Many phenoms born of the '70s, like disco, deserve to stay there. Others, like gestalt therapy, may deserve a second look. Artist Brody Condon presented a multiday live role-playing event, LEVELFIVE — which had 75 people exploring “self-actualization” by way of character creation and structured after Large Group Awareness Training — in front of an audience at the Hammer in late 2010. Drawing on techniques from various encounter-group strategies, Condon offers a smaller take on that event with Future Gestalt, “part sci-fi live role-playing game, part experiential essay on the history of psychotherapeutic group encounters.” Five trained performers immersed in characters they have created will draw on improv techniques devised by Condon, while a gestalt therapist communicates with them remotely via hidden earpieces. Commissioned in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time and set in the Storefront Plaza, an architectural modification by Nate Pope within Machine Project, the performers bring “their own style of communication” to the session, where it will be unclear if they come “from a different world, planet or dimension.” Machine Project, 1200-D N. Alvarado St.; Thurs., Jan. 26, 8 p.m.; free. (213) 483-8761, machineproject.com/archive/events/2012/01/26/future-gestalt/.

Thu., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., 2012

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