Category Archives: Catherine Lavy

The Maids/Vexations Premieres October 24th!

  By Joseph Lavy • October 1, 2018 - 9:00 AM , , , , , , ,

Seats are available now for our upcoming production, The Maids/Vexations, a simultaneity of performance
Running Oct 25 through Nov 24.

This is the latest APL production to follow our distictive chamber drama format (pioneered with our 2015 The Glas Nocturne), produced in the APL Downstairs Studio for audiences of no more than 10 per performance.

Request your invitation at https://goo.gl/forms/0fQP4vmfKucwLkLP2

"The game is dangerous. I'm sure we left traces." ~Solange "...it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities." ~Erik Satie

“The game is dangerous. I’m sure we left traces.” ~Solange
“…it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.” ~Erik Satie

Featuring:
The Maids by Jean Genet ~ Annie Paladino, Catherine Lavy, Emily Testa
Vexations, by Erik Satie ~ Zhenya Lavy, piano

Direction and Scenography ~ Joseph Lavy
Production Assistant ~ Kyrie Dawson
Technical Direction ~ Tomas Campomanes

By bringing together Genet’s The Maids (original English translation by Joseph Lavy) and Satie’s Vexations in independent but concurrent performances within a shared space, APL seeks to challenge the notion of unified event – Satie’s brief, infinitely expansive experimental piano piece being no more accompaniment to the theatrical performance than the play is dramatic context for the musical performance.

The confluence of Genet’s erotically-charged rite of desire, identity, fantasy, and power with Satie’s notorious durational composition – reported to induce hallucinations in the performer – will prove illuminating, confounding, and potentially mind-altering!

Each performance is limited to 10 attendees. Come to see The Maids. Come to hear Vexations. Come knowing both will happen simultaneously!
All performances are by invitation only and PWYC ($30 suggested).
To request your invitation follow the link
https://goo.gl/forms/0fQP4vmfKucwLkLP2

*NOTE: The Maids contains mature language and physicality. Not recommended for audiences under 14.

Akropolis Performance Lab productions are made possible in part by 4Culture and the generous support of individual patrons.

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Theatre Journal publishes Glas Nocturne Review

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • April 16, 2016 - 8:10 AM , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Theatre Journal TGN ScreenshotWe are so proud to share this performance review of The Glas Nocturne, which is published in the current issue (68.1) of Theatre Journal!

Thank you to Jeanmarie Higgins and ‪#‎theatrejournal‬ for venturing out to our corner of the country and giving APL’s work critical consideration as part of the international theatre conversation.

From the author: “What started as a quick trip to Seattle to see some friends and some theatre turned into a Theatre Journal performance review of Joseph and Zhenya Lavy’s The Glas Nocturne. I love writing about Akropolis Performance Lab; the work is always virtuosic, irrefutable, and strangely joyful.”

READ THE REVIEW FREE ON ACADEMIA.EDU

Je Suis le Fils de Quelqu’un

  By Joseph Lavy • December 29, 2015 - 3:55 PM , , , , , ,

Je Suis le Fils de Quelqu’un:
A reflection on touring The Glas Nocturne to Akron OH, November 2015

By Joseph Lavy

“You have the song. You must ask yourself where this song began.” ~J. Grotowski

 

I can’t seem to write the post I want to write.

I want to write a long meditation on heritage and homecomings;
about artistic fathers and family re-membered
over coffee and broken bread;
how the past and the present converged
over wine and rillettes
and how a bottle of aquavit can almost reach the Hour of the Wolf.

I want to write a treatise about the fallacy of linear time

and a Thanksgiving hymn of gratitude
to my colleagues for their faith, talents, and work,
to our hosts for their hospitality,
for artistic homes;

a cry of deep joy
sprung from meeting the challenges of
transforming our performance from one sort of
intimacy to another,
without loss or sacrifice;

a profound parable
of returning and laying it all on the line
before those people–visible and invisible–
who matter the most
and who prove that you are not a vagabond
but that you come from some country,
some landscape
which is still there
and which is you
near or far.

“The Story of the Girl,” segment from Akropolis Performance Lab’s The Glas Nocturne,  Saturday, November 21, 2015, at The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture/New World Performance Lab in Akron OH.  L-R: Joseph Lavy,  Emily Jo Testa, Catherine Lavy, Annie Paladino, and Zhenya Lavy.

The Doctor Returns! Glas Nocturne reopens Nov 5

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • October 19, 2015 - 10:26 PM , , , , , ,

We are thrilled to announce that we are remounting The Glas Nocturne in Seattle (Nov 5-7 & 12-14) and in Akron OH (Nov 20-21)! The Ohio tour is hosted by Akron’s Center for Applied Theatre & Active Culture / New World Performance Lab. It’s our first tour out of Washington State, and we can’t wait to share this potent piece with new audiences.

