CLICK HERE TO READ OUR STATEMENT OF INTENT
The Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL) is an inter-disciplinary performance collective formed by writer/director/video/performance artist Esther Neff and composer/musician/sound/digital artist Brian McCorkle.
PPL's projects are developed in collaboration with individuals from many different walks of life, and often through community workshops, interviews, and other engaged practices. They often examine complex systems and trace epistemic, emotional, and socio-political viewpoints held by individuals and groups using music, text, home-made technological set-ups, multiple languages, video, interactive and participatory elements, field-recorded sound, and found materials. Our core practice is currently the creation of "documentary performance art operas." PPL has shown work in New York City at Dixon Place, University Settlement, The Brick Theater, The cell, Gathering of the Tribes Gallery, ABC No Rio, Spread Art, The West End Theater, The Hudson Guild Theater, the Manhattan Theatre Source, Judson Church, Surreal Estate, Studio Maya, IRT, The Brecht Forum, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Battle Ranch, 14 Wall Street (Workforce/Forced Work through Swing Space) two chashama spaces, in a pop-up gallery through QMAD, at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LAB residency), BOB the Pavilion at Columbia University, during SUPERFRONT's Public Summer at Industry City, and during FIGMENT, and in bars and parking lots, on the Theresienwiese where the Oktoberfest is held in Munich, Germany, above a mall in Goshen, Indiana, in parkinglots, on rooftops, and many other spaces and sites elsewhere. In conjunction with and sometimes as performance projects, PPL also organizes conferences, workshops, and other public platforms for critical analysis, synthesis, and debate and collaborates with artists and organizations all over the world.
www.panoplylab.org
www.vimeo.com/panoplylab
www.facebook.com/panoplylab
Current and Past PPL collaborators include:
Alejandro Acierto
Jason Anastasoff
Georgiana Avram
Loren Barnese
Mikey Barringer
Gelsey Bell
Jessica Bathurst
Ella Joyce Buckley
Chiasui Chen
Michael J. Connolly
Megan Cooper
Ian Dunn
Kristen Elliott
Danielle Faitelson
Daniella Fischetti
Kate Garfield
Herbert Go
Matthew Gonzalez
Cat Gilbert (Gratuitous Art Films)
Michael Hanf
Melissa Heller
Anna Heinl
Tess Jamias
Katie Johnston
Joseph Keckler
Dina Keller
Ashley Kelly-Tata
Meredith Kitz
Brian McCorkle
Natasha Missick
Marisa Merrigan
Hyatt Michaels
Esther Neff
Michael Newton
Ellen O'Meara
Adrian Owens
Paul Pinto
Brian Rady
Erin Rogers
Dave Ruder
David Tam
Alexis Thomason
Aaron Thompsen
Anika Solveig
Matthew Stephen Smith
Ariel Swan
Tom Swirly
Andrew Whipple
Liam White
Jeffrey Young
PPL PRESS
TIME: A Complete Explanation in Three Parts
“The chaos gives the audience agency to engage with the presented landscape of ideas as they choose.” Will Fulton, nytheatre.com
“All of this, however, is not just simple nonsense; it is hyper-structured nonsense.” Eugene Reznik, L Magazine
“The deft mixing of video, music, and word-play allows audience members to take in whatever they wish, along with ideas on making use of their own time.” Patricia Contino, Flavorpill
The Last Dreams of Helene Weigel or How to Get Rid of the Feminism Once and for All
“my melting ears are still recovering” Alexis Soloski, The Village Voice
“Neff and McCorkle successfully transpose the satiric, sexual, and political aspects of Brechtian theatre for a wildly fanciful, song-filled exploration of Helene's (Andrea Suarez) inner world.” Patricia Contino, Flavorpill
“Helene is robbed by linoleum salesmen, kills a swan (her husband in a feathered suit), and identifies with Heloise's suffering at Abelard's hands, among many symbolic, esoteric vignettes.” Di Jayawickrema, nytheatre.com
