When and how did you discover the theories and works of Jerzy Grotowski?
ANTERO ALLI: I discovered the theories and works of Jerzy Grotowski in 1977. At that time, I was working in a group paratheatrical experiment in Berkeley California directed by David Rosenbloom. This group attended the Pacific Film Archive screening of Grotowski’s film document of his Polish Laboratory Theatre’s performance of “AKROPOLIS”. Soon thereafter, I also read his book “TOWARDS A POOR THEATRE” and started applying its exercises and ideas into action within the group dynamics already in momentum. Over the next thirty-two years, I have been busy incorporating additional techniques and ritual forms into what has become a new medium of paratheatre, a kind of group ritual technology for Self-initiation that is Grotowski-inspired, rather than Grotowski-defined. This paratheatre medium is not copying or aspiring to replicate Grotowski’s work but has taken off towards other levels of accessing, expressing and embodying the internal landscape. This group work has been documented in my b
