Pillory Theater Source Material: Program Notes: Termites

The Pillory Theatre, which was created five years ago as the Adelphi Mime Theatre by Dr. Jacques Burdick, Assistant Professor of Speech and Theatre Art, performed an original work, Juana the Mad, last spring [1967] at The International Festival of University Theatre in Nancy, France. The company is composed of five performers, the company manager, the recording secretary, and the director. It's work is difficult to describe, since it is exploratory, but its approach is systematic and calculated. Each of the members of the group is dedicated to the objective of ripping away from theatre practice whatever is non-essential, endeavoring to establish a theatre practice in which the actor offers his body to the spectators in a ritual act, revealing himself to the spectators through his antagonists. It is an ambitious objective, impossible to realize completely, and the group humbly admits that it has only begun to realize the proportions of its task.

The Termites is an original work of the Pillory group. In it, the actors undertake an exploration of the nature of guilt. The work has evolved through four performed versions since it's first presentation in November [1967]. The version to be performed at the Yale Drama Festival will be the fifth.