About Us
Our Mission
The Experimental Theater Lab seeks to provide opportunities for everyone to expand their abilities for expression and understanding by encouraging creative bravery.
We believe the opportunity to study, understand, and work with the techniques of those who have made brave leaps before us can lead us to brave leaps of our own.
We believe experimental theater techniques have the power to connect with people anywhere and everywhere and wish to provide opportunities to explore these techniques to as many people as possible, especially in places where such opportunities may not exist or may be extremely limited.
We believe any individual with an open mind and respect for the artistic process can create important theater and invite everyone in the communities in which we operate to explore with us.
We believe in the intrinsic value of art and that respect for the artistic process and respect for all artists involved is essential for our success.
We provide artists and audiences with the opportunity to experience experimental techniques as viable, powerful, and accessible options by offering workshops in experimental theater techniques, producing high-quality productions of existing experimental texts, and developing and producing new works.
Our Team
Gwethalyn Williams
Gwethalyn began her association with the Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop (MXTW) as a participant in high school. She went on to study theater at the University of Kansas where she received her B.A. in Theater with distinction and departmental honors.
She returned several times to serve on the MXTW staff as an assistant director during her college years. As she continued her theatrical pursuits she developed a deep appreciation for all MXTW had done for her as an artist and as a person and began to hope she might be able to facilitate similar experiences for more young people. When Jim Hamilton retired as director of MXTW in 2003 and offered her the job, it was truly a dream come true.
In addition to returning to Manhattan each summer since then to direct the workshop, Gwethalyn has worked with E.M.U. Theatre, Card Table Theatre, and E.A.T. in Lawrence, KS. In recent years she has continued seeking out new theatrical experiences as she and her husband travel the country and has participated in classes and workshops in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Denver.
She helped found XTL in hopes of finding ways to share the Hamilton Method and the potential value of experimental theater techniques with more people and in more places.
Megan Clark
Megan Clark is a playwright and youth director based in Manhattan, KS. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Drama Therapy at Kansas State University. Megan has worked with Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop for High School Students, Umbrella Collective theater company, Ashland Productions and Nautilus Music Theater in addition to producing original works with Experimental Theater Lab.
As a writer, she is interested in pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling and narrative, often incorporating abstract movement and poetic language techniques in her plays. Her work develops the connection between striking opposites: science and emotion, and physical reality and dream worlds.
Directing youth ranging in age from 5 to 18, she encourages students of all ages to engage with their audiences authentically and challenges them to delve into the complexities of human nature inherent in all stories.
Ash Flinn
After serendipitously stumbling into a role in a high school production of Red Horse Animation by Lee Breuer, Ash realized that maybe this weird new kind of theatre was…neat. Through the same friends who thought doing Red Horse Animation in high school was a good idea, Ash participated in the Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop. After three summers of that, they continued to assistant direct during college and afterward for a total of nine summers.
After both experiencing and witnessing the positive impact that creative empowerment and storytelling can have, Ash joined XTL in 2019. Also, they think leading high school students in deconstructive critical analysis of texts is awesome.
Ash received their BFA in Printmaking from the University of Kansas, and they are currently finishing up an MS in Curriculum and Instruction from Kansas State University.