Category Archives: Community

Approaching The Fence from All Angles

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • October 23, 2014 - 10:55 PM , , , , , , , ,
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L-R: Zhenya Lavy, Aimée Bruneau, and Lola Peters | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

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Andrew Ross Litzky and Annie Paladino | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

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Clockwise from back: Jose Amador, Aimée Bruneau, and Zachary Hewell | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

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Valerie Curtis-Newton and Andrew Ross Litzky | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

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Joseph Lavy and Annie Paladino | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

 
For our October 12 Sunday Salon reading of Howard Barker’s The Fence in it’s Thousandth Year, we filled the house with a fantastic group of artists and intellectuals who really dug in to investigate the play’s meaning, reverberations, and implications for performance today. We were fortunate to snag time with Valerie Curtis-Newton in what turned out to be a monumental week for her: winning The Stranger’s 2014 Genius Award for Theater and Crosscut’s 2014 Courage Award in Culture. And we owe special thanks to Andrew Ross Litzsky for saving the day when one of our originally scheduled reader fell ill.

The entire cast knocked this reading out of the park:

PHOTO, a Blind Adolescent – Zachary Hewell
ALGERIA, A Duchess – Aimée Bruneau
ISTORIA, Friend to Algeria – Valerie Curtis-Newton
DOORWAY, A Suitor – Joseph Lavy
LOU, A Young Woman – Annie Paladino
KIDNEY, A Servant – Andrew Ross Litzky
YOUTERUS, A Blind Thief – Jose Amador
CAMERA, A Blind Child – Margaretta Campagna
NARRATOR – Zhenya Lavy

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Discussion on Devised Theatre

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  By Joseph Lavy • August 30, 2014 - 10:20 AM , , , ,

I started a discussion about devised theatre on APL’s Facebook group page, and it’s generated quite a bit of interest among artists and theatre scholars. The discussion was inspired by Kate Kremer’s August 28 opinion piece on Howlround — my opening remarks are as follows:

This discussion of so-called “Devised” theatre seems to me exceptionally myopic. First, if Devised Theatre arose as an attempt to break away from the hegemony of the Playwright, why interview 3 playwrights to the exclusion of other collaborative artists? Second, positioning Devising against Schechner’s nearly 50-year-old statement about directors violating vs respecting the text ignores nearly 2 generations of world theatre artists who have been “devising” (long before there was a pigeonhole for the work) without violating OR respecting The Text, but encountering text as a single, (sometimes) necessary element in the development of the performance event: For example, Eugenio Barba/Odin Teatret, Slowiak – Cuesta /New World Performance Lab, Raymond Bobgan, Gardzienice, APL, and countless others. 
I wonder if this “New Avant-garde” realizes they’re actually behind the times.

 

I could add Anne Bogart/SITI Company, NaCL, UMO, Wooster Group, Double Edge…

Join the conversation or just take a look at what’s been written — it’s a robust and thought-provoking read. (Facebook account required.)

Special Salon to Honor Odin’s 50th Anniversary

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • June 8, 2014 - 2:34 PM , , ,

Odin 50th anniv image - APL with dateWe are thrilled to add a special Sunday Salon to our regular, quarterly line-up and hope you will join us for this rare opportunity!

When Odin Teatret celebrates its 50th anniversary on June 22 with a one-time-only performance of CLEAR ENIGMA, Akropolis Performance Lab wants to “be there” — and we invite you to join us, too! The performance is being livestreamed. “It will take place after the conclusion of the Festuge, a week of festivities […] in which Odin Teatret, local associations, institutions, and individual citizens ally themselves to theatricalise their community, revitalise its ties and honour its differences.”

We highly value the work of Odin Teatret, with which we share artistic heritage and which has had meaningful impact upon our work, as well. More information.

Curtain Calls & Curtain Speeches: Why, How, and When Do You Do It?

  By Akropolis Performance Lab • May 15, 2014 - 3:20 PM , , , , , ,

 

Curtain Calls & Curtain Speeches, co-moderated by Zhenya Lavy & Annie Paladino.

Curtain Calls & Curtain Speeches, co-moderated by Zhenya Lavy & Annie Paladino.

Annie Paladino and Zhenya Lavy co-moderated a very lively Twitter chat today as part of the HowlRound.com peer-produced conversation series on Twitter at #newplay.

It never ceases to amaze what can be accomplished in 140-character bursts!

If you missed it, the transcript is archived on Storify. Check it out!