For two weeks this fall, a taste of big city theater will be brought to the Farm. As part of the New York Public Theater residency, highly acclaimed director and five-time Obie Award winner JoAnne Akalaitis will workshop her new production of “The Bacchae,” a Euripidean tragedy, between Oct. 29 and Nov. 11.

The residency, in its third year, aims to create new networks, support emerging and established artists, cultivate new audiences and foster innovation, according to Jonathan Berger, associate professor of music and co-director of the Stanford Institute for Creativity in the Arts.

“It defines the spirit of the Arts Initiative [of the Stanford Challenge],” he said.

For Akalaitis, coming to Stanford was a return of sorts, as she was a doctoral student in philosophy here. After one year in the Ph.D. program, she left to pursue a career in theater.

“I had always felt drawn to the theater, but I didn’t really make a commitment,” she said. “When I was at Stanford I decided I had to really make a commitment and do what I really wanted to do, which was theater.”

Since making that commitment, Akalaitis has served as artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival, artist in residence at the Court Theater and co-founder of avant-garde theater company Mabou Mines, in addition to staging works across the country.

“It’s my life,” she said of the theater. “I’m very, very lucky and I just have a wonderful time doing it. It’s very stimulating intellectually and emotionally.”

Akalaitis is no newcomer to workshopping plays, calling the experience “really valuable.”

“You get to really work on the script without the pressure of public performance,” she said. “A paying audience with critics is not coming to see a finished performance; they’re coming to see an open rehearsal. I think it’s a wonderful concept and that it really works.”

Akalaitis said that the workshop experience was similar to private rehearsals, except with the added benefit of working away from home.

“You don’t have the business of your daily life; you’re staying at a hotel where someone makes your bed,” she said. “That can be liberating because all we have to do is think about the play.”

Actor Rocco Sisto agreed that the lack of distractions was both luxurious and rare.

“This is a great opportunity to concentrate in a very specific way, without the other hindrances of living in New York City or wherever you live and trying to keep the business aspect of your existence going,” Sisto said. “It’s good to separate all that and just concentrate on the text.”

“The Bacchae” workshop productions also include two students — Alex Mallory ‘08 as second assistant director and Amin El Gamal ‘08 as a member of the cast. With the exception of Mallory, El Gamal and the theater staff, the production is entirely composed of professional stage managers and actors, including artistic director Oskar Eustis, dramaturg Jim Leverett, translator Nicholas Rudall, choreographer David Neumann and lighting designer Jennifer Tipton.

“It’s really exciting to even be in the same room for that period of time with people who do this professionally,” said El Gamal. “I was afraid the first rehearsal because the system of academic theater is very different from professional theater — I was really eager to see what it was like.”

Working with Akalaitis in rehearsals, El Gamal said, has been an incredible learning experience for him.

“She’s very harsh in her notes and very direct, but it’s all in the context of improving the work,” he said. “She’s very measured and extremely intelligent.

“There’s just an incredible amount of focus that goes on in these rehearsals,” he continued. “Getting to work on that level is really invigorating, and it’s fascinating to watch these people work.”

“The Bacchae,” one of 17 tragedies by Euripides to have survived intact, recounts the Greek god Dionysus taking revenge on Thebes, the city where his mortal mother Semele endured a cruel death. While the text may be almost 3,000 years old, Sisto asserted its themes will still resonate with a modern audience.

“It deals with basic questions of existence,” he said. “What are the ramifications of divinity? How does society see itself in relation to God? It goes into questions that are basic to us.”

Mallory, in a blog post connected to the residency, agreed that audience members would enjoy the production.

“I think the audience will feel comfortable with the language and will relax into being told a story,” she said.

The residency, sponsored by Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, Stanford Lively Arts, Institute for Diversity in the Arts and the Department of Drama, features events including panels, classes and dorm salons. Open rehearsals of the work in process will be held today, Friday, and Saturday, with a symposium Saturday to accompany the workshop production. (More event information can be found at http://publictheaterny.stanford.edu.)

“The campus community gets to interact at all levels — in the theater, in the classroom and in the residences — with these superb artists,” Berger said. “Judging by the successes of the past residencies, this is an opportunity to witness history in the arts.”