The Dionysus Group

The Dionysus Group is a thoughtful, probing analysis and, at the same time, a passionate recreation of the author’s experience in the Off-Off Broadway Theatre of the late 1960s. As a founding member and leading actor in The Performance Group’s internationally acclaimed production of Dionysus in ‘69, directed by Richard Schechner, William Shephard takes the reader into the heart of the group process where imagination and inspiration becomes intermixed with paranoia and dissociation. The author’s analytical approach is grounded in methods of psychology, sociology, and anthropology; however, he uses a novelistic style to engage the reader’s participation - much the same way that audiences were encouraged to participate - in one of the most dynamic theatre experiences of its day.