Martha Lavey

Martha Ann Lavey (born February 20, 1957 in Lawrence , Kansas , † April 25, 2017 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American artist who became known as a performance artist, stage actress and theater director. For almost two decades she acted as artistic director of the renowned Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago and during this time she shaped the theater scene with multiple award-winning performances and consistent work with young talent.

Life

Personal life and education

Lavey grew up as one of seven siblings first in the east of the US state Kansas and then in Washington, DC and Kansas City . Her mother was a housewife and her father worked for the CIA . The family moved to Detroit in the late 1960s. There Lavey attended the Catholic Immaculata High School - an all girls' school . According to their own statements, the nuns brought them into contact with the ideas of liberation theology , feminism and the peace movement . In retrospect, Lavey described this time as very formative in terms of the development of her social awareness. One of the teachers - Anne Knoll from Cicero ( Illinois ) - discovered her acting talent and hired her without auditioning for the role of Anne Sullivan in a school production of The Miracle Worker . Knoll became her mentor and close friend.

In 1975 Lavey enrolled , also on Knoll's advice, to study theater studies at the School of Communication at Northwestern University in Evanston ( Illinois ). She graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1979 and then took acting classes with John Malkovich . She was briefly married in the early 1980s and moved to San Francisco for a year . To be financially better off she was considering legal science to study. However, her husband advised her to take a Masters in what she loved at a graduate school . Lavey was also tired of the socially and financially marginalized life as an artist - and as a performance artist she was again marginalized within the cultural community. She looked for an "identity-transferring" measure, therefore followed her husband's advice and returned to Northwestern University, where she was particularly influenced by the scientific approaches of the ethnographer Dwight Conquergood (1949-2004), one of the heads of the subject Performance Studies was. His main interest was cultural staging and staging in everyday life. In doing so, he pursued the ideas of Erving Goffman and, as it were, elevated ethnography itself to a performance. Lavey completed her Masters in Performance Studies in 1986. A few years later, she decided to do her dissertation in performance studies at the same institution. Leland H. Roloff (1927–2015) worked as her doctoral supervisor until his retirement in 1991 . He was a qualified analytical psychologist , worked in the tradition of Carl Gustav Jung and taught poetry and bibliotherapy . At the same time, he held several teaching positions at Northwestern University over the course of more than two decades, most recently as professor of performance studies. In 1994, Lavey became famous with her typeface Representing the body. An archetypal approach to the Performance Art of Rachel Rosenthal , Laurie Anderson , and Karen Finley for Ph.D. PhD .

Practicing Buddhist Lavey was a member of the National Advisory Council for the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She has also served on the grant committees of various artistic organizations and institutions - including the National Endowment for the Arts , United States Artists , Theater Communications Group, and 3Arts  - as well as the Chicago Advisory Board for Urban Art. 2014 Lavey donated 500 dollars to the ultimately successful campaign to re-elect Lisa Madigan , Attorney General of the State of Illinois.

On May 4, 2015, she suffered a stroke in her home and was hospitalized. The brain damage was not life threatening, and Lavey showed signs of rapid recovery. Almost two years later, she suffered another stroke on April 19, 2017, from the consequences of which she died on April 25 at the age of 60.

Artistic career

"She did a section from James Joyce 's Ulysses , and it was a performance I'll never forget. Every member of the audience had a headset, and she spoke the text, whispering it in our ears, while she enacted a ritual onstage that involved a kind of abstract choreography of the text and the lighting of dozens of candles. It was an indelible performance, and her boldness, her artistic imagination and reach were so extraordinary that I remember thinking that this was a person of real genius. "

- Frank Galati : on Lavey's final presentation in his Presentational Aesthetics course at Northwestern University

Martha Lavey has been closely associated with the Steppenwolf Theater Company since her studies . For example, in 1980 a performance of Say Goodnight, Gracie there directed by Austin Pendleton was the last deciding factor to pursue a stage career herself. During her acting course with John Malkovich, she actually made her debut at that house in 1981, when her teacher was staging the play Savages there . Lavey played in it - like the other theater students at Northwestern University - a Brazilian native .

During her stay in California in the early 1980s, she worked there as a performance artist with a small group of musicians and authors . She also had individual stage roles, but performed with this group mainly in unconventional places, for example in galleries and racquetball clubs. After her return and her master's degree, she had her breakthrough in 1987 at the Steppenwolf Theater when she played Lemon in Aunt Dan and Lemon under the direction of Frank Galati . Since then she has appeared in numerous plays, not only at the Steppenwolf Theater, but also at the Goodman Theater , the Victory Gardens Theater and the Remains Theater in Chicago, as well as the Northlight Theater in Skokie (Illinois) and the Women's Project Theater in New York City . In 1993 Lavey finally became a permanent member of the Steppenwolf Theater. Around the same time, then Artistic Director Randall Arney announced that he would resign. The founders of the theater therefore soon brought the position of artistic director to Lavey - initially as an interim solution . In 1995, however, she was officially appointed the new artistic director. In addition to her administrative activities, she also stayed with the company as an actress.

