Akropolis Performance Lab is an ensemble-based theatre company founded in 2000 by Co-Artistic Directors Joseph and Zhenya Lavy, whose artistic lineage traces directly through the Central and Eastern European heritage of Grotowski to Meyerhold and Vakhtangov. Artistic Associates work together over the course of years through ongoing weekly physical and vocal training, as well as extended exploration and rehearsal processes.
With an artisanal approach to theatre, APL favors a minimalist aesthetic, subtly nuanced for small audiences, questioning intellects, and individual experience. The ensemble crafts deeply layered performances at the intersection of source material, cultural heritage, physical action, music, dance, and personal memory. Simultaneously ancient and new, beautiful and essential, APL’s strives to eliminate the noise of our techno-frenetic world and to enrich and clarify the actor-witness relationship.
APL is independent. We work with values that aren’t market-based, charting our path outside theatre’s commercial/institutional ecosystem.
One of Seattle’s longest standing devising ensembles, APL’s recent body of work includes Crime + Punishment (2017-18), Ecce Faustus (2016), The Glas Nocturne (2015-17, Seattle Footlight Award recipient, reviewed in Theatre Journal), Pomegranate & Ash (2015), and Uncle Vanya (2014). Among other honors for the company, Dream of a Ridiculous Man was presented for the 2005 national Theatre Communications Group conference and was the subject of a feature article in Moscow’s The Stage, and the company’s work on Seneca’s Oedipus and Week 2 of the world premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days / 365 Plays both earned mention in academic publications.
The ensemble has hosted its Sunday Salon quarterly play reading series since March 2013 and offers regular workshops in physical and vocal praxis.
ARTISTIC ASSOCIATES: Annie Paladino, Associate Artistic Director Emily Jo Testa Jennifer Crooks Joseph Lavy, Producing Artistic Director Margaretta Campagna Matt Sherrill Sara Kaus Tyler Polumsky Zhenya Lavy, Executive Artistic Director
JUNIOR ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE: Catherine Lavy
A Washington State Non-Profit Corporation, Akropolis Performance Lab is sponsored, in part, by a grant from 4Culture.
Learn More: http://www.akropolisperformancelab.com