Abstract
This chapter aims to locate the authentic links between the development of experimental theatre and the emergence of drama therapy from the 1950s onward.It investigates the influence by the major practitioners and theorists of experimental theatre -Artaud, Grotowski, the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre and the Performance Group -on the developing field of drama therapy, and in particular the self-revelatory performance form developed by Renee Emunah.The chapter explores how a new concept of the performance of self evolved from the re-conceptualization of drama, script, theatre and performance in the experimental theatre movement, and sparked by the autoperformance work of radical theatre artist Spalding Gray.Self-revelatory performance is conceived as a dynamic and genuinely healing form of therapeutic theatre, combining the best of both theatre aesthetics and drama therapy.
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Snow, S. (2016). Influences of Experimental Theatre on the Emergence of Self-revelatory Performance. In: Pendzik, S., Emunah, R., Read Johnson, D. (eds) The Self in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53593-1_2
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