INTERNATIONAL VOICES PROJECT Announces Its Return To Live Performances for 12th Season

International Voices Project has announced its return to live performances with the 12th season of play readings by playwrights from around the world, September 12 - 28, at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, 31 W. Ohio St. Live readings are held Mondays and Wednesday with an audience talk back and Q+A with key members of that night's production immediately following the readings.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with readings beginning at 6:30 p.m. The series is presented in collaboration with theatre companies, consulates and other cultural institutions in Chicago. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are required. More information on the 2022 season may be found at IVPChicago.org.

"International Voices Project looks forward to welcoming audiences back to celebrate the power of theatre with a global perspective," said Executive Director Patrizia Acerra. "We are proud that in our 12th season, we continue to give a stage to international voices and Chicago theater companies and talent at no cost to the audience. We encourage all to experience this year's line up with new playwrights and new stories from around the world."

The International Voices Project 2022 schedule includes:

Monday, Sept. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Spain

"The Mapmaker"

Director: Iraida Tapias

Playwright: Juan Mayorga

Partner: Water People Theatre

Translator: Jerelyn Johnson

In present-day Warsaw, Blanca hears the legend of the ghetto cartographer. According to that legend, an old cartographer was determined, while everything was dying around him, to draw the map of that world in danger; but since his legs no longer supported him, since he couldn't look for the data he needed, it was a girl who went out to look for them for him. Blanca will take the legend for truth and she will launch herself, obsessively, in search of the old map and, without knowing it, in search of herself. The cartographer is a work about that search and about that legend.

Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 6:30 p.m.

Palestine

The Shroud Maker

Director: Rohina Malik

Playwright: Ahmed Masoud

Partners: Intercultural Music Production, Uprising Theater, Medina Theatre Collective

From the critically-acclaimed Palestinian writer Ahmed Masoud, who was born and raised in Gaza, comes the story of Hajja Souad, an 80-year old Palestinian woman living on the besieged Gaza Strip, who knows about business. She has survived decades of wars and oppression through making shrouds for the dead. A compelling black comedy, The Shroud Maker delves deep into the intimate life of ordinary Palestinians to weave a highly distinctive path through Palestine's turbulent past and present. Loosely based on a real-life character still living in Gaza, this one-woman comedy weaves comic fantasy and satire with true stories told first hand to the writer and offers a vivid portrait of Palestinian life in Gaza underscored with humor.

Monday, Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Norway

Give Me A Happily Ever After

Playwright: Marius Leknes Snekkevag

Director: Breahan Pautsch

Translator: Kyle Korynta

Director: Breahan Pautsch

Welcome to Life! Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride! Living is scary, will we be okay in the end?

Wednesday, Sept. 21at 6:30 p.m.

Germany

Turks, Fire

Playwright: Özlem Özgül Dündar

Director: Anna Bahow

Translator: Neil Blackadder

When a residential house is engulfed in flames five people are killed, three children and two women. The perpetrators are youths from the neighborhood. The name of the small town is soon known nationwide thanks to a flurry of media reports. But the nation's attention soon turns elsewhere to other, more pressing issues. The 1993 arson attack in Solingen is the starting point for Turks, Fire. Writing with great sensitivity and precision, Özlem Özgül Dündar searches for a language to describe those harrowing events that permits all the various perspectives of a space to exist. The resulting play retains a painful relevance for today's social and political climate.

Monday, Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Ukraine

Three Plays:

Call Them By Their Names

The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel

A Dictionary of Emotions in War Time

Playwrights: Tetyana Kitsenko, Oksana Gritsenko and Elena Astasyeva

Director: Warner Crocker

Translators: John Freedman, John Freedman/Natalia Bratus, John Freedman/Natalia Bratus

Three voices meld together chronicling thoughts, emotions and horror from the war in Ukraine as it begins and changes the world. Call Them By Their Names by Tetyan Kitsenko, The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel Carrier by Oskana Gritsenko, and A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War by Elena Astasyeva immediately transports the audience to the moments that changed the world in an instant and presage a rupture that will take generations to heal.

Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Poland

Totentanz: Black Night, Black Death

Playwright: Ishbel Szatrawska

Director: Michael Mejia

Partner: Trap Door Theatre

Translator: Soren Gauger

March of 2020, Bergamo, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Francesca, a former model and her husband, Luca, a television host, have invited some neighbors to an illegal dinner. This innocent social evening gradually turns into a quarrel over the pandemic, Italy, European values, social solidarity and political and ideological views in the crisis situation. Totentanz: Black Night, Black Death was a finalist for a Polish national award, the Gdynia Dramaturgical Prize, in 2021; it has been translated into English, German, Ukrainian, and Danish.

The International Voices Project champions the work of global playwrights by creating opportunities to experience new and contemporary international plays in urban settings and on stages in Chicago. IVP celebrates the mother tongue and foster work that brings native languages to the forefront. From its inception, Chicago was conceived as the crossroads of the country. The rail lines that crossed the city now symbolize the role that Chicago will play in the future: as the center of international dialogue and design, creating opportunities for artists and audiences alike to experience the most engaging and provocative new plays from around the world. We foster new translations, support the work of translators, and create ongoing relationships with playwrights from the five continents.

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