EDUCATING ARTISTS
Columbia University School of the Arts
International Play Reading Festival
Founded by Carol Becker and David Henry Hwang, this marquee festival presents readings of three plays by living international playwrights alongside conversations with the playwrights and translators.
“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. 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.”
—Carol Becker
“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.”
—David Henry Hwang
2020
International Play Reading Festival
Podcasts. October 2020 [Link]
“Theater is always about human interaction, something we all know is incredibly challenged at this time. Therefore, we have never needed theater more than we do now. Our job at the School of the Arts is to reimagine how to make it possible and how to reach a global audience in the most effective ways. We are very excited to try a new, audio form of presentation for these fabulous plays. And we are grateful to have such an adventurous group of playwrights with whom to collaborate on this experiment.”
—Carol Becker
“Though the pandemic has sidelined live performances for now, enterprising artists and producers are exploring new ways of bringing theatrical content to even wider audiences,” says Hwang. “The International Play Reading Festival this year will therefore be accessible for the first time to a truly international audience. We hope these extraordinary plays can help bring our world together, during a time when we all share a common threat, one that acknowledges no borders.”
—David Henry Hwang
Featuring:
May 35, by Candace Chong Mui Ngam (Hong Kong)
One family’s experience of the date so volatile the government won’t let you say it out loud.
Rarámuri Dreams, by Camila Villegas (Mexico)
A kidnapping. A murder. Two parents running in parallel to find justice, family, and maybe redemption. If only the system worked that way.
Taxi Radio, by Nophand Boonyai (Thailand)
On a stormy night in Bangkok, four beings are stuck in traffic. Your phone won’t help you out of these dead ends.
2019
International Play Reading Festival
Lenfest Center for the Arts. June 14–16, 2019 [Link]
Featuring:
The Sickness of Stone, by Blanca Domenech (Spain)
Decades on, and a former dictator’s self-mythologizing mausoleum is crumbling from within. Hired by the government of today, a young researcher spends scrupulous hours seeking ways to keep it standing. But as Right and Left clash in the outside world and the political debate creeps violently towards the door of the monument, her attempts at professional distance are quickly challenged. Trapped inside with a guard whose motives are unclear, she can no longer escape her own hypocrisy, and her once-proud arguments are dangerously threatened from every corner.
You Shall Love, by Pablo Manzi (Chile)
In the near future, a group of facilitators in the surgical community build a presentation about how to break down the cultural and racial bias against Amenites—a newly-arrived alien species. The project turns out to be more complex than any of them could have guessed, revealing their own prejudices against one another, the lure of othering, and the power of cultural stigmas.
Snow, by Blandine Savetier and Waddah Saab (France)
When Ka, a respected poet and journalist living in exile in Germany, returns to his homeland in Kars, Turkey to report on the increase in suicides among young Muslim women, he is swept into a cascade of conflict, corruption, and zealotry among competing factions of the region. This stage adaptation of Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk's acclaimed novel captures the great conflicts of our time: Western versus Eastern culture, secularism versus religion, and the lives lost in these struggles.
Translator Panel Discussion: How Did This Play Get into English?
Translators Taylor Gaines and Caridad Svich in conversation with Susan Bernofsky
2018
The Inaugural Columbia University International Play Reading Festival
Lenfest Center for the Arts. June 15–17, 2018 [Link]
Featuring:
Time Bomb, by N. Riantiarno (Indonesia)
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.
Shaitan Lake, by Rinat Tashminov (Russia)
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.
Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali?, by Raeda Taha (Palestine)
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.
Translator Panel Discussion: How Did This Play Get into English?
Translators Cobina Gillitt, Bela Shayevich and Mais Taha in conversation with Susan Bernofsky