Annie G. Levy,U.S.A.
Annie G. Levy is a New York based director, collaborative artist and educator who frequently works with Mythology and Ritual. Characterized as highly visual, movement-based and poetic, her work spans from unpacking esoteric ideas to telling familiar and re-imagined stories for inter-generation audiences. She creates Theatre that unearths and explores social issues both within and for specific communities, working to find the universality of any and every story.
Annie is the co founder of warner|shaw, a theatre incubator and breeding ground, where she created and directed DAUGHTER OF THE SUN: The Latvia Project (The Access Theatre, Dixon Place and Indiana University’s Paul Artist Residency), SIX SEEDS: The Persephone Project (Theatre at the Tank and Space on White) and TREE ARMY: The CCC Project Irondale Theatre and Figment – Governors Island).
She is also a founding member and the resident director of the Northwoods Theatre Company, which is dedicated to nurturing and workshopping new plays that reimagine the possibilities of modern Jewish theatre for a multi-generational audience. With Northwoods, Annie has adapted or commissioned and directed Bernard Malamud’s THE JEWBIRD, Lauren Feldman’s AMANUENSiS, Daniel J. Kelly’s SHARON IS MY NAME and Deana Neil’s DO WE HOW…? and created and directed original ensemble works including HISTORY v MEMORY (with Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre). Her selected New York credits include Lisa Hayes' NURSE (off-Bway premiere), Elana Bell’s EYES STONES (The Green Building and national tour) as well as work at HERE Arts Center, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Stanford Meisner Theatre, Theater for a New City and New York Theatre Lab. Annie’s International credits include The Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh, Scotland), Discoteca di Storia (Rome, Italy) and Acadia University (Nova Scotia, Canada).
Annie has over ten years experience as an educator, professional development facilitator and curriculum writer, working with students from pre k through college, including Special Education (emotionally disturbed and autistic populations). She is fluent in incorporating Blueprint for the Arts and the Theory of Multiple Intelligences into daily pedagogy and has training and special skills in ensemble creation methods, Shakespeare in performance, the Viewpoints (Overlie andBogart), adaptation methods, ritual - based theatre, puppetry, improvisation, and working with found and generated text.
Annie is the recipient of a Steven Spielberg Fellowship in Theatre Arts Education, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival directing assistantship, is a 2010 LMCC Uptown/ Downtown Artist and a 2012 Dorit and Gerald Paul Artist-in-Residence at Indiana University. Annie is a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, a founding member of WorldWideLab, an international festival of director driven work, an associated member of SDC and is the co-founder Sweet! Actors Reading Writers. She earned her BA at Columbia University and her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College.
Creating Devised Theatre and Performance
This workshop is a practical, on-your-feet introduction to collaborative and devised theatremaking. Devising theatre is the process of creating theatre in a collaborative manner. Though particular roles may be assigned – writer/s, director/s, actor/s, designer/s – the creation of the piece, whether wholly original or adapted, happens with the artists working together in the rehearsal room, informing each others’ processes. Students will be introduced to a variety of processes in ensemble-theatre-making including adaptation, found text, Viewpoints and Composition, improvisation, working with counterpoint and creating solo performance, as well as methods of offering critical feedback on works-in-progress. The workshop with culminate in mini presentations of new work exploring mythology and ritual of the participants' choosing.