- published: 10 Jun 2015
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Andre William Gregory (born May 11, 1934) is an American theatre director, writer and actor.
Gregory studied at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice In Wonderland (1970), based on Lewis Carroll's two classic Alice books. In the course of these experiments, he founded his own theatrical company, The Manhattan Project (1968). In 1975 he directed Our Late Night, the first produced play by Wallace Shawn, which began a long working relationship between the two. Shortly afterward, Gregory's growing misgivings about the role of theatre in modern life, and what he felt was a trend toward fascism in the United States, led him to abandon theatre abruptly and leave the country. As described in My Dinner with Andre, he traveled to Poland on an invitation from Jerzy Grotowski, developed a number of experimental theatrical events for private audiences, and then spent several years in a variety of esoteric spiritual communities (such as Findhorn) developing an interest in what could be described as New Age beliefs.