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Double Edge Theatre, an artist-owned organization, was founded in 1982 by Stacy Klein. The company applies vigorous physical training and the principle of an artist’s autonomy to create work in an ensemble setting intimately woven with the community. The Double Edge ensemble creates performance cycles which 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 indomitable imagination of Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall, while engaging with international collaborators in music, design and dramaturgy. In 1994, Double Edge moved from Boston to a 105-acre former dairy farm in rural Ashfield, MA, to create a sustainable artistic home. Today, the Farm is an International Center of Living Culture, a base for the ensemble’s extensive international touring, with year-round theatre training, conversations and convenings, greening and farming initiatives, and a popular indoor-outdoor traveling spectacle which takes place alongside the hills, pastures, river, and gardens of the Center. The 2016 Summer Spectacle is the Latin American based Once a Blue Moon (Cada Luna Azul).
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.
Contents
Double Edge Productions
Chagall Cycle, 2010-2015
The Garden of Intimacy and Desire Cycle
The Song Trilogy
The Women's Cycle, 1982-1985
Summer Spectacles
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 Reapprochement of Cultures."
Training
Training is the heart and vitality of Double Edge’s creative process. Since 1982, when it was first developed by Klein based on her work with Rena Mirecka, Grotowski’s founding actor, it 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 been leading the development of training at Double Edge. The unique, holistic methodology engages the actor’s full potential – physical, vocal, emotional, and imaginative – 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. These residencies and training workshops are held at universities, and in conjunction with performances, at high schools, in other theaters, and community venues.
Training programs and workshops contain the following elements:
'Physical training' involving a total body experience including running, partner work, and work with large objects. Although vigorous, the process allows any participant to fully engage.
'Improvisation', which is a combination of individual creation and group work. Improvisation allows participants to build a world of the imagination, and includes work with large objects, music, art, video, and other elements.
'Etudes and Presentations', created from the improvisation and individual work; scenes are created and built using music, art, video, dance, and character to create a unified piece. The goal is to translate training a into devised work process.
Facilities and Farm
The Double Edge Theatre Farm Center is sited on a 100 acre former dairy farm in Ashfield, MA. The facility includes two performance and training spaces, production facilities, offices, archives, music and outdoor performance areas as well as hay fields, grazing 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 center housing resident and emerging artists. On the Farm, the company trains, performs, runs the business of the theatre, hosts programs and guests, and grows food. A vision of future facilities include a music training space, emerging artist studio, a public archive/gallery, design and build shops, and a fully developed farm.
The preservation of the historic integrity of the 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. At the heart of all facilities planning is the development of long-term stability and an increased capacity to accommodate creative programming and food production.