FALL 2006 progRams
International/WORLD theatre series
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FALL 2006 progRams International/WORLD theatre series |
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REDEYE: New York / Ljubljana Translation Think Tank SIMONA SEMENIČ (PreGlej) and IVAN TALIJANCIC (WaxFactory) joined forces to organize the first-ever playwright exchange between Slovenia and the U.S. The evening will start with a short introduction to the contemporary Slovenian theatre scene, followed by readings from Shelter by Saška Rakef, Balance by Zalka Grabnar Kogoj, and 24 Hours by Simona Semenič in English and Slovenian. A roundtable discussion on theatrical texts in translation will follow. The New York Theatre Workshop will present complete readings of all three Slovenian plays in translation on October 1-4. Part of the European Dream Festival. SAŠKA RAKEF (playwright, Shelter) has worked internationally as a performer and playwright, collaborating with such groups as DAH Theater Research Center in Serbia, AzTheatre in London, and ECS Theaterlaboratory in Finland. She is a student in Theater Studies and Creative Writing at Metropolitan University in London. ZALKA GRABNAR KOGOJ (playwright, Balance) has worked in a wide range of professions in the performing arts, including puppeteer and singer. Her poems and short stories have been published in Slovenia, and she has had two of her plays presented as part of PreGlej’s staged readings program. SIMONA SEMENIČ (playwright, 24 Hours; co-director of the exchange program) studied at Ljubljana’s Academy for Theater, Radio, Film, and Television. She founded the PreGlej Theater Development Program in Ljubljana and works internationally as a playwright, director, producer, and dramaturg. Her project with WaxFactory, …She Said, has traveled to numerous festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. IVAN TALIJANCIC (co-director of the exchange program) is the artistic co-director of WaxFactory, along with Erika Latta. His most recent project for the company is 39 Frames, a 14-day-long site-specific simulated-reality event staged citywide in Salzburg, Austria for the SommerSzene Festival. Ivan was commissioned by Too Far, a San Francisco arts incubator, to develop Wild Animus, a performance art project, currently touring North America, Europe, & Australia. 6:30 p.m., Monday, September 25, 2006, Segal Theatre. Free. |
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 The Company of WAXFACTORY Photo © Tasja Keetman |
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An Evening with Swiss Playwright Lukas Bärfuss Join us for a reading of excerpts from The Sexual Neuroses of our Parents, by Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss. Lukas Bärfuss was born in Thun (Switzerland) in 1971 and lives in Zurich. He works as a playwright and novelist. His latest plays include Alices Reise in die Schweiz (2005), Der Bus (2005, jury and the audience award Mülheimer Theatertage), Heinrich IV (2004), Die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern (2003), Vier Bilder der Liebe (2002), Othello (2001), Meienbergs Tod (2001), and Die Reise von Klaus und Edith durch den Schacht zum Mittelpunkt der Erde (2001). His works have been produced worldwide, including South America, Scandinavia, Russia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Israel. His new novel, published by the Wallstein Verlag in Göttingen, is to be released in spring 2007. He is currently commissioned to work at the Münchner Kammerspiele and the Schauspielhaus Zurich. Bärfuss was playwright of the year in Germany in 2005 (Theater Heute) and he received the Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis in the same year. The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents tells the story of Dora, a young mentally disabled woman who, after being taken off tranquillizers, discovers her sexuality to a degree which far exceeds adult approval. Supported by the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Pro Helvetia and the Amt für Kultur Kanton Bern. Additional support provided by the Goethe-Institut New York. Part of the European Dream Festvial. 6:30 p.m., Monday, October 16, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. |
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An Evening with Irish Playwright Mark O’Rowe Meet Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe and experience the American premier reading of his play, Terminus. Mark O’Rowe himself will present the reading. Discussion to follow. Mark O’Rowe began his theatrical career with the play The Aspidistra Code, a winning submission for a first-time writers competition, Stage It!, organized by the Irish National Association for Youth Drama (NAYD); it was performed as a reading on the Peacock Theatre stage in 1995. Two other plays followed: Anna’s Ankle, produced by Bedrock Productions for its Theatre of Cruelty Season, and From Both Hips, produced by Fishamble Theatre Company. However, it was O’Rowe’s raw and powerful tale of contemporary urban life, Howie The Rookie, that propelled the Dublin-born playwright into the theatre spotlight. Originally staged by the Bush Theatre, London, Howie The Rookie garnered numerous awards, including the George Devine Award (1999), the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (1999) and the Irish Times New Play Award (2000). With its lyrical violence and extraordinary language, Howie The Rookie was an example of the work coming from an exciting new generation of young Irish playwrights who had emerged in the 1990s, exchanging traditional rural stories with urban concerns and examining what it meant to be Irish on the cusp of a new century. In 2001 the Abbey Theatre presented the world premiere of Made in China, while in 2003 O’Rowe’s play Crestfall was produced by the Gate Theatre. Most recently the Abbey presented a new production of Howie The Rookie, as part of its 4x4 season of contemporary classic plays. O’Rowe moved successfully into the world of film with his critically acclaimed screenplay for the movie Intermission (2003), starring Colin Farrell. Presented in collaboration with Players and Painted Stage, a symposium on Irish Theater held at Princeton University, October 13 - 14, 2006. Special thanks to Roger Berlind, who initiated the collaboration and to Paul Muldoon and Michael Cadden, Princeton University, who made it possible. Thanks also to Helen Jenkins and Nick Marton, Curtis Brown Group Ltd., London. 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
