Mat & Sebastian spent the month of March in residence at the Watermill Center, Robert Wilson’s art laboratory on the east end of Long Island, thanks to the generous support of the Dr. Kerry English International Arts Fund and Theatre Communications Group. Alongside Wilson’s collection and archives and a small cohort of international artists, they continued […]
We’ve adapted La Nuit Sombre, our staged concert meets immersive party, for the Kansas City Symphony. The piece was initially commisioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and will be reimagined for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in September 2025. The concert will feature Aureliano Cattaneo‘s La Nuit Sombre, played alongside Mozart‘s Gran Partida, […]
Mat & Sebastian joined a panel of architects and choreographers to discuss their cross-disciplinary and site-specific practice on July 18th at SCI-Arc, a world-renowned center of innovation and one of the nation’s few independent architecture schools. The panel was moderated by Maristella Casciato, the senior curator and head of architectural collections at the Getty Research Institute. […]
Mat‘s paper Imagining Ancient Mystery Rites as Promenade Opera in Los Angeles, a reflection on his site-specific work for the Getty Villa, is published in PERFORMING SPACE 2. Mat & Sebastian discussed their work in an accompanying presentation at the PERFORMING SPACE conference in Nafplio, Greece. Performing Space is a research project that explores the relationship […]
We have been selected for NEFA’s 2024 National Theatre Project Creation and Touring Grant! We are creating a new multidisciplinary performance work adapted from queer pre-modern poetry and mythology. This multilingual performance will shine a light on the distant past to find new ways of conceiving gender and desire… We are looking for creative partnerships across […]
We’ve been invited to create a new work for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The concert will feature Aureliano Cattaneo‘s La Nuit Sombre, played alongside Mozart‘s Gran Partida, with Four Larks‘ immersive design and choreography. The performance takes inspiration from Jan Patacki‘s The Manuscript Found at Saragossa, and from the Venetian Gothic architecture of Cincinnati’s magnificent […]
ΠΑΜΕ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ! In February Mat will travel to Greece as a 2024 Fulbright Scholar. During his fellowship Mat & Sebastian will research and collaborate with artists and musicians in Athens, Nafplio, Epirus and Crete, developing two new projects set to premiere in the US in late 2025 and 2026. Photos taken at the Benaki Museum […]
Four Larks traveled to Chicago in early January to present Hymns to the Society for Classical Studies at their annual conference. Mat & Sebastian joined a group of selected artists and scholars to share videos, and talk about their process of adapting Homeric poetry into contemporary theatre and folk music. For information about the upcoming live […]
Mat was invited to spend the spring as a fellow in the gorgeous estate at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. He spent April-June hollering out folk songs and stringing together some new melodies in a converted dairy barn, biking around nearby trails, chasing ghosts in the mansion, reading, researching, and basking in the brilliance of […]
The Society for Classical Studies has selected our project hymns to support through their latest initiative Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities. The initiative was established to “bring the ancient Mediterranean and its reception into global dialogue with other cultures, past and present” This support from the Society for Classical Studies will help facilitate post-production work on the music […]
Mat has spent the last six weeks researching and devising a new project in residence at MacDowell. Read more about Mat‘s fellowship in AMERICAN THEATRE: “The MacDowell Fellowship program aims to nurture the arts by offering talented individuals an inspiring residential environment in which to produce enduring works of the creative imagination…“This incoming artist cohort brings […]
For the next two weeks, the Getty will will preview a work-in-progress draft of our hymns. These in-development videos are being presented as a part of the Getty’s Theater Lab. The completed album is now available for streaming and purchase via bandcamp. An album of new music and accompanying videos; seven chapters from Four Larks‘ live production Hymns, adapted for at-home audiences. […]
Our hymns are now available to stream and purchase via bandcamp The music was recorded in individual artists’ homes during the COVID19 lockdowns and the accompanying videos were created over five days in an empty Getty Villa. The Homeric Hymns, among the oldest extant poems from the ancient mediterranean, tell the stories of Demeter & Persephone, of Semele & […]
Mat and Sebastian were both selected to work as fellows in residence at the Bogliasco Foundation Study Center located on the Ligurian Coast in March and April 2022. Living alongside six distinguished international artists, Mat and Sebastian began researching and drafting a new live performance work, while completing video editing and audio mixing for their […]
The LA theatre community has honored our production of Frankenstein with 11 Ovation Awards (for the 2019/2020 theatre season in Los Angeles). We’re thrilled to have this recognition from our peers. 2021 Ovation Awards Presented to the Wallis for our original adaptation and production: Best Play Frankenstein / Best Direction Mat Diafos Sweeney / Best Choreography Sebastian Peters-Lazaro / Best Featured Actor Max […]
Our Frankenstein leads the count with a dozen nominations for LA Stage Alliance’s 31st Ovation Awards (for the 2019/2020 theatre season in Los Angeles). We’re grateful for the recognition from our peers. Nominations: Best Play Frankenstein / Best Direction Mat Diafos Sweeney / Best Choreography Sebastian Peters-Lazaro / Best Featured Actor Max Baumgarten / Best Featured Actress Joanna Lynn-Jacobs / Best […]
Happy 2021 dear friends! Here’s hoping that live art will resume and we can be together again soon. In the meantime, we’re digging our heels in to the digital reality. Watch this space for news about our first digital collaboration arriving later this year… We’re also excited to share this new video of Frankenstein. This […]
We mourn the Black lives lost to and endangered by systemic racism in America and we stand in outrage and condemnation of police brutality, in solidarity with protesters around the world. This movement is urgent but the work is ongoing. We acknowledge our personal responsibility and commit to actively work against anti-Black hate and violence […]
Four Larks is featured in the current issue of Theater Magazine; a national journal of criticism, plays and reportage out of Yale. Read David Bruin’s brilliant review and analysis of Four Larks’ The Temptation of St Antony.
Four Larks returns for one weekend only with a visually immersive concerto, scaling the submarine depths of an oversaturated imagination. Join us in our transformed DTLA hideaway for a night of sublime submersion- but don’t delay- these three showings are bound to fill up fast. Tickets and More Information Here! See you there friends!
Check out Jacki Apple’s brilliant reflection on the performance and turmoil of 2016 for Fabrik Media including a thorough reckoning with four larks’ “brilliant postmodern opera” The Temptation of St Antony. Insight and illumination to guide us forward in these dark days. Read the article here.
So long 2016. The Los Angeles Times says goodbye to a year filled with immersive art and experiences, including a conversation with four larks’ director Mat Sweeney. Read all about it.
Four Larks immersive opera returns for an exclusive season in late August! Our ovation award winning team reunites for the final draft of this acclaimed and transfixing theatrical tour de force. Limited tickets on sale in July. Join our mailing list and follow us on social media for first access.
Four Larks has received support from New Music USA for our latest project, Undine, set to premiere in 2017. Follow our project page for developing details of this exciting partnership.
