Romina Paula Gets Two English Language Premieres This Season, FAUNA & THE WHOLE OF TIME

Necessary Digression in collaboration with Torn Page and The Martin E. Segal Center for Theatre Research as well as Colgate University will present two English Language premieres of celebrated Argentinian playwright Romina Paula, FAUNA (September 16 - October 1, 2022), translated by April Sweeney & Brenda Werth, directed by April Sweeney, and THE WHOLE OF TIME (October 21 - November 13, 2022), translated by Jean Graham-Jones and directed by Tony Torn.

With a maximum audience of 20 both premieres will be performed at TORN PAGE, a private venue for theater, poetry, and film events, located in the New York City townhouse of acclaimed actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page.

ROMINA PAULA belongs to a new generation of Argentina's most celebrated artists, winning critical acclaim both at home and abroad for her plays, films, novels, and performances. Paula's plays move us to think about how we tell the stories of people's lives, exploring synergies between documentary and fiction, life and art, and the fluidity of identity. She is highly regarded for her inventive use of narrative voice, her ability to imagine worlds that are both poetically expansive and intimate, her clever interweaving of literary intertexts in her work, and her questioning of traditional paradigms of gender, family, and motherhood.

FAUNA by Romina Paula

Translated by April Sweeney & Brenda Werth; Directed by April Sweeney

It will begin performances on September 16, will celebrate its opening on September 22, and run through October 1, 2022. Tickets begin at $22 and can be purchased by visiting EventBrite.

FAUNA brings together four characters involved in the making of a film, a film that will never be made: a fictionalized biography based on a legendary figure who in her lifetime dressed like a man, translated Rilke, and rode her horse with abandon through the campo until she was in her nineties. FAUNA contemplates how to tell the story of a life, questions what is true and real, and asks us to decipher where fiction and the real co-exist.

The cast includes *Laura Butler Rivera, *Richard Jessie Johnson, *Veraalba Santa, and *David Skeist. The show is designed by Calypso Michelet (Costume/Scenic), Anna Labykina (Scenic/Lighting), and Paul Pinto (Sound).

THE WHOLE OF TIME by Romina Paula

Translated by Jean Graham-Jones; Directed by Tony Torn

It will begin performances on October 21, opening on October 27, and will run through November 13, 2022.

Tickets begin at $22 and can be purchased by visiting EventBrite.

Romina Paula's acclaimed play THE WHOLE OF TIME is inspired by The Glass Menagerie but takes its characters in a very different direction. A family's fragile and very private home life is about to change forever. The Whole of Time digs deep into questions of home and exile...physical, intellectual, and emotional.

The cast will include Ben Becher, Ana Gabriel, Lucas Salvagno and Josefina Scaro. Designers TBA

In translating and performing Romina's Paula's work, we invite hemispheric exchange bringing New York audiences into dialogue with one of Argentina's most promising literary and performative voices.

Four Plays by Romina Paula, to be published later this winter by Seagull Books' In Performance Series (editor Carol Martin), was supported by a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Literary Translation Fellowship. Sweeney and Werth became interested in Paula's work as she exemplifies the extraordinary fluidity of a new generation of Argentine artists working on the cutting edge of theatrical performance, both defying disciplinary boundaries and breaking down traditional gender and production hierarchies.

They are both deeply invested in the Argentine theater scene and have spent over ten years researching Argentine theater and, in Sweeney's case, performing in collaboration with Argentine playwrights and directors. They bring complementary expertise and disciplinary perspectives to this project. Werth's background is in Latin American literature and her scholarship focuses specifically on Argentine theater and performance. Sweeney, trained as an actor and director, has worked with Argentine playwrights/directors such as Daniel Veronese, Federico León, and Matías Umpierrez.

ROMINA PAULA (Bio) is an Argentine artist who thrives in diverse creative roles as playwright, actor, director of theater and film, and novelist. She has written three novels, ¿Vos me querés a mí? (Do you Love Me? Entropía, 2005), Agosto (August, Entropía, 2009), Acá todavía (Still Here, 2016, Entropía), as well as several essays, and a collection of short stories, Archivos de Word (Word Archives, 2021). Her novel Agosto was translated into English by Jennifer Croft and was published by The Feminist Press at CUNY in 2017.

In 2019 Paula made her debut as filmmaker with De Nuevo Otra Vez (Again Once Again), and in 2020 she co-wrote and directed the film Edición Ilimitada (Unlimited Edition) with Edgardo Cozarinsky, Santiago Loza and Virgina Cosin. Her plays include Cimarrón (Rewilding, 2016), Fauna (2013), El tiempo todo entero (The Whole of Time, 2009), Algo de ruido hace (The Sound It Makes, 2008) and Si te sigo muero (If I Follow You, I'll Die, 2005).

Paula has received overwhelming praise and critical acclaim for her dramaturgical work in Argentina and abroad. Her plays have toured and been performed in numerous festivals and theaters throughout Latin America and Europe.In addition to her work as playwright, Paula has acted in films by some of Argentina's most talented filmmakers. She appeared Medianeras (Sidewalls, 2011) by Gustavo Taretto; La princesa de Francia (The Princess of France), El hombre robado (The Stolen Man, 2007), Todos mienten (They All Lie, 2009) and Viola by Matías Piñeiro; and El Estudiante (The Student, 2011) by Santiago Mitre.

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