Jason Slavick
Artistic Directorjason[at]performancelaboratory.com
Jason Slavick is a theatre director, writer and educator. His most recent work, Le Cabaret Grimm, is a punk cabaret musical that was developed in the summer of 2008. In 2007 Jason developed Heaven & Hell - The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins, a new musical based on the album by Joe Jackson that was presented at The Boston Conservatory. As a former company member of Boston Theatre Works, Jason directed Othello (Elliot Norton Award nominated for Best Production and Best Actor), The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra and Macbeth. He helped develop and directed Emily Mann’s critically acclaimed Meshugah, Olga Humphrey’s Veronika Vavoom Volcanologist, and his own play J: A One-Act Improvised Tragi-Comedy. He also directed numerous developmental workshops and readings including The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates, Paranoia by Olga Humphrey and others. Jason directed Professional Skepticism at The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, The Good Woman of Setzuan and The Cherry Orchard at The Boston Conservatory, Betty and Mortie at The New Theatre, Frankenstein at The Stanley B. Theatre, Baby with the Bathwater for InCharge Productions, The Stronger at The Left Bank Theatre in Tel Aviv, and Aristotle Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and A Land Without Trees at The Second Hand Independent Theatre, which he founded in Philadelphia.
Besides Le Cabaret Grimm, Heaven & Hell - The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins and J: A One-Act Improvised Tragi-Comedy, Jason has written The Dancing Bear, The Golem, Icaphish, and Alice: A Grotesque Turn in Twelve Scenes. He is currently at work on a new play entitled The Old Woman of the Mountain.
Jason has taught at a variety of colleges and schools in New England and created the Education department at Boston Theatre Works, which he ran for six years, and is the chair of the Arts department at Gann Academy. He received his MFA in directing from The Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, where he was awarded the Pell Scholar Award and directed Richard III, Waiting for Godot, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and others. There he had the great fortune to work with Oskar Eustis, Brian Kulick, and Kevin Moriarity. Jason received his BA with honors in Philosophy from Trinity College in Hartford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and won the George E. Nichols III First Prize in Theater Arts the Blanchard W. Means First Prize in Philosophy. He studied at the Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institute and at the Warsaw Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Poland.
Rachel Hock
Artistic Associaterachel[at]performancelaboratory.com
Rachel Hock graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in English and a concentration in language, media, and communications in May 2009. Through her extracurricular involvement with the Urban Exploring club, Rachel helped organize the first ArtAwake – a one-night music and arts festival that showcased eleven local musical acts and the works of over 70 local artists and attracted more than 1,500 attendees, both students and community members. Now an annual event, ArtAwake won the Association of College Unions International 2009 Student-Driven Program of the Year Award. In 2007, Rachel did work on social networking sites as an intern for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School in NYC. Rachel also worked as a production intern at the New Repertory Theatre on their 2005 production of Into the Woods.
Kate Smolik
Production Managerkate[at]performancelaboratory.com
Kate Smolik attended Lawrence University in Appleton, WI where she studied set design and studio art. There, she worked on such productions as Anna Karenina, She Loves Me, and Kiss Me Kate. She also performed in 2 separate productions of The Vagina Monologues. As a Stage Manager at The Attic Theatre in Appleton, WI, she worked on productions of Annie!, The Sensuous Senator, Barefoot in the Park, and The Hobbit. Most recently, she worked as a Stage Manager at The Tribe Theatre, a comedy improv theatre in downtown Boston.
Josh Mocle
Media Coordinatorjosh[at]performancelaboratory.com
In 2005 Joshua Mocle followed his passion for film and video to Montreal, Quebec and found himself involved in a continuous stream of mixed media and journalistic activities as a student in the Concordia University Department of Communication Studies. He held direction, production and editing roles on seven short films between 2005 and 2008, in addition to working on many film projects individually since 2004. He also spent four years on staff at CJLO Radio 1690AM hosting a weekly radio program and holding executive positions as the station’s News Director, Magazine Editor and Assistant Music Director. After coming up for air in the summer of 2009, he realized he had somehow graduated and the university told him he could no longer use their halls for mid-day snack breaks and band practice. Following this unexpected but ultimately unsurprising turn of events, he returned to the Boston area and began advising and teaching video to a new generation of creative thinkers at the Gann Academy in Waltham. He also, on occasion, contributes written, video and audio content to National Underground.org, a website dedicated to alternative music and multi-media throughout the country and the Boston-founded Multiversity Comics blog. He also briefly played bass in the now defunct Boston-area “cuddlecore” act Cuddlefest. If it's loud, fast, borderline existential and reproduced on celluloid or vinyl, he probably approves of it.