Double Edge Theatre is an artist-run organization founded in 1982 by Stacy Klein.[1] Focusing on vigorous physical training and the principle of an artist's autonomy, the company has sought to create work in an ensemble setting intimately woven with the community.

In 1994, Double Edge moved from Boston to a 105-acre former dairy farm in rural Ashfield, MA, to create a sustainable artistic home.[2][3] Today, the farm is a base for the ensemble's international touring, with year-round theatre training, conversations and convenings, greening and farming initiatives, and the production of an indoor/outdoor traveling "spectacle" which takes place alongside the hills, pastures, river, and gardens of the facility.

Double Edge's name in part comes from the double-edged axe known as the labrys, which was used in Bacchic sacrifices in ancient Greek cult-worship. Double Edge's first production, Rites, was based on Euripides's The Bacchae.

Double Edge Productions

Double Edge's first production, Rites, was based on Euripides's The Bacchae.

The Double Edge ensemble creates performance cycles that tour internationally, including the Women's Cycle, the Song Trilogy, and the Garden of Intimacy and Desire.

The Chagall Cycle, which includes The Odyssey, Shahrazad, and The Grand Parade, responds to the life, work and imagination of Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall.

The Latin American Cycle (2015–present) is inspired by the magical realist literature and surrealist visual art and literature of South America, particularly that of Leonora Carrington and Alejandro Jodorowsky, and includes the performances Once a Blue Moon (Cada Luna Azul), The Latin American Spectacle, and Leonora and Alejandro: La Maga y el Maestro.

The 2018 Summer Spectacle was We The People, a traveling performance which intersected art, culture, and democracy and had its roots in Double Edge's thirty-six-year question of what makes up identity: what are the hidden territories of the land, of history, of imagination, and how do they speak to us as citizens in the present moment?


Indoor Performances

  • SUGA (2019)
  • Leonora and Alejandro: La Maga y el Maestro (2018–present)
  • Cada Luna Azul (Once a Blue Moon) (2015–present)
  • The Latin American Spectacle (2015–present)
  • The Grand Parade (2013)
  • The Disappearance (2008-2010)
  • Republic of Dreams (2007)
  • The Unpossessed (2005)[4]
  • Relentless (2001)
  • Keter, The Crowning Song (1997)
  • Song of Songs (1993)
  • Song of Absence (1988)
  • Request Concert (1986)
  • Had She Spoken (1985)
  • Bold Stroke for a Wife (1985)
  • The Hunger Artist (1984)
  • My Sister in this House (1983)
  • Blood Rubies (1982)
  • Rites (1982)

Summer Spectacles

  • I am the Baron (2019)
  • Leonora’s World (2018)
  • We The People (2017)
  • Ashfield Town Spectacle and Culture Fair (2017)
  • Latin American Spectacle (2016)
  • Once a Blue Moon - Cada Luna Azul (2015)
  • Shahrazad, A Tale of Love and Magic (2013)
  • The Odyssey (2011)
  • Firebird (2010)
  • The Arabian Nights (2009)
  • The Illustrious Return of Don Quixote (2008)
  • The Magician of Avalon (2007)
  • The Three Musketeers (2006)
  • Master and Margarita (2004)
  • Don Quixote (2003)[5]
  • The Saragossa Manuscripts (2002)

Distinctions

2012 - A documentary on Double Edge Theatre entitled Theatre on the Edge was awarded a regional Emmy.
2010 - Double Edge Theatre was included in the United Nations General Assembly's "2010 Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures."

Training

First developed in 1982 by Klein based on her work with Rena Mirecka, Grotowski’s founding actor, the training at Double Edge Theater has grown to include work with large objects, developed by Klein and David Flaxman from 1985, and then outdoor work and spectacle developed with Carlos Uriona since 1996. Since 2011 Matthew Glassman has led the ensemble's training development. Vocal training is led by John Peitso, with Amanda Miller. The holistic methodology seeks to engages actors physically, vocally, emotionally, and imaginatively, to drive individual exploration, ensemble collaboration, and performance creation.

Double Edge Theatre offers "Training Immersion" and "Intensive" programs on-site at the farm, as well as workshops in residence and on tour. This program is led by Jeremy Louise Eaton, Director of Student Programs. These residencies and training workshops are held at universities, and in conjunction with performances, at high schools, in other theatres, and community venues.

The physical training includes running, partner work, and work with large objects. The improvisation training combines individual and group work, and includes work with large objects, music, art, video, and other elements. Participants create "etudes and presentations"; scenes using music, art, video, dance, and character, that seek to translate the physical and improvisational training into a devised work process.

Facilities and Farm

The Double Edge Theatre Farm Centre is situated on a 105-acre former dairy farm in Ashfield, MA.[6] The facility includes two performance and training spaces, production facilities, offices, archives, music room, and outdoor performance areas, hay fields, pastures, a stream, pond, and forestland. There is also an animal barn, vegetable gardens and a high tunnel hoop house, and an additional property in the town centre housing resident and emerging artists and DE's "Emerging Artists Studio". Another property has been transformed into a design house, with design offices, studios, costume shop, and set, costume, and prop storage. On the farm, participants train, perform, run the business of the theatre, host programs and guests, and grow food.

The preservation of the historic buildings on the farm has guided the process of renovation since the Double Edge ensemble moved to Ashfield, as has the shrinking of the theatre's energy footprint. Central to all planning is the development of long-term stability and an increased capacity to accommodate creative programming and food production.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Klein, Stacy (2011). "On Double Edge Theatre". New Theatre Quarterly, Volume 27, Issue 1.
  2. ↑ Klein, Stacy (2011). "On Double Edge Theatre". New Theatre Quarterly, Volume 27, Issue 1.
  3. ↑ Fujiwara, Chris (November 7, 2004). "Where the Theater Is a Kibbutz, and the Kibbutz Is a Theater: Reaping what it sows: The Double Edge company lives, and acts, close to the land". The New York Times, AR.8.
  4. ↑ Fujiwara, Chris (November 7, 2004). "Where the Theater Is a Kibbutz, and the Kibbutz Is a Theater: Reaping what it sows: The Double Edge company lives, and acts, close to the land". The New York Times, AR.8.
  5. ↑ Byrne, Terry (November 14, 2005). "Double Edge possesses Quixotic vision:". The Boston Herald, 030.
  6. ↑ Fujiwara, Chris (November 7, 2004). "Where the Theater Is a Kibbutz, and the Kibbutz Is a Theater: Reaping what it sows: The Double Edge company lives, and acts, close to the land". The New York Times, AR.8.
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