Inaugural Columbia University School Of The Arts Announces International Play Reading Festival, 6/15–17

Columbia University School of the Arts is thrilled to announce its inaugural International Play Reading Festival, set to take place in the new Lenfest Center for the Arts from June 15 to 17, 2018. Organized by Dean Carol Becker and David Henry Hwang, the festival will present readings of three plays by living international playwrights that were not originally written in English:

Time Bomb, N. Riantiarno (Indonesia)

Shaitan Lake, Rinat Tashminov (Russia)

Where Would I Find Someone Like You, Ali?, Raeda Taha (Palestine)

The aim of this festival is to expand contemporary American understanding of theatre beyond that of English-speaking countries, and to present new theatrical voices to US audiences.

"We are thrilled to have a state-of-the-art flexible performance space in our new Lenfest Center for the Arts, which gives us an opportunity to fulfill the dream of bringing international play readings to Columbia University, the neighborhood, and to the City," said Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts. "We hope to generate enthusiasm for these international plays by playwrights whose work may not as yet be known in New York and to fulfill our mission as a global and local arts center."

Festival Director and head of Playwriting David Henry Hwang said, "In these volatile times, the theatre can play an invaluable role to help us understand and embrace people from around the globe. Yet US theatre for the most part remains dangerously myopic. When was the last time you saw a new non-American play from anyplace besides the UK or Ireland (perhaps Canada or Australia)? With this festival, Columbia University School of the Arts starts to fill the void, by bringing exciting international plays by living authors to New York, works which give audiences the opportunity to see our world anew."

The Selection Committee comprised Carol Becker, Professor of the Arts and Dean, Columbia University School of the Arts, Susan Bernofsky, Director, Literary Translation at Columbia, Writing MFA Program, David Henry Hwang, Concentration Head, Playwriting, Theatre MFA Program, Morgan Jenness, Theatre MFA Program, Kate Loewald, Theatre MFA Program and The Play Company, and Christian Parker, Chair, Theatre MFA Program.

Nominating bodies included The Lark, The Play Company, Sundance Institute, and Under the Radar at The Public Theater.

All events are free and open to the public. The full festival schedule below. Registration for all events opens on May 23, 2018.

Friday, June 15, 7:00 pm

Time Bomb

By N. Riantiarno (Indonesia)

Directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar

Translated from Indonesian by Barbara Hatley

Flexible Performance Space, Lenfest Center for the Arts

This is a story about those who are marginalized. A story of those living under bridges and in foul sewers, who can only stare up at the moon and speculate on their fortunes, daydreaming about the luxurious lives stowed away behind bright shop windows. When the state comes to raze their small riverside town in order to develop the land, these villagers-forgotten, abused, oppressed-find their bodies and spirits in danger of being buried underneath the demolished rubble.

Born in Cirebon, Indonesia, in 1949, N. Riantiarno founded Teater Koma in Jakarta in 1977. His over-140 stage and television productions include The Cockroach Opera Trilogy; Sorry.Sorry.Sorry; Succession; Sampek Engtay; The Primadonna Opera; Burisrawa The Corporate Mogul; Semar Protests; Constipated Opera; The Republic of Bagong; The Republic of Togog; The Republic of Petruk; Metaphore of Love; and the Siejinkwie tetralogy. He is the author of the novels Evening Romance; Red Mirror; Clear Mirror; Love Mirror; and Primadonna.

Saturday, June 16, 7:00 pm

Shaitan Lake

By Rinat Tashimov (Russia)

Directed by Brian Kulick, Theatre

Translated from Russian by Bela Shayevich

Flexible Performance Space, Lenfest Center for the Arts

In a small village between a river, a forest, and the cursed Shaitan Lake, a mother, Latifa, is visited by her youngest-and only living-son, Marat. Marat, recently returned after two years in prison, has buried a stack of money outside of their small home, and insists on seeing Rimma, the woman Latifa blames for the death of her fourth son. In this town where even the water is cursed, Latifa and Marat find themselves threatened by their own choices as much as the supernatural.

Rinat Tashimov was born in 1989 in the Tatar village of Incess in Sibera. Before attending school, he did not speak the Russian language. At age 15, he began acting on the professional stage. In 2013, he joined the Kolyada Theater in Yekaterinburg, where he studied under Russian playwright Nikolai Kolyada and wrote his first play. In 2014, he began working at the Center of Contemporary Drama, where he created over ten performances of modern and classical plays. He currently directs the film school Masterskaya Kinolook, where he teaches the film and documentary production.

Sunday, June 17, 2:30 pm

Where Would I Find Someone Like You, Ali?

By Raeda Taha (Palestine)

Translated from Arabic by Fayez Kanafani

Flexible Performance Space, Lenfest Center for the Arts

This monologue is the narrative of a Palestinian family that was left behind, a journey that deals with grief and loss from various perspectives. The crux of the story is portrayed in the heroic acts of Suheila, who's illiterate and labeled as Antigone of Palestine. Suheila makes an oath not to sleep covered-in sun or rain-until she brings back the body of her brother Ali from the coldness of an Israeli morgue.

Raeda Taha was born in Jerusalem in 1965 and raised in Beirut. Between 1987-94, she was the Press Secretary of Chairman Yasser Arafat.? Currently, she is the Chairperson of the Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah, Palestine, and a member of Administrative Committee of the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation in Beirut. Her book Ali chronicles the life of her father, a Palestinian freedom fighter. She has played the leading role in three of her plays: Petra Rocks; Return to Haifa; and 80 Steps; and written, produced, and performed her 2015 one-woman show Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali? Taha holds a BA in Speech Communication and Journalism from George Mason University.

Sunday, June 17, 4:00 pm

Raeda Taha, Rinat Tashimov, N. Riantiarno, and David Henry Hwang in Conversation

The Lantern, Lenfest Center for the Arts

International Playwrights Raeda Taha (Palestine), Rinat Tashimov (Russian), and N. Riantiarno (Indonesia) in conversation with Columbia University School of the Arts International Play Reading Festival Director David Henry Hwang, Theatre.

About Columbia University School of the Arts

Columbia University School of the Arts awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Writing and the Master of Arts degree in Film and Media Studies; it also offers an interdisciplinary program in Sound Art. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented, visionary, and Committed Artists from around the world and a faculty comprised of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics, and scholars. In 2015, the School marked the 50th Anniversary of its founding. In 2017, the School opened the Lenfest Center for the Arts, a multi-arts venue designed as a hub for the presentation and creation of art across disciplines on the University's new Manhattanville campus. The Lenfest hosts exhibitions, performances, screenings, symposia, readings, and lectures that present new, global voices and perspectives, as well as an exciting, publicly accessible home for Columbia's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery.

More information at arts.columbia.edu/international-play-reading-festival.