During her tenure, Lavey transformed from an initially inexperienced director to one of the most prominent theater professionals in the country. Her appearances on smaller stages in Chicago and her strong network work made her an extremely respected person in the Chicago cultural scene. Her eloquence and rhetorical straightforwardness were also valued , characterized by the fact that she always expressed her opinion openly, even at the risk of drawing the displeasure of important decision-makers with direct criticism. She was known for choosing new, intelligent and sometimes small plays for the Steppenwolf Theater Company's repertoire. She was also one of the early patrons of numerous well-known and successful authors - such as Bruce Norris , Tracy Letts and Lisa D'Amour . Martha Lavey was a passionate advocate of intensive youth work. Under her direction, the theater worked with many young, relatively inexperienced actors. She saw it as an obligation of the house to look after young artists and to open up opportunities for them to join - either through direct collaboration in productions or by inviting them as part of guest groups. Within twenty years, Lavey doubled the Steppenwolf ensemble and ensured a greater diversification of the artists. She initiated partnerships with schools and municipal institutions, created feedback options for viewers after performances and set up a youth theater division. Furthermore, at the suggestion and request of co-founder Gary Sinise  , she was responsible for the conception and implementation of the garage, a studio stage opened in 1998 in the theater's car park. Six productions by the Steppenwolf Theater Company were transferred to Broadway in New York City under Lavey's direction .

On October 2, 2014, Lavey announced at a press conference that she would resign from her post at the end of the 2014/2015 season. Anna D. Shapiro , who had also been working at the Steppenwolf Theater for a long time, was introduced as her successor through an internal change in staff, and who had previously been considered a potential "heir to the throne" in expert circles. Martha Lavey had announced that she initially wanted to remain a simple member of the ensemble.

Awards

Martha Lavey was personally honored with various prizes for her artistic work:

• 2004: Alumni Merit Award (given by Northwestern University)
• 2004: Chicago's 10 most powerful women in the arts (awarded by the Chicago Sun-Times )
• 2010: Chicagoan of the year (awarded by the Chicago Tribune )
• 2010: Honorary Doctor of Arts (awarded by Northwestern University)
• 2013: 100 most powerful people in Chicago - 43rd place (awarded by Chicago )
• 2014: 100 most powerful people in Chicago - 62nd place (awarded by Chicago )

Under her aegis , the Steppenwolf Theater Company (or the ensemble) was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998 , the Illinois Arts Legend Award in 2000, the Otto Rene Castello Award for political theater in 2001 and the Drama League Award in the “Unique Contribution” category to the theater ”and in 2003 with the Equity Special Award. In addition, the theater received a total of nine Tony Awards during Lavey's tenure ; all productions transferred to Broadway had at least one nomination (see table below). Individual pieces, productions and people in the house have also received numerous regional, national and international awards - for example the Laurence Olivier Award , the Jeff Award , the Drama Desk Award , the Outer Critics Circle Award , and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Theater World Award .

Filmography

• 1989: Cold Justice
• 1993: Missing Persons (TV series, episode 1x07: Some People's Priorities )

Web links

• Martha Lavey in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Grimes: Martha Lavey, a Leading Lady of Chicago Theater, Dies at 60 . In: The New York Times . April 27, 2017, accessed April 28, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Anne Taubeneck: “A stage presence”. In: Northwestern. Northwestern University , Winter 2004, accessed July 19, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Sara Boland-Taylor: New paradigms in graduate education - Outside academia, volume 3: Martha Lavey. In: astr.org. American Society for Theater Research, October 9, 2014, accessed July 19, 2015.
4. ↑ Profile of Martha Laveys as part of the Steppenwolf Theater Company ensemble. ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: steppenwolf.org. Steppenwolf Theater Company, accessed July 19, 2015.  
5. ^ Matt Dietrich: Who's getting money from the most powerful people in Chicago? Part II. ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: rebootillinois.com. February 25, 2014, accessed July 19, 2015. 
6. ↑ Chris Jones: Steppenwolf artistic director is hospitalized. In: Chicago Tribune . May 7, 2015, accessed July 19, 2015.
7. ↑ William Grimes: Martha Lavey, 60, Dies; a Leading Lady of Chicago Theater. In: The New York Times . April 27, 2017, accessed April 28, 2017.
8. ^ Profile of Martha Laveys as part of the management committee of the Steppenwolf Theater Company. ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: steppenwolf.org. Retrieved July 19, 2015.  
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Profile of Martha Laveys within the conception of the future planning of the Steppenwolf Theater Company accompanying her resignation. ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: steppenwolf.org. Retrieved July 19, 2015.  
10. ↑ Chris Jones: At Steppenwolf, Shapiro takes over from Martha Lavey. In: Chicago Tribune . October 2, 2014, accessed July 19, 2015.