Ohio

Reflections on APL’s World Premiere Tour of Crime + Punishment
by Artistic Associate Tyler J. Polumsky

 

“I went back to Ohio… But my city was gone…”

 

Entrance to The Balch Street Theatre, home of New World Performance Laboratory (Akron OH) | Photo: Joseph Lavy

Entrance to The Balch Street Theatre, home of New World Performance Laboratory (Akron OH) | Photo: Joseph Lavy

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders sang that way back in October 1982, on a B side, in lament for her hometown – Akron – and the changes that had turned the serene beauty of her childhood home into something unrecognizable.

Three and a half decades on, I also went [back] to Ohio, but my city was not gone. I went [back] to Ohio, but my family was not gone. No, no. My city was found, my family was there with me, and it just kept growing. For me, nothing was unrecognizable. It was, in fact, as if it was just waiting to be discovered.

There in Akron, you see, just west of downtown, is a little place on Balch Street.* Maybe a little run down. Maybe a little dusty. More than perfect for a theatre company to have as its own home.

A home is a vital thing for making our art. Not to be scoffed at. And this home is far more than most companies I know have.

“Ay… oh… way to go…”

Tyler Polumsky as Raskolnikov in the world premiere of Crime + Punishment | Balch Street Theatre, Akron OH | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

Enter New World Performance Lab.

NWPL is the kind of company you would expect to find in Europe. They are a well-established company. They have been cultivating and culturing their own audience for 25 years. Most of the core ensemble members have been working together for decades. They have their own space. They make art. They do not seem to care much for many of the fancy follies that theatre companies in big metros break themselves on. They have their own terms and direction, and it is Art. They are an intellectual and spiritual pillar of a community. Ten minutes with any of them is enough to make that clear.

Imagine designers who can take a pile of urban waste and turn it into minimalist stagecraft confection. Imagine a board op who prefers to run the light board manually because “The operator needs to be following and working with the actors, live, as a partner, on any given night.” Imagine actors who will let themselves be eaten alive by mosquitos before they will stop their training. The kind of folks who would jump on an actual boat with a pocket full of change, third class, en route to Europe, with dreams of working with Jerzy Grotowski unannounced — not only doing it but going on to become among his closest collaborators.

Imagine leaders who throw the doors open for you so you can premiere your show, who share their wine and guest rooms at home when it’s time to rest, and who put coffee on the next morning so you can get back to it.

 “Ay, oh, way to go…”

So here, naturally, we from Akropolis Performance Lab, tired and road weary, jolly as ever, in this old community hall, in a beautiful and versatile space, surrounded by some excellent brothers and sisters in art, dug right in and premiered our adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime + Punishment to an audience hungry for theatre built on sweat, blood, and dynamic creativity rather than popped out of a can.

Tyler J. Polumksy as Raskolnikov | Crime + Punishment (92017-18) | Balch Street Theatre, Akron OH | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

Tyler J. Polumksy as Raskolnikov in the world premiere of Crime + Punishment | Balch Street Theatre, Akron OH | Photo: Margaretta Campagna

in the world premiere of Crime + Punishment

in the world premiere of Crime + Punishment

It went well. How could it have gone otherwise, really, in such an inspired place, among inspired people?

APL and NWPL felt to me like long-lost siblings. This surprised me even though I knew APL’s co-founders were founding members of NWPL before moving to Seattle. The reunion of such things is profound, marked by joy and a mutual curiosity peppered with excitement.

We know ourselves by knowing each other, it seems.

And when you have an audience that has been cultivated, educated, and prepped for all of your experiments — an open audience, hungry for the resonating thought and questions your work will provoke — well, that is when theatre is really ready to happen.

And it did.

“…All my favorite places…”

Shortly before we went, a friend joked to me that going to Ohio to tour a show would be like going to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where I had spent 10 years with the Ilkholm Theatre. I understood the dig: it’s not New York. Very clever.

“…My city had been pulled down… reduced to parking spaces…”

The thing is, he was right. He just wasn’t right in the way he intended.

“…I was stunned and amazed…”

What I found [back] in Ohio — what I have found in my artistic home with APL and recognized as equally potent in NWPL — is a little thing called inspiration (a little, ilkhom, if you are up on your Uzbek). The main ingredient for true Art. Actual artists who are busy being humans … not people just busy trying to be “Artists.” A space that is begging for a life and roaring back in unexpected places. A theatre that functions as a human institution rather than merely a civic or historical one.

So, yeah — a little like going [back] to Tashkent.

And why shouldn’t a place like this be found in America’s heartland? All roads lead to Ohio. Check a map. Follow any national election. Read the history. Ohio is at the center — “The Heart of It All!” as the state slogan goes.

What a setting! Deep in the heart of the American Beast, at a historically dire and dark time, APL was making some bone-biting theatre. Right there in Ohio.

I went back to Ohio, and my city was right there.

I went back to Ohio, and my family was right there with me, and growing.

And I’ll go back to Ohio, my pretty countryside.

“Ay… Oh… Way to go… OHIO”

* Built in 1929 as Akron’s Jewish Center, this once thriving building was essentially deserted by 1985. Over the next 25 years it changed hands several times but amid the recession and other complications became more and more run down until, in 2011, Akron Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer published an article calling it a “wreck.” Shortly thereafter, the City of Akron forged an agreement with New World Performance Lab and the Center for Applied Theatre & Active Culture to take over the theatre portion of the building. Since then, NWPL/CATAC have been cleaning up and caring for the space, pursuing strategic repairs, and fostering a new, vibrant community of artists and audiences.
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Get a Sneak Peek at 730 Steps!

