Between the Seas Festival at The Wild Project: July 21-27, 2014-New York
Between the Seas Festival is a cutting-edge, international platform showcasing Mