What Will It Look Like?

An outline of how Infinite Spark’s LIRIOPE LABORATORY will work.

Starting in early 2026, The Liriope Laboratory will meet every two weeks, for sessions that will last between 3 and 4 hours each.

The pilot program of the Liriope Laboratory is intended to last for one calendar year, with the long-term goal being to make Liriope Lab the ongoing, open-ended engine of our creation process!

What kinds of theater pieces will be worked on?

The Liriope Laboratory will develop:

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

o   Adapted pieces (i.e., based on pre-existing material, whether theatrical or not)

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

o   Full-length pieces (i.e….plays!)

It’s expected that organic cycles of “invention>development> presentation”, will emerge. (However, even with the work being cyclical in nature, people will be able to join ‘midstream’; and by the same token, participants won’t be ‘locked in’ to attending every single session if they don’t wish.)

Each cycle will roughly follow these 5 steps:

1. On Day 1, and on a rolling basis, Rachel & Jon will welcome participants and establish everyone’s area of interest.

(I.e., Do you want to develop an idea you already have? Generate an idea to develop? Be a collaborative performer? All of the above? Or, “I don’t know, I’m just curious to be here!”)

2. Pooling of Ideas: the proposal of, or generation of, ideas to develop.

3. Experimentation: practical exploration and embodiment of ideas and inspirations.

4. Formal Shaping: gradual crafting of each piece for performance.

5. Performance!

Short pieces will be collected for public performance into Infinite Spark’s once-or-twice-annual Anthology series.

Full-length pieces will be produced as they are developed.

In the room: Each project will be allotted a portion of the 3-4 hour session for it’s particular process. In some instances, more than one project may work at the same time (if there is enough space, participants, etc.). Time will be allotted at the end to confer, show progress if desired, put our heads together, and look ahead to future sessions.

Pieces will come together at different times, and each with its own processes. To accommodate this variety and overlap, Lab is structured flexibly. While each project will have a ‘core’ group of collaborators, people joining ‘midstream’ will be able to join projects that are already in process as there’s room. Also, folks may initiate new processes while other processes are in their various stages of development. (And, participants won’t be ‘locked in’ to attending every single session if they don’t wish.)

The Lab will use body-based, collaborative, and ensemble-based approaches to do its experimentation and work.

This means two things:

·      One, everyone who is in the room has a collaborative voice in the process—even when one person leads the guiding vision.

·      And two, the focus of Lab work will not necessarily be on the writing process as it’s understood in traditional playwriting terms.

Of course, written texts may emerge from the development process, and many types of texts will be used as source material. But the goal of Laboratory-work is to discover what each piece is in action—in its movements, rhythms, shapes, and plastic expression—and then to shape text & language to fit that, rather than writing a text first and then trying to fit the embodied expression to it.

Those are the basics of what Liriope Laboratory will look like. To learn more and to get involved, click HERE and HERE!