ABSTRACT
The Wooster Group began by working within the organisational set up of The Performance Group in New York, which had been established by Richard Schechner in 1967. The slow fade-out of Ron Vawter's face is strangely poignant as Fish Story was to be his last performance with The Wooster Group. Documentary evidence and documentary practices, it would seem, are core components of The Group's creative practice. The return to ideas and to the archival materials used in productions as seen in The Wooster Group's work can be viewed as a truth-seeking practice that understands that all searching for origins is built from negotiating what has constituted the past in the context of a present that is always allusive. The creation of 'plays' 'from the video tapes' is one of the practices that The Wooster Group pursue in rehearsals and performances. The patina of performance, patterning.
