What is the Method Lab?
Upon walking through the door of the Method Machine space at 650 South Avenue, also labeled ‘Method Lab,’ your voice echoes against the bright, almost blinding, white walls. To the outside world, the words printed in red that read ‘Method Lab’ may cause some suspicion, maybe even curiosity as to what this place actually is. Marcy Savastano, a Nazareth College graduate, is one of the founders of Method Machine and participates in many of their performances.
“The definition of Method Machine is an artistic playground to put forth creative illuminating works of art,” said Savastano. “That would probably be the one-second definition.”
Method Machine started last year by three friends from high school, Savastano included.
“We said ‘why don’t we try this and see what happens?,’ said Savastano. “So we got back together and talked about it for a while.”
All three were interested in pursuing art, performance and directing. Inside the actual space on South Avenue, they host art shows and photo galleries, have improv shows and they have musicians perform as well. They have theatrical performances in the ‘Method Lab’ and also take them on the road.
“Our first theatre show was in February,” said Savastano. “We performed at Lux, we performed at a Fusion Salon on Park Avenue, so we kind of had a traveling show. It was very interesting. “It was fun to do in the middle of winter, to break down the set and take it to different places everyday,” she added sarcastically.
So far the plays that have been performed are already published, but they will continue to explore other possibilities as well.
“Its part of our mission to do new pieces,” said Savastano. “We’ve also talked to some established authors about doing some of their works that haven’t been produced yet. We also want to do local shows. We’re working on a one act right now that was written by a local playwright that will go up at the end of this month.”
According to Savastano, Method Machine works to do a little bit of everything. Although Method Machine strives to be professional, they also have a pretty laid back atmosphere when it comes to various artists rehearsing for shows.
“Its not high maintenance,” said Savastano. “We just say ‘hey when you want to come rehearse, we will make sure that we are there.’”
A lot of thought went into the creation of the name Method Machine. Method acting is an acting technique created by a Russian man named Stanislavski, therefore the first word of the name was derived from that.
“Basically what he created was an approach to acting, which was really diving into the psychology of the character,” said Savastano. “Working on the way they walk, the way they think, the way they talk. So before that, acting was very external and he made it a more internal process.”
And for the part of the name ‘Machine…’
“We thought that we’re this well-oiled, cooperative, working together to create these works of art,” said Savastano. “So we don’t think of a machine as necessarily like bits and pieces put together kind of thing, it’s more like all three of us working together in tandem to create the art that we put forth.”
For Savastano, although art can create an escape from regular life, there is much more to it than that.
“It’s to broaden your mind, to be creative, to have an outlet to educate, to entertain, to express views that can’t normally be expressed, for experimentation, for people to derive joy out of it,” said Savastano. “There are so many levels of the importance of art, especially when there is so much going on in society. People need an outlet to express themselves, to educate, to teach people and to learn from others.”
