Martin E. Segal Theatre Center to Hold In-Person Book Celebration of Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center invites audiences to join them TODAY, Friday April 8 at 6 pm, for a NY LIVE evening at Villa Albertine | Cultural Services of the French Embassy + HowlRound zoom celebrating the Segal Center's latest publication Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays; edited and with an introduction by scholar and translator Amin Erfani (Lehman College, CUNY)a??. Free and open to the public; first come, first served. The Villa Albertine | Cultural Services of the French Embassy is located at 972 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10075. The event will also be livestreamed on HowlRound.com

The anthology is the first collection of the seven major plays by seminal French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès (1948-1989) in American English. Translated in over thirty languages, Koltès is considered to be the most important French playwright of the end of the twentieth century, and heir to the legacy of Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane and Heiner Müller. His style is marked by a profusion of poetic language-reshaping traditional theatrical language in both content and form, while exploring new and unknown territories. A fervent traveler, his work was deeply inspired by his exposure to new languages and cultures, particularly from such places as Lagos (Nigeria), São Paulo (Brazil), Tikal (Guatemala), Managua (Nicaragua), New York (United States), and Lisbon (Portugal). His attention was constantly directed toward the figure of the underdog and marginalized communities. But it is in New York that Koltès is said to have found his "place in this world," and particularly in the gay liberation movement in the late 70s and early 80s. He died at the age of 41 due to complications from tha??e AIDS virus. Despite his significant relationship with the United States, until now no definite anthology of American translations of Koltès existed. This unique volume provides a fresh set of translations that rigorously bring into focus Koltès' poetic and musical language. "Koltès now sounds like Dante speaking in the voice of Sam Shepard," wrote The New York Times.

Translators for Koltès' anthology are: The Night Just Before the Forests (Amin Erfani); Battle of Black and Dogs (Michaël Attias); West Pier (Marion Schoevaert & Theresa M. Weber); In the Solitude of Cotton Fields (Amin Erfani); Tabataba (Amin Erfani); Back to the Desert (Andy Bragen); Roberto Zucco (Anna G.R. Miller).

The evening's festivities include short readings of excerpts directed by Amin Erfani with New York actors Ben Becher, Carl Hancock Rux, Crystal Marie Stewart, Josefina Scaro, Michael Wiener, a.o., followed by a conversation with Editor Amin Erfani with Frank Hentschker. Translators Andy Bragen, Anna G.R. Miller, Marion Schoevaert, and Theresa M. Weber will join the Q & A. The readings are followed by a reception.

The evening is co-presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center CUNY, a??Villa Albertine I Cultural Services of the French Embassy, New York, and Albertine Bookshop.