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International Cultural Practices in America/Panel Discussions In two panel discussions, European and American cultural policy experts will talk to directors of cultural institutions and professionals in the art world from both sides of the Atlantic. The panels aim to provide a better understanding of the process of international cultural cooperation. Curated by Corina Suteu, European cultural policies expert and Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY, in the framework of the European Dream Festival. 4:00 pm - Panel I: The Strategies of European Cultural Centers in New York With the directors of the European cultural institutions participating in the European Dream Festival. 5:20 pm - Panel II: Challenges of Working Internationally With representatives of prime New York cultural institutions, such as Dance Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center, PS 122, and cultural policy experts Anne Marie Autissier, Milena Dragicevic Sesic, Colin Mercer, and others. From September 20 through October 31, 2006, the first ever European Dream Festival will present vibrant, innovative, and cutting-edge productions in theatre, music, dance, film, and literature from today's Europe of disappearing borders and expanding cultural diversity. Taking place at 20 prime New York City venues, the European Dream Festival is an unprecedented concerted effort by a large number of European countries, including new and aspiring members of the European Union, and will become an annual or biennial event.The Festival was initiated by the Czech Center, the French Institute Alliance Française, the Goethe-Institut, and the Italian Cultural Center, all in New York, and is supported by the European Union. www.europeandream.us The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York aims to promote Romanian culture to an American and international public and to build sustainable connections and collaborations between American and Romanian cultural organizations. For more information visit www.icrny.org. 4:00 p.m., Monday, October 30, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
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The Gate Theater (London) Woyzeck at St. Ann’s - Panel Discussion Arts at St. Ann’s presents, in collaboration with The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, a panel discussion with leading young international theater directors. The panel will feature three acclaimed directors who are currently creating challenging, thought-provoking and exploratory new work for the international stage. The discussion investigates how that work reflects and absorbs the current political realities within each society and beyond. With: Daniel Kramer, The Gate Theatre, London Premiering in New York at St. Ann’s Warehouse after a sold-out extended run in London, Daniel Kramer’s high-octane, rock and roll Woyzeck is a dazzling reinvention of Georg Büchner’s classic masterpiece, hailed by critics and audiences as a theatrical tour de force. Obsessed by love, pursued by visions, and overpowered by the odds, Woyzeck is the harrowing journey of one honest man’s downfall and heartbreaking descent into madness. This awardwinning production was named one of the 10 best of 2004 by Time Out London and The Observer and marks the return to St. Ann’s Warehouse of Edward Hogg, last seen in the Globe Theatre’s Measure to Measure. The event will take place at St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY. Box office 1.718.254.8779 www.stannswarehouse.org 5:00 p.m., Sunday, November 19, 2006. Free. |
An Evening with Catalan Playwright Guillem Clua Join us for an evening with Guillem Clua, one the most successful young Catalan playwrights from Spain for a reading of Skin in Flames. Directed by Mallory Catlett. Followed by a discussion with Professor Marion Peter Holt. Guillem Clua studied journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He started his theatrical training in 1994 at the London Guildhall University. Afterwards, he participated in writers’ workshops at the prestigious Sala Beckett in Barcelona studying with numerous Catalan playwrights. His first play, The Invisibles, won the City of Alcoi Theatre Prize in 2002. In 2004, his third full-length script, Skin in Flames, won the same prize before premiering at the Villarroel Theatre in Barcelona. Clua was awarded the prestigious Barcelona Critics Award for best script of the year in 2005. For the past three years, Guillem Clua has been on the writing team for the popular Catalan television program El Cor de la Ciutat (The Heart of the City) and has recently been made head writer for the series. Followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Marion Peter Holt. DJ Sanders (translator) is working toward a Master of Arts in Drama at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of twenty original stage plays including six ten-minute plays published by Brooklyn Publishers. In December 2006, his play CYPHER: Variations on Therapy, Sex, and Baseball will receive a workshop reading before receiving a full production in 2007. Skin in Flames: Frederick Salomon, a photojournalist famous for capturing an image of a girl sent flying through the air from a bomb explosion, returns to the country where twenty years earlier he captured that infamous photograph. Arriving to receive an award, many credit him for the country’s recent peace efforts, but a local journalist, Hannah, interprets his image differently. As Hannah interviews Frederick Salomon, they debate and question the United Nations’ role in assisting third-world nations, the mass marketing of images of violence, and, most importantly, what happened that fateful day. 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 21, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
