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Martin E. Segal Theatre Center's 2014 PEN WORLD VOICES INTERNATIONAL PLAY FESTIVAL Set for 4/28-30
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 02, 2014
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center has announced the complete line-up of its inaugural PEN World Voices International Play Festival, held April 28, 29, and 30th, 2014. With each writer hailing from a different world region as classified by the United Nations, the International Play Festival generates a conversation on art, politics, dreams, war, and philosophy meant to share with American audiences a rich awareness of a greater global dialogue.
The three-day event, presented in partnership with the PEN American Center's annual PEN World Voices Festival, will feature nine free readings of exceptional plays from around the globe, including the work of:
Jalila Baccar (Tunisia)
Dominique Batraville (Haiti)*
Guillermo Calderón (Chile)*
Raimondo Cortese (Australia)*
Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
Abhishek Majumdar (India)*
Dorota Mas?owska (Poland)*
Huzir Sulaiman (Singapore)
Chong Wishing (Japan)
*Attending the festival
Readings will be directed by a lineup of US and International theatre makers:
Paul Bargetto
Guillermo Calderón
Abhishek Majumdar
All readings will be followed by a short discussion with the artists, and will take place at The Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY. (365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016). Events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis.
2014 PEN World Voices International Play Festival Full Schedule
Monday, April 28, 2014
2:00 pm - TSUNAMI
By Jalila Baccar (Tunisia)
Directed by Saheem Ali | Translated by Marvin Carlson
Playwright Jalila Baccar chronicles the events that shook Tunisia in the murky hours after the Jasmine Revolution-the event that triggered the Arab Spring. Tsunami is a trilogy devoted to the contemporary history of Tunisia, a cycle dominated by the question of memory: "A country without memory is a country which never knows where it is going."
5:00 pm - ENDLESS VIGILS AT CRÊTE-à-PIERROT
By Dominique Batraville (Haiti)
Directed by Awoye Timpo | Translated by Peter Consenstein
The dead and the living, who "walk on the bones of the dead," are united by a wish to bring their dying nation together once again by physically and metaphysically reviving Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first leader of the revolution for an independent Haiti.
7:30 pm - VILLA + DISCURSO
Written and Directed by Guillermo Calderón (Chile)
Translated by William Gregory
In Villa, three women gather around an architectural model of the Villa Grimaldi, a site where thousands were tortured and hundreds were "disappeared," to debate the ideal adaptation of these blood-soaked facilities and grapple with a nation's unwanted legacy. In Discurso, Michelle Bachelet, Chile's president from 2006 - 2010, makes her farewell speech on leaving office but she is not being as gracious and diplomatic as she should be. Is she saying what she really thinks or is someone putting words into her mouth?
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
2:00 pm - YAKINIKU DRAGON
By Chong Wishing (Japan)
Directed by Victor Maog | Translated by Philip Flavin
Set in the years 1969 to 1971 in the Yakiniku Dragon, a restaurant without plumbing in a Korean-Japanese ghetto, Yakiniku Dragon tells the story of a young boy who feels welcomed neither by the Japanese nor Korean societies. The play is based on Chong's own childhood experience, and is told through the six family members and guests who frequent the Yakiniku Dragon.
5:00 pm - NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRIED OR WE EXIST ON THE BEST TERMS WE CAN
By Dorota Mas?owska (Poland)
Directed by Paul Bargetto |Translated by Artur Zapa?owski
With wildly inventive language and razor-sharp humor, No Matter How Hard We Tried captures Poland's contemporary moment, bringing together nouveau-riche media celebrities, the abject poor, phony artists, and disaffected youth all struggling to stay afloat in a toxic stew of commercialism, inter-generational confusion, Catholic nationalism, and idealized visions of Poland's tragic past.
7:30 pm - HOLIDAY
By Raimondo Cortese (Australia)
Directed by Oliver Butler
Holiday is an eclectic mixture of baroque song, video installation and gentle conversation, contemplating the world as a place where we can no longer cope with large occurrences and succeed only in retreating further into our own private spaces.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
2:00 pm - COGITO
By Huzir Sulaiman (Singapore)
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
It is the year 2026. Katherine Lee is a wealthy socialite, married to Tony Szeto, a highly prized Singaporean biomedical scientist. When Katherine reads in a local newspaper that her husband has been assassinated, she discovers she is not the only one married to him.
5:00 pm - RECHNITZ (THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL)
By Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
Directed by Katherine Brook |Translated by Gitta Honegger
Rechnitz examines the silence about a massacre at the Austrian-Hungarian border on March 25, 1945. During a party by Countess Margit von Batthyány, Nazis killed about 200 Jews as part of their entertainment. Until today, the remains of the victims were not found, neither was the whole affair properly investigated.
7:30 pm - THE DJINNS OF EIDGAH
Written and Directed by Abhishek Majumdar (India)
In partnership with The Play Company
Ashrafi and Bilal are orphaned siblings stranded in Kashmir. While his sister is caught in the past, 18-year-old Bilal is the pride of the region, part of a teenage football team set for great heights. However, Kashmir's violence destroys his idealism, and he is torn between escaping the war and participating in the cycles of resistance.
The PEN World Voices International Play Festival was conceived and created by Frank Hentschker in 2005. The 2014 festival is produced by Christine Scarfuto.
For further information on the 2014 PEN World Voices International Play Festival, and all of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center's ongoing programming, visit www.thesegalcenter.org.
For more information on PEN World Voices Festival visit www.worldvoices.pen.org.
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