The notion of a)LoStCrEaTiVe was founded in the summer of 2001 and has grown from a one woman wonder to an artistic collective with mutual goals "to create original thought provoking 'live art' and 'installation work.' Creatives consist of actors, artists, poets, singers, musicians, film-makers, dancers--and anyone with an eye for artistic creation and flare for raw talent.

a)LoStCrEaTiVe's ethos:

• Identifies an individual's lost creative energy and exploring creative demands
• Challenges new audience conception of performance
• Eliminates elitism
• Opens doors and welcomes both the public as well as the artistic community to collaborate and share artistic experiences

a)LoStCrEaTiVe is a 'performance art/theater company', based on the concept of lost creative energy. The objective is to find this lost creative energy and employ it, while providing a supportive environment in which individual artists may explore their creative demands. In creating new, original work, the aim is to challenge a new audience's conception of performance. In trying to eliminate elitism, alostcreative opens the doors and welcomes both the public as well as the artistic community to collaborate and share their artistic experience.

The need for creative employment might seem like a romantic ideologue, but it will manifest into a practical utopia. a)LoStCrEaTiVe draws on the skills and culture of its members and uses this as natural resources; nurturing the raw talent of the group and recycling their rejected ideas. The ethos is to challenge that which is expected, with that which visually possible of theatre and film, juxtaposing creative disciplines with human tendencies. There is something quite sexy about this thin line between respectable theatres and high art that Varvarides wants to get to grips with!

The structure of the group consisted of a series of alternative workshops (called L.O.S.T.) aimed at opening up that tin of worms called 'creativity' with a whole hearted outpour of 'imagination.' The workshops take the structure of acting and writing exercises aimed at tapping into the subconscious, as stimuli to create new work. The style often compliments the absurd and questions concepts of reality. Ideas develop organically-cultivated through the use of different drama exercises and preserved with the use of documentation (this documentation forms the educational part of a)LoStCrEaTiVe and is, in essence, the body of research into the 'live/performance art' practices that will be later drawn upon when analyzing the marriage between 'theater' and 'performance art').

The objective is to work towards a finished installation piece, showcase, exhibit, or performance within four months of brainstorming. This timeline is enforced so as to keep ideas fresh, while providing further opportunities to create new work. The artistic director's intentions in keeping it fresh lie not only in the fusion of different artistic disciplines, but in the understanding of the psyche and ones' short concentration span!

All this art and drama is intentioned to broaden the voyeur's artistic appreciation, as well as challenge the artists to create work outside of the framed box. The artistic director's signature borders on the abstract, marries the surreal, parodies Greek tragedy, and steals from Shakesphere that which was never his.