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An Evening with Danish Playwright Christian Lollike Meet Christian Lollike, a representative of a new generation of playwrights from Denmark and join us for a reading of his controversial play The Work of Wonders about the outrageous statement made by German composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen that the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center was the ultimate work of art. With an introduction by Ken Nielsen, Ph.D. student in Theatre, CUNY. Christian Lollike, born in Copenhagen, 1973, studied philosophy and literature at Roskilde University and attended the Danish School of Playwrights from 1998- 2001. Lollike is best known for his contemporary and controversial dramas, including Dom over skrig and Undervćrket-The Re-Mohammed-ty Show at Katapult Theatre. His plays have been succesfully staged in Sweden, Holland, Austria and Germany. Lollike’s signature is the constant exploration, challenge and dis-ruption of recognized dramatic conventions. He interweaves “reality fragments” throughout his theatrical universe, ranging from journalistic reports about group rape, to advertising slogans, to philosophical contemplations of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The Work of Wonders: A play about terror, faith, and youth. Four rootless youngsters discuss art, 9/11, and the western world’s reaction to the attack. The play is a sharp, analytic critique of civilization with horrifying descriptions of terror and references to art happenings and Hollywood films. Jens Svane Boutrup (Translator/Director) holds an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College, CUNY. His New York directing credits include: First You’re Born by Line Knutzon; Mark of Cain by Morti Vizki (U.S. premiere); Evil by Jan Guillou/Benny Haag (U.S. premiere); and The Littlewoods by Jesper Halle (World premiere). Jens has translated a number of Scandinavian plays into English and works as a theatre consultant for New Nordic Voices in Canada. Jens is also the Executive Director of the theatre company Momentum in Odense, Denmark. Please visit www.boutrup.org. 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 28, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
An Evening with Romanian Playwright Saviana Stanescu and Richard Schechner Join us for a reading of Saviana Stanescu’s play Waxing West as a prologue to the spring 2007 production of the play at La MaMa (produced by Richard Schechner's company East Coast Artists). The reading will be followed by a discussion with the artists. Waxing West is Stanescu’s comment on the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution in particular, and more generally about collective traumas and the ways in which they affect individuals. Directed by Benjamin Mosse, New York. Saviana Stanescu has published four books of poetry and three of drama including: The Inflatable Apocalypse (Best Romanian Play of the year 2000), Black Milk, and Final Countdown (Antoine Vitez Center Award, Paris). Her plays have been presented in the U.S., the U.K., France, Austria, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Romania. In New York, she co-authored Yokastas Redux with Richard Schechner, presented at La MaMa ETC. Also in New York, Stanescu's Balkan Blues was produced in the New York Fringe Festival, and Waxing West and Lenin's Shoe were given "bare bones" productions at the Lark Theatre. Stanescu earned an M.A. in Performance Studies at NYU as a Fulbright fellow and an MFA in Dramatic Writing. Currently she is a TCG fellow with The Lark Theatre Company as well as playwright-in-residence of East Coast Artists. She is a member of Women's Project Lab, an adjunct faculty member at the Tisch School of the Arts, Drama Department, and she leads the NEW DRAMA initiative at the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. Richard Schechner is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He is artistic director of East Coast Artists and editor of TDR: A Journal of Performance Studies and general editor of Routledge’s Worlds of Performance series and co-editor with Carol Martin of Seagull Books' Enactments series. He founded and directed The Performance Group. His most recent works for the stage are productions of Aeschylus’s Oresteia (Taipei), Chekhov's Three Sisters, Shakespeare's Hamlet (New York), Saviana Stanescu's Yokastas Redux (New York), Stanescu's dramatization of Paul Auster's Timbuktu (New York, in progress), and a new production of Hamlet (Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei, in progress). 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 6, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
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An Evening with Playwrights Join us for an evening featuring readings from The Heresy, by Mexican playwright Sabina Berman, directed by Marcy Arlin of Immigrants' Theatre Project; and The Word Progress On My Mother's Lips Doesn't Ring True, by Romanian/French playwright Matéi Visniec, directed by Ian Morgan of The New Group. Both plays tell the stories of societies imploding on themselves, destroying their own citizens in the name of religious righteousness while masking bigotry, ethnic hatred, and societal pathology. Berman's play is about the Inquisition in 17th century Mexico, and its effect on a converso Jewish family; Visniec's play deals with the heritage of ethnic violence in Bosnia. Both playwrights will be attending to discuss the inspiration for their plays and how they see their role as "reporters" of history through drama. Sabina Berman is Mexico's most commercially successful and critically acclaimed female playwright. She has won the Mexican National Theatre Prize an unprecedented four times and has written film scripts, poetry, prose, and journalism in addition to her work for the stage. Her collection of interviews with Mexican women in positions of power, Mujeres y Poder, won the 2000 National Journalism Award. Her adaptation of Marie Jones's Stones In Your Pocket, titled Extras, broke all records for longest-running production on the Mexico City stage. Matéi Visniec studied philosophy at Bucharest University. Starting in 1977, he wrote plays which circulated in literary milieus but were barred from the stage. In 1987, Visniec left Romania for France, where he was granted political asylum. Visniec has had many of his works staged in France, and some fifteen of his plays written in French are published (Actes Sud-Papier, L'Harmattan, Lansman). His plays have been staged in more than twenty countries. Since the fall of communism, Visniec has become one of the most frequently performed authors in Romania. 6:30 p.m., Monday, December 11, 2006, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free. |
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