WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

An outline of how Infinite Spark’s LIRIOPE LABORATORY works.

Liriope Laboratory meets once every two weeks, for sessions that last between 3 and 4 hours each.

Each session is facilitated by us (Jon and Rachel). Our aim is to balance quality and quantity: we want to make sure each project gets open-ended time and unpressurized space to develop, while balancing the number of projects that get developed at any given time.

Also, Lab-work is collaborative. This simply means that you have a voice in the process. Even when we work on a project that needs a strong directorial or choreographic hand, everyone in the room, whether you are a performer, crew, or observer, is invited to contribute their insights, instincts, and intuitions at every level of the process. This enhances the artistic process, builds community, and increases everyone’s sense of creative ownership.

What kinds of theater pieces do we develop in Lab?

Liriope Laboratory is designed to develop the full range of possibilities that can happen on a stage, or in whichever space one wants the expressive event to happen:

o   Devised pieces (i.e., original, “built from scratch”)

o   Adapted pieces (i.e., based on pre-existing material, whether theatrical, or otherwise)

o   Short-Form pieces (i.e., original or existing Scenarios, one-acts, fragments, happenings, experiments, etc.)

o   Full-length pieces (i.e….plays! Or other full-length pieces, whether text-based or otherwise)

Lab uses body-based, and ensemble-based approaches to do its experimentation and work.

This means that the focus of Lab-work is not necessarily on the writing process as it’s understood in traditional playwriting terms.

Of course, written texts can certainly emerge out of the development process, and texts of all kinds will be used as source material for various projects. (And playwrights with full/complete scripts—Lab is for you too!) Our point is simply this: the goal of Lab-work is to experiment its way to each given piece’s most impactful sensory expression. How can each piece—whether it uses text or not—find its maximum felt resonance? We experiment on everything that will be experienced in live space and real-time: how everyone embodies character—and how embodied characters interact; how the ensemble shapes and activates the stage or presentation-space; how language is employed for sonic impact (alongside rational comprehension & emotive content); how sounds can move space as felt rhythm and vibration (whether recorded, or generated by the ensemble), etc.

Ultimately, in Lab, since the performers and their real-time processes and real-space impacts are the focus, their embodiment can inform the shape and content of the text, just as much as the text can inform the shape and content of the embodiment.

An extra note on what “body-based” means:

An important note! Just because Lab-work is body-based does not mean that anyone involved must be an “acrobat”, a mover, a dancer, etc.

Instead, to us, body-based simply means that every Body, inclusive of all ability-levels, experiences, and aptitudes, is the raw material for the ensemble’s exploration and expression. And it’s because of each person’s diversities, that each process, expression, and ensemble becomes unique, specific, and personal. Every body brings its own unique contributions.

How does Attendance work?

Lab is ongoing, rolling from project to project, in perpetuity. Therefore, no participant is required to attend every single session. Some will naturally attend more frequently, and others less, depending on things like:

·      if they’re leading a piece or not

·      if their piece is being worked on or not

·      if they’re interested in performing in a piece or not, etc.

Also, pieces develop on a rolling basis, so some may attend for one “cycle” of material, but not another.