“A multicultural cabaret.” That’s how the New World Performance Laboratory is billing a benefit event by two Akron actors, a guitarist and director, on April 12, 13 and 14. It’s also not a bad description of this company’s sophisticated and daring approach to theater.

The group was multicultural before it was a buzzword. For 20 years, it has gathered a small group of gifted international actors to work in Akron. This weekend, Italian actor Debora Totti and Colombian actor Jairo Cuesta (co-artistic director of the company, along with James Slowiak) will perform a program called “Songs of our Mothers (for our Daughters).” The event presents traditional and popular songs from Italy and Latin America.

New World Performance Laboratory operates under the umbrella of The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture (CATAC). Proceeds from this weekend’s concerts benefit both organizations.

Totti and Cuesta live in the Akron area, as does guitarist James Marron, who also performs on the benefit program. The actors work with Slowiak (a University of Akron theater professor who won the 2011 Akron Area Arts Alliance “Arts Alive!” award for Outstanding Artist in Theatre) on ambitious projects like the Akron Color Line Project. For that project, they collected stories about race from the Akron community, using story circle methodology, and then shared selected stories dramatically.  The two-year project was part of a national initiative.

Strongly influenced by their work with the Polish theater, director Jerzy Grotowski, Slowiak and Cuesta are now offering training in the principals and techniques practiced by New World Performance Laboratory throughout the past 20 years. Classes are available through April 30 at the New World Performance Laboratory performance/rehearsal space at the Balch Street Theatre in Akron’s Highland Square, where artists of all sorts gravitate to live.

“Songs of our Mothers (for our Daughters)” on April 12, 13, 14 at 8 p.m. in the Balch Street Theatre, 220 S. Balch St., Akron, Ohio 44302. Reservations can be made by calling 330-867-3299 or online at www.brownpapertickets.com New World Performance Laboratory, www.nwplab.com.