10th Annual Mexico/United States Playwright Exchange

The Lark is thrilled to announce the 10 th Anniversary celebration of the México/United States Playwright Exchange. For a full decade, this synergetic program has brought Mexican writers to the U.S. and U.S. writers to México to work together and with a community of bilingual actors and stage directors on translating their plays. The shared artistic process is aimed at creating a deeper understanding between our countries and cultures. From December 4-7, 2016, The Lark will bring together the program's artists and audiences for a festival featuring readings of excerpts from 38 of the plays translated through this program. Events are open to the public and free of charge.

The festival is, first and foremost, a celebration of extraordinary work and the vitality of global exchange. For ten years the artists, along with the creators and shapers of the program, have striven to create ongoing and open channels of artistic collaboration between México and the United States. While in the short term the annual festivals operate with the objective of creating stage worthy translations, the greater goal of the program has always been to break down the barriers and build bridges between our cultures. The exchange seeks to create a platform where artists, who may not have otherwise crossed paths, can meet in pursuit of a shared vocabulary with which to address the challenges of the 21st century. In our country's current political climate, this goal of seeking to better understand one another is more important than ever.

"This program does the opposite of building a wall: we celebrate and believe fiercely in the power and necessity of close dialogue between Mexican and U.S. artists, and our larger communities," said Andrea Thome, Program Director of the México/U.S. Playwright Exchange. "When you work directly with a writer whom you're translating, you learn that you can't assume what they mean; you have to ask questions, to pay close attention to what their intentions are, what their words and gestures mean in the context of their world and their souls. Now, more than ever, this kind of deep listening to each other is crucial."

Thome, a playwright and translator, serves on the Advisory Board of The México/U.S. Playwright Exchange, along with Maria Alexandria Beech (Playwright, Translator), Mariana Carreño-King (Playwright, Translator), Migdalia Cruz (Playwright, Translator), Ana Graham (Artistic Director, Por Piedad Teatro Producciones), Daniel Jáquez (Director, Translator), Debbie Saivetz (Director), and Caridad Svich (Playwright, Translator).

Throughout the duration of the program, The Lark has worked with artists from theater companies nationwide, including The Goodman Theatre (Chicago, IL), LATC and Latino Theatre Company (Los Angeles, CA), the Denver Center (CO), Borderlands Theater Company (Tucson, AZ), and Miracle Theater (Portland, OR).

Some of the plays translated through the program are Absence by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, translated by Caridad Svich (Borderlands Theater, 2015), A Lover's Dismantling: Fragments of a Scenic Discourse by Elena Guiochins, translated by Andy Bragen (Halcyon Theatre, 2012), Deserts by Hugo Hinojosa, translated by Caridad Svich (staged reading, Aguijón Theater Company and Goodman Theatre, 2010), Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants by David Gaitán, translated by Julián Mesri (California Institute of the Arts, 2014), Our Dad is in Atlantis by Javier Malpica, translated by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas (Theatres at 45 Bleecker, 2008; published in American Theatre, 2008), and Ropes by Bárbara Colio, translated by Maria Alexandria Beech (Two River Theater, 2016).

But no less important than the plays themselves are the bi-national relationships that are formed through the process of translation, which we hope will last a lifetime. It has never been more important to bring artists from México and the U.S. together to find common ground and promote peace and mutual understanding. A decade's worth of work is only the beginning. The Lark hopes to continue the México/U.S. Playwright Exchange for many years to come.

The 2016 México/United States Playwright Exchange will open with a book launch on December 4 celebrating the publishing by NoPassport Press of plays translated through this program, followed by three evenings of readings, conversation and community gathering. The December 7 th readings will be followed by La Celebración, an annual party with food and dancing, featuring the music of Jarana Beat. La Celebración concludes the Exchange each year as a way of ending each festival on a note of jubilation. The vibrant and necessary conversations that emerge as a result of the preceding days are always cause for celebration, and The Lark values the opportunity to give that space.

For a list of plays, playwrights, translators, and for reservations, please visit www.larktheatre.org. All seats are free but reservations are required.