Revisiting previous Lab topics, including Greek and symbolist drama, adaptations and devised work

The 2004 Lab brought together a wide mixture of investigations of interest to the Lab's 75 directors. These ranged from a look back at the work of previous Labs, a week devoted to understanding Greek theater, a week devoted to symbolist drama, adaptations and devised work. In addition, the July dates of the Lab allowed directors to have sessions with artists whose work was in the LCT Festival. Simon McBurney and Kazuyoshi Kushida spoke to the directors, who were then invited to watch rehearsals of THE ELEPHANT VANISHES and the Kabuki "HEISEI NAKAMURA-ZA."

2004 marked the tenth anniversary of the Lab, and to celebrate, the approximately 90 incoming directors began by investigating the past nine Labs. As part of their research, 2004 Lab members contacted directors who had taken part in the previous Labs as well as the master artists who came in as guests and documented the most creative activities and challenging rehearsal explorations that the Lab had undertaken.

The 2004 Lab also looked at ancient Greek drama using PROMETHEUS BOUND as a base text. Actors performed the lead roles and Lab directors were enlisted to play the chorus. Six different conceptualizations of the play were presented at the end of the week.

To supplement the work of the six PROMETHEUS BOUND companies, the Lab invited directors Julie Taymor and Daniel Fish to the Lab to discuss their experiences staging ancient Greek plays. Director Jo Bonney came in to talk about her hip-hop rendition of THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Sessions were held with Peter Meineck (professor of the classics at NYU and Artistic Director of Aquila Theatre Company), and Charles Beye from CUNY, an expert on Greek drama. John Conklin displayed his scenic designs for Greek drama and talked about how it had been in the past.

During the second week, directors conducted an investigation of archetypal or symbolist drama. Five teams-each comprised of a director, an actor, and a designer-worked on Chekhov's THE SEAGULL, specifically the play-within-the-play written by the character Konstantin Treplev. Lab directors looked at five interpretations of Konstantin's monologue to determine for themselves whether his play was "good" or "bad" and to see how the monologue could be interpreted in different ways.

Directors examined symbolist drama from the director's perspective as well as from the point of view of the actor and designer. Professor and author Laurence Senelick led a conversation devoted to scenic designer, producer, and actor Edward Gordon Craig. Eleanor Duse, one of the genre's well-known leading ladies, was the focus of a discussion led by Helen Sheehy who has written a biography of the actress.

Members of the Lab also rehearsed THE SNOWSTORM, a play by Marina Tsvetaeva, an early-20th-century Russian poet and author of non-representational plays.

The final week of the 2004 Lab focused on the creation of new work for the stage using material from other mediums. Directors conducted a series of rehearsals to create stage adaptations of short stories by Jennifer Egan. Ms. Egan was invited to the Lab to watch presentations of the plays based on her stories.

Also during the third week, all Lab members collaborated on COMMON GROUND, a "found" theater piece using self-generated texts created in the manner that Moisés Kaufman, Anna Deavere Smith, and Emily Mann have utilized for their work. Directors working on this project asked everybody in the Lab a series of questions. Lab participants responded to the questions, writing down their replies, and that became the text for COMMON GROUND.