The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group in New York City, active from 1963 to 1973. Foundation The Open Theater was founded in New York City by a group of former students of acting teacher Nola Chilton, together with director Joseph Chaikin (formerly of The Living Theatre), Peter Feldman, Megan Terry, and Sam Shepard. Joseph Chaikin had just left the Living Theater, following the arrest of Julian Beck and Judith Malina for tax evasion. He felt that the Living Theater had become less interested in artistic exploration and experimentation, and more interested in political activism and he felt that actors needed specific training to do the sorts of pieces that the Living Theater did. The group's intent was to continue Chilton's exploration of a "post-method", post-absurd acting technique, by way of a collaborative and wide-ranging process that included exploration of political, artistic, and social issues, which were felt to be critical to the success of avant-garde theatre. The company, developing work through an improvisational process drawn from Chilton and Viola Spolin, created well-known exercises, such as "sound and movement" and "transformations", and originated radical forms and techniques that anticipated or were contemporaneous with Jerzy Grotowski's "poor theater" in Poland. According to playwright Megan Terry, the notion of a minimalist aesthetic was fueled by the company's quest to achieve narrative insight and political accountability through the body of the actor: The Open Theater formed as an offshoot of the Living Theater. The Living Theater initially divided because actor Joseph Chaikin felt that the troupe had become less interested in artistic exploration and experimentation, and more interested in political activism. He felt that actors needed specific training to do the sorts of pieces that the Living Theater did. Theatrical explorations Chaikin's theatrical exploration came from within; he was interested in the personal experience of the actor, and of the actor's relationship to the rest of the community. He developed improvisational exercises designed to help the actor become freer. The technique was initially inspired by method acting, in which the actor draws on his or her own experiences and emotions, but the goal of Chaikin's work was to free the actor from the natural restraints of method acting. He called his technique the "sound and movement" technique. In his book entitled The Presence of the Actor, Chaikin wrote "Traditional acting in America has become a blend of that same kind of synthetic