Check out our new Glas trailer video, too!

 

Learn more about our Ohio host, the Center for Applied Theatre & Active Culture / New World Performance Lab, on their website.

Reviews Are In & Word Is Out About Our Secret Performance

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • May 26, 2015 - 12:25 PM , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“Poets say the moon is passionate and desirous. Others see an ethical-religious meaning in moonlight. Youth sees the moon as a promise of all those tremendous things which await it; The old find a memento that the promise was never kept, a reminder of all that broke and went to pieces. And what is moonlight?” | Joseph Lavy as Dr. Glas | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

Although we restricted marketing for The Glas Nocturne to social media and word-of-mouth, word has gotten out quite well. So well, in fact, that we are extending our run by a full week beyond our initial expectation!

If you haven’t yet gotten a seat, we have just 30 available between now and June 7.

Check out some of what’s being said about this truly remarkable performance!

Just 30 seats remain through June 7, so act quickly to get your invitation!

REQUEST INVITATION BUTTON

Pomegranate & Ash Makes a Strong Debut

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • February 9, 2015 - 1:04 PM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday we premiered Pomegranate & Ash: An Experiment in Theatre of Polyphony in On the Boards’ Open Studio #6 — and today OTB has confirmed that we are the first group to fully pack the house!

The Sad Days that are Surely to Come

"This is the time of tension between dying and birth -- the place of solitude where three dreams cross." | Henry James Walker, Trevor Young Marston, and Zhenya Lavy | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

Dance of Separation

Dance of Separation | Front: Sara Kaus and Annie Paladino. Back: Linnea Ingalls, Margaretta Campagna, Zhenya Lavy. | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

Dance of Seduction

Dance of Seduction "Oh, ho, I will have it. I will bow and bend to get it." | Trevor Young Marston and Sara Kaus | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

The Abduction of Persephone

The Abduction of Persephone | Annie Paladino with Zhenya Lavy, Catherine Lavy, Margaretta Campagna, Linnea Ingalls, Emily Jo Testa. | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

Clairvoyant Action

Clairvoyant Action | Emily Jo Testa with Henry James Walker, Joseph Lavy, Sara Kaus | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

An Angel Hath Troubled the Water

An Angel Hath Troubled the Water | Trevor Young Marston with Catherine Lavy, Annie Paladino, Margaretta Campagna, Emily Jo Testa | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

An Angel Hath Troubled the Water

An Angel Hath Troubled the Water "These waters will heal you, they will set you free." | Linnea Ingalls & Trevor Young Marston | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

Low, Low

"And the sword I will wield, and the sword I will wield... for this is my work while here below." | (L-R) Back: Joseph Lavy, Trevor Young Marston, Henry James Walker. 3rd Row: Annie Paladino, Emily Jo Testa, Sara Kaus. 2nd row: Margaretta Campagna, Linnea Ingalls. Front: Zhenya Lavy, Catherine Lavy. | Photo: Joe Patrick Kane

 

Here’s a sampling of audience responses:

  • “The ensemble was so tight. Precise and tuned into each other.”
  • “The music was amazing!”
  • “Their dance [Dance of Seduction by Sara Kaus and Trevor Young Marston] was really powerful!”
  • “The girl’s [Catherine Lavy] song made me cry!”
  • “It’s hard to believe you’ve only been working together as an ensemble for three months!”
  • “Very moving. Even though there was no story, the imagery and the way you layered everything together was striking.”
  • “It was refreshing to see a performance that was truly interdisciplinary!”

Were you there? We’d love to get your feedback, too! Please email us or comment below.

Thank you to On the Boards for organizing this event.

Pomegranate & Ash continues to evolve. Look for additional showing announcements through this Spring and Summer.

Pomegranate & Ash to Premiere in OTB’s Open Studio

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • December 16, 2014 - 6:58 PM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Pomegranate & Ash | On the Boards Open Studio | Feb. 8, 3:30 PM.

Pomegranate & Ash | On the Boards Open Studio | Feb. 8, 3:30 PM.

The fullest manifestation to date of APL’s Theatre of Polyphony, Pomegranate & Ash premieres at On the Boards in the Open Studio on Sunday, February 8, at 3:30pm.

Pomegranate and Ash takes TS Eliot’s Ash Wednesday, Monteverdi madrigals, the Hymn of Demeter, music from the Shaker tradition, and each performer’s personal biography as source material for an original performance rooted in themes of separation, loss, and reunification.

The entire ensemble performs in this piece, including all our new Artistic Associates and Apprentices.

Admission to Open Studio is by donation only: $5 suggested.

Learn more about Pomegranate & Ash and APL’s Theatre of Polyphony.