not exactly science
WHERE THEATRE MEETS INQUIRY
The emBODY Lab is preparing its 2026–2027 project,
Once Upon a Lab: Origins and Echoes, a practice-as-research process created through the emBODY Method.
This season's Lab also includes Performance Lab and Play Lab, both part of the emBODY Festival on June 26.
Details on each below.
A place where we get to create and explore.
The emBODY Lab is the experimental heart of emBODY Project Theatre, where the emBODY Performance Method meets research, risk, and raw material. It's not a single program. It's three distinct tracks, each built around a different kind of creative risk, all grounded in the same pillars: freedom, presence, and authenticity.
Devising Lab is our ongoing practice-as-research ensemble. A committed group of artists spends a full cycle investigating one research question through embodied storytelling and body culture centered devising, building original performance from first impulse to finished score. This is where the company's new work gets born, one session at a time.
Performance Lab brings dancers, musicians, actors, and visual artists together across disciplines to develop short collaborative works in progress, work that only exists because more than one art form got in the room together.
Play Lab gives short scripts by Greater Boston playwrights a full production, an assigned director, a rehearsal process, a tech process, and a stage, so a script gets to become a play exactly the way its writer imagined it.
Across all three tracks, process is valued over product and embodiment is valued over convention. The emBODY Lab is both testing ground and creative catalyst, where ideas get felt, challenged, and reshaped, and where what gets built here often makes its way into the emBODY Ensemble and Studio.
This is where the work is born.
This has been a unique physical experience for me. The initial stripped down movements later progressing into something more vivid and dynamic is not only thrilling to participate in, but also unforgettable. In this space, everyone is a collaborator as the entire company pools their multiple talents together to create something magical. I have been with the ensemble for a couple of years now and I could not be more happy and proud to be involved with such a cutting edge group.
-Jean S.
Going into this, I was looking for a movement/dance group that would bring me out of my comfort zone. I certainly found that here. As an artist, I have had great confidence in my acting and singing abilities, but have been self conscious about how I look when I move or dance. In lab, beauty is not the goal, which is not always the goal in dance either, instead, it is about listening to your artist gut and have pride in whatever you come up with. It is about being comfortable with oneself to become the best collaborating artist you can. It was hard work and my mind was stretched for sure. It was a unique experience I was happy to have taken part in it.
-Aliyah H.