Devising Duklida: Joseph Lavy (R) provides feedback to ensemble members (clockwise from L) Emily Jo Testa, Tyler Polumsky, Matt Sherrill, and Annie Paladino during the devising process.

Devising Duklida: Joseph Lavy (R) provides feedback to ensemble members (clockwise from L) Emily Jo Testa, Tyler Polumsky, Matt Sherrill, and Annie Paladino during the devising process.

Please join us Friday, July 28, for a full rendering of our work-in-progress on 730 Steps.

 

This was the culmination of a year’s work, which began July 23, 2016, with a reading of the initial rehearsal script. As with any new-work, and especially with source material of the scope and complexity of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the generative phase of our development process has been richly rewarding. We now have a wealth of material to put in front of an audience for feedback.

What is a rendering?

Akropolis uses “rendering” as a particular term of art. On the one had, there is the common sense definition related to performance and the word rendition: representing or depicting something artistically; causing something to be; submitting something for inspection. However, in our work “rendering” always incorporates an older meaning that is less commonly used today: melting something down; extracting parts; or clarifying (as with butter). For APL, a rendering is always an opportunity through performance — whether for an audience of 100 or 1 — to present work for inspection for the express purpose of clarifying it, identifying parts to cut, rearrange, or reshape.

 

The July 28 rendering is an important part of 730 Steps’ development process. The feedback we receive will help us shape the final form of this massive production!

You can expect to see scene work developed to date, in continuous performance. Where there is material still to be devised for major plot points, we will represent that material in a more temporary performance manner. While the finished piece will incorporate music, we will not perform music as part of the rendering. Actors will be in costume. Major props and set pieces will be used, and there will be basic theatrical lighting. Audience will be seated on 3 sides of the action on padded chairs, and there will be risers for optimal viewing.

Plan for a 4 hour viewing. The rendering begins at 7:30 pm. You are welcome to arrive as early as 7:00 pm. Light refreshments will be provided.

This one-night event is free and open to the public. However, to comply with the wishes of our donated venue, we ask that you send us an email requesting an invitation. Seating is limited, and invitations will be sent out by email on a first-come, first-served basis.

We hope you will join the ensemble around the table afterwards to talk about your observations!

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This project is sponsored, in part, by a grant from 4Culture.

An Actor’s Early Thoughts on Ecce Faustus

"But you others, what do I see? You are all sitting there with lusting eyes: you free souls, where is your freedom gone?" | Tyler Polumsky as The Bad Angel | Ecce Faustus (2016) | Photo: Mark Jared Zufelt, Aether Images

“You are all sitting there with lusting eyes: you free souls, where is your freedom gone?” | Tyler Polumsky as The Bad Angel | Ecce Faustus (2016) | Photo: Mark Jared Zufelt, Aether Images

This message was written to Joseph and Zhenya early in the rehearsal process for Ecce Faustus. As APL prepares to remount the piece for video and a special one-night-only showing for audience, it seemed like a good opportunity to share these thoughts.

I am a bit sleepless. Working on text, and stepping through sequences in my mind.

So, I am writing to tell you how genuinely enamored I am with our work.

Ecce Faustus cuts deep. It is a complicated text; based on tried and true classical literature, neither profane nor vulgar in content–though the message is one that strikes straight to the bone of the profanity and vulgarity of the human condition in our time (perhaps throughout all of time).

Sitting and listening/reading the text, observing the shapes of the action, I begin to see what amount of devastating efficacy we can bring to this story.

I know we have a long way to go before these themes begin to sound out and resonate with the intended genuine depth, but I have no doubts that this group of artists will get there.

As I lay my head to sleep, I am grateful for the opportunity to endeavor with you all on something of this calibre and in which I can find a great worldly meaning and value. Faust is a story to be told, again and again, now more than ever.

Indeed we are all Faust: selfish, self absorbed, and self centered. It would almost be a cruel joke were it not disappointingly true….

I have always believed the theatre to be a spiritual endeavor first and foremost. I am glad to not be alone in this and overjoyed at an opportunity to convey a deeply meaningful story to anyone that would hear it–and with a group of artists who are not afraid to delve so deeply for the sake of spiritual wealth.

Thank you,
Tyler

Meet our New Artistic Associates

2015 Ensemble Membership ChangesSeptember brings exciting changes for Akropolis Performance Lab as we welcome five new Artistic Associates.

Emily Jo Testa and Linnea Ingalls, who participated in 2014-15 as Artistic Apprentices, have earned promotion to full membership as Artistic Associates. Both were strong contributors during their apprenticeships, performing in Pomegranate & Ash and The Glas Nocturne, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration.

We are thrilled to begin working with three new artists: Matthew Sherrill, Nick Rempel, and Tyler Polumsky. The range of experience they bring to Akropolis is truly impressive. They already have leapt into our twice-weekly physical and vocal training sessions, as well as work on music for our upcoming production of Ecce Faustus.

This brings APL’s core ensemble to eleven, as our new Associates join continuing members Annie Paladino (Associate Artistic Director), Joseph Lavy (Founder & Co-Artistic Director), Margaretta Campagna, Sara Kaus, Trevor Young Marston, and Zhenya Lavy (Founder & Co-Artistic Director).

Please join us in congratulating Emily Jo and Linnea and in welcoming Matt, Nick, and Tyler!

Learn more about all our new members here.