GROUP THERAPY (preview)

In 1968, the groundbreaking documentary Journey into Self revealed eight strangers as they underwent therapy in an attempt to “to discover the secret of being together,” at a moment of civil unrest and American consciousness raising. Nearly four decades later, L.A.’s celebrated theater ensemble confronts Group Therapy, a new work of documentary theater that mirrors that film’s voyeuristic lens and delves into 16 hours of the Group’s actual transcribed therapy with a licensed professional.

After more than a decade of creating theater together, this tight-knit group of collaborators amplify their self-interrogation into an uncensored—sometimes funny, sometimes poignant—work of live art. Through chance operations, each performance of Group Therapy originates in a past encounter, then quickly spins into spontaneous reflections, real-time (re)recordings and cinematic gestures. As the members of Poor Dog Group process their divorces, dependencies, privileges and vulnerabilities, they create a portrait of a generation’s hustle, and, above all, what it is like to endure.

Created by Poor Dog Group
Featuring: Jonney Ahmanson, Jesse Bonnell, Brad Culver, Andrew Gilbert, Adam Hunter, Jesse Saler, and Cat Ventura Ahmanson
Direction by Jesse Bonnell
Scenic Design by Efren Delgadillo
Sound Design by Andrew Gilbert

Poor Dog Group [PDG] met while studying at the California Institute of the Arts and have been working together since 2008. The Group began making performances in our industrial warehouse, which was located in downtown Los Angeles. Our work has been presented at The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), The Contemporary Art Museum Santa Barbara, The Getty Villa Theater Lab Series, The Curtis R. Preim Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), RADAR LA, South Coast Repertory Theater, LAX Festival, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Bootleg Theater, and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. Additionally, our company works in a variety of contexts and spaces including warehouses, office buildings, parking lots, museums, and galleries.

GROUP THERAPY is commissioned by The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA and was created as part of its Artists-in-Residency program, with additional residency support from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Headlands Center for the Arts. Group Therapy is a project of Creative Capital, and is produced in partnership with Los Angeles Performance Practice.