Founded by Melissa Kievman and Brian Mertes in 2003 the Lake Lucille project was conceived as an exercise in the transformation of space: living space, working space, community space, performance space, and psychological space. Premising their idea of building theatrical processes outside of delineated theater spaces, Brian and Melissa hypothesized that breaking down conventional barriers between work life and home life could expand performers and audience members into new levels of expressive engagement. By reframing their Rockland County home as a rehearsal room, as a community center, as a gathering place, as a performance venue, as a site for large-scale social reflection, they managed to keep artists and neighbors in a liminal headspace that blends working and living seamlessly. After seven seasons of practice, Brian and Melissa's Lucille Project has nurtured a work method that dissolves differentiations between the artist and the community, between performer and audience. Between the dancer and the dance.
On August 7, 2010 four hundred guests were welcomed onto the banks of lake Lucille and the front steps of Brian and Melissa’s 200-year old farmhouse for the presentation of the Project’s seventh offering, Anton Chekhov’s IVANOV. The 65-member company was comprised of actors and artists and performers and producers and musicians and cooks and toddlers and barn swallows from all four directions. The day, not to mention the week leading up to it, was filled with expressionist breakdancing, air-splitting character exchange, delicious home cooked food, rough-hewn swan diving into the lake, laughter of all shapes and ages, and music everywhere.
-Alex Harvey, 2010
Design: Deb O, Julian Crouch, Olivera Gajic, Dan Scully, Barbara Samuels, Christopher Studley, Carlo Vogel, Cait O'Connor, Broken Chord Collective, Daniel Kluger, Brandon Wolcott. Associate Director: Alex Harvey. Choreography: Jesse J Perez. Producers: Melissa Kievman, Wendy vanden Heuvel.
Performers photographed: Dana Eskelson, J. Ed Araiza, Guy Boyd, Betsy Aidem, Ted Schneider, Lynn Cohen, Bill Irwin, Lucas Papelias, Saskia Lane, Jason Butler Harner, Susie Pourfar, Keith Randolph Smith, Wendy vanden Heuvel, Joan MacIntosh, Boris McGiver, Matthew Cowles, Joanne Jacobson, Reg Rogers, Mia Barron, Jesse J Perez, Marin Ireland, Vicky Finney, Randy Reyes, Didi O'Connell, Sofia Gomez, Orlando Pabotoy, Jim Calder, Jess Weixler, Simone Perrin, Andy Grotelueschen, Elvy Yost, Glen Berger, Rob Campbell, Julian Crouch, Leslie Buxbaum, Annie Baker, Adam Driver, Adrian Danzig, Alex Harvey, Gayle Rankin, Gabriel Ebert, Damon Daunno, Lila Coley, Jon Pratt, Phillip Roebuck