The Physical intensity of Dionysus in 69 didn’t arise overnight; Schechner’s troupe rehearsed for months—an average of six hours a day, six days a week, over five months—in a makeshift 'performing garage.' But alongside vocal training and psychophysical exercises the company employed methods that were controversial even then: Schechner himself cites the use of 'attack therapy,' a confrontational psychological technique that had been deployed in some drug-treatment settings. Transposed into a rehearsal room, attack therapy blurred lines between artistic rehearsal and therapeutic intervention, raising ethical questions about consent, coercion and the psychological safety of performers. The method fed the production’s aim—to generate ecstatic, collective states consonant with Euripides’ Bacchae—but it also became part of the larger critique of radical theater practices of the era: were avant-garde directors cultivating deeper truth or simply subjecting actors to potentially damaging emotional pressure? While there are no publicized lawsuits or formal inquiries tied to Dionysus in 69, the troupe’s willingness to incorporate such techniques has been frequently cited by historians as emblematic of the era’s fraught experimentation and the debates about responsibility in ensemble work.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1960s
Rehearsal or Therapy? The Controversial Use of 'Attack Therapy' in Preparing Dionysus in 69
Dionysus in 69 (Richard Schechner / The Performance Group) / 1960s
The Physical intensity of Dionysus in 69 didn’t arise overnight; Schechner’s troupe rehearsed for months—an average of six hours a day, six days a week, over five months—in a makeshift 'performing garage.' But alongside vocal training and psychophysical exercises the company employed methods that were controversial even then: Schechner himself cites the use of 'attack therapy,' a confrontational psychological technique that had been deployed in some drug-treatment settings. Transposed into a rehearsal room, attack therapy blurred lines between artistic rehearsal and therapeutic intervention, raising ethical questions about consent, coercion and the psychological safety of performers. The method fed the production’s aim—to generate ecstatic, collective states consonant with Euripides’ Bacchae—but it also became part of the larger critique of radical theater practices of the era: were avant-garde directors cultivating deeper truth or simply subjecting actors to potentially damaging emotional pressure? While there are no publicized lawsuits or formal inquiries tied to Dionysus in 69, the troupe’s willingness to incorporate such techniques has been frequently cited by historians as emblematic of the era’s fraught experimentation and the debates about responsibility in ensemble work.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.