Polish theatre director, Jerzy Grotowski, to address a highly dynamic and visceral approach to performance that aimed to erase traditional divisions between spectators and performers. Paratheatre was also executed outdoors in the forests of Poland as non-performance events. After 1975, Grotowski withdrew from theatre entirely as a public performance medium to redirect his focus towards non-performance oriented group dynamics that developed through various stages: Paratheatre (1969-78), Theatre of Sources (1976-1982), Objective Drama (1983-86), and Art as Vehicle (1986-present). Grotowski's work continues today at the WORK CENTER OF JERZY GROTOWSKI AND THOMAS RICHARDS in Pontedera, Italy.
CLICK THIS FOR DETAILS ON THE STAGES OF GROTOWSKI'S WORK
Paratheatre, Theatre of Sources, Objective Drama, and Art as Vehicle
Courtesy of Wikipedia.org
CLICK THIS FOR GROTOWSKI'S LIFETIME CHRONOLOGY
Courtesy of Polish Cultural Institute, New York
PARATHEATRE BEYOND GROTOWSKI
What other groups or individuals are active in paratheatre?
Currently, there are numerous offshoots and hybrids of Grotowski-informed work (those who have worked personally with Grotowski and Thomas Richards) and Grotowski-inspired work by groups and individuals all over the world. In the U.S.A., I personally know of seven other individuals and their groups fully commited to paratheatre and paratheatre-related projects. Please feel free to contact any one of them for further information:
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Matt Mitler; director, Theatre Dzieci (NYC)
Antero Alli; director, ParaTheatrical ReSearch (Berkeley CA)
Stephen Bogart; director, Rouged Ape (Boston)
Stacy Klein, director, Double Edge Theatre (Amherst MA)
Stephen Wangh; instructor, NYU (Naropa, Boulder CO; and NYC)
Joseph Lavy and Jennifer Lavy; co-directors, Akropolis Performance Lab (Seattle)
James Slowiak, Jairo Cuesta; co-directors, New World Performance Laboratory (Akron OH)
Others working in paratheatre and related mediums listed at:
ParaTheatrical ReSearch Links
from "Orphans of Delirium"
Are you doing paratheatre as defined by Grotowski?
No. The work we do as ParaTheatrical ReSearch is Grotowski-inspired, not Grotowski-informed or defined. The term "paratheatre", like the term "theatre", demands periodic updating and redefining to serve the developing contexts of its practice and its practioners. The paratheatre medium I have been developing with others (since 1977) posits an asocial approach to group ritual dynamics that implements techniques of physical theatre, dance, song,and Zazen to access and express the internal landscape. Though inspired by Grotowski's vision of paratheatre, this medium makes no pretense of following or replicating Grotowski's example. One important difference that sets this work apart from Grotowski's might be the consistent practice of a standing and walking meditation we call "no-form", that allows for the development of the very forms and the content in this medium. Though external forms, such as songs and text, are occasionally used they play secondary roles to the slower evolution of organic processes emerging through the no-form process.
Discuss the function of this "no-form" technique.
The function of no-form is two-fold: 1) to deepen receptivity to energy sources innate to the physical and energetic bodies towards their engagement and expression and 2) to discharge and disperse identification with these very forces after each engagement. No-form allows us to engage energies directly and then, to discharge and let them go afterwards.
Rather than any "spiritual" technique or traditional Zen path to samadhi or "enlightenment", no-form acts as a receptivty point to presence, movement, action, and vocal expression. No-Form is used to cultivate the internal receptivity critical to detecting and accessing the internal landscape of forces, sources, and streams of impulses. As this no-form practice deepens, it allows for a more direct, intuitive engagement with vital forces in the body/psyche. No-form is then applied to discharge, and disidentify with, whatever energies were accessed and engaged to restore receptivity and minimize ego inflation. After immersive engagement with any given force or energy, no-form becomes an ego-corrosive, trance-dispersion device.
This no-form emptying process cannot be taught. It's either present as a highly personal intimacy with the void, our potential state, or it is not. No-Form can also be impersonal. When astrophysics suggests that space is not empty but teeming with dynamic potential energy, this could also apply to No-Form. Besides the standing No-Form technique, we also apply and explore this process in walking and in jogging.
How does paratheatre differ from improvisation?
Paratheatre is not 'improvisation' as commonly defined by traditional theatrical conventions. Interaction in this paratheatre medium does not depend on wanting anything from other participants to motivate action, expression, and characterizations. Instead, energy sources in the body itself -- currents of impulses, forces, emotion, and natural rhythms -- act as resources for animating presence, movement, action, vocalization, towards interaction that unfolds in a spontaneous offering of presence in action, gesture, sound, song, etc. -- a kind of miraculous interaction of self-governing bodies.
The asocial nature of this paratheatrical work differs from social and theatrical conventions defined by the interpersonal objectives of wanting things from others. Our aim is to accumulate enough presence - by increasing commitment to vertical sources - towards interacting with others from a base of higher integrity and autonomy in spontaneous offering of self. This non-performance approach first develops without an audience, where all external pressures to perform are released and replaced by the self-created pressures of performing actions with enough commitment to influence and transform the self. If and when this work achieves a performance standard -- where clear communication of our processes is achieved -- a theatrical vehicle is chosen to contain and present our work to the public.
How does ParaTheatrical ReSearch present itself to the public?
About 80% of our work (since 1977) has commenced behind closed doors without audience or any witnesses beyond myself as facilitator. The internal nature of this work requires an equally private environment to nurture and achieve its various asocial, kinetic, spiritual, and creative aims. When a given group reaches a critical mass of skill and proficiency in this medium, a performance event is considered and sometimes scheduled.
ParaTheatrical ReSearch public events have taken on four distinct formats: 1) Witnessing (a public invitation to sit in on an actual lab session with no explanaton of actions) 2) Demonstration (public lecture explaining aspects of the work accompanied by demonstration) 3) Performance (where specific ritual structures are performed often accompanied by text and/or live music) and 4) Video documents (distilled presentations of ritual work accompanied with facilitator and participant commentaries). The history of all ParaTheatrical ReSearch public events are posted at Public Event History.
Our paratheatre techniques can be applied to almost any performance and artistic medium in a number of ways, from pre-performance warm-up processes to strengthening performance stamina and presence on towards post-performance methods to diffuse excess emotional charge. Our processes and methods also prove effective for artists working in other mediums such as Painting, Sculpture, Poetry, Music composition, and Cinema that depend on an ever-deepening access to sources of creative inspiration. Additional notes on how paratheatre can serve the performing artist are posted in State of Emergence: Part Three: "The Performer/Audience Romance".
How do you discern progress in this paratheatre work?
After three decades in this paratheatre medium, I have noticed three overlapping phases through which this work seems to develop, progress, and evolve. All three stages express an intimately entwined process; no graduations, no final arrivals. Each of the three stages express an essential component of each other.
The first stage involves cultivating deep internal receptivity -- via the No-Form experience -- to energy sources in the body and yielding to them as an immersive experience of self-surrender. The intent is to access, express, and embody the energetic strata of the internal landscape towards identification (merging) with the energy. The results are often ecstatic, convulsive, cathartic and chaotic.
The second stage involves extracting, or disidentifying, oneself from the energy towards serving the direction of the energy itself -- in stillness, gesture, voice, action -- towards clarifying its innate patterns and currents. Here, we serve the source itself rather than identify with it or impose any preconceived ideas, plans or images onto the outcome. The results can be half-formed, melodramatic, and/or highly expressive yet without necessarily communicating anything understandable yet.
The third stage involves a sustaining care for tempering spontaneity with a gently increasing precision. Too much spontaneity turns the work into self-indulgent soup; too much imposed structure kills its life. In this stage, a dynamic balance must be struck. This process requires a certain stamina for maintaining a dynamic tension between precision and spontaneity, between form and force, towards ever-increasing durations of concentration. Stage three can lead to expressions that can also be understood by others where communication is achieved. The results are often more economical, distilled, dynamic and specific.
How does one enter a ParaTheatrical ReSearch Lab?
ParaTheatrical ReSearch conducts three or four Labs each year. Labs typically run one or two nights a week for seven to ten weeks at a time. Entry is by invitation, and/or interview with the director. Those interested should first read the Lab Participation Prerequisites and then, e-mail me at: [email protected] Share something of your background and why you wish to participate. You will be contacted shortly, usually within forty-eight hours, for a possible interview.
What books on paratheatre do you recommend?
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click above images for product information and book excerpts
Towards a Poor Theatre by Jerzy Grotowski; click this for excerpt
Film Clip of Grotowski explaining his work
At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions by Thomas Richards
Heart of Practice by Thomas Richards
The Empty Space by Peter Brook
An Acrobat of the Heart by Stephen Wangh
Towards an Archeology of the Soul by Antero Alli; click this for excerpt
GROTOWSKI on "Verticality"
"We can see this phenomena in the categories of energy: heavy but
organic energies (linked to the forces of life, to instincts, to sensuality)
and other energies, more subtle. The question of verticality means to
pass from a so-called coarse level -- in a certain sense one could say
an “everyday level” -- to a level of energy more subtle or even
towards the higher connection". - Jerzy Grotowski
ParaTheatrical ReSearch Video Clips
"Crux", "Orphans of Delirium", "Archaic Community"
Participation in ParaTheatrical ReSearch Labs
The Interview Process and What To Expect
RITUAL LAB SCHEDULE
Every Spring, Summer and Fall/Winter.
Paratheatre-related articles
by Antero and others
"State of Emergence"
a paratheatre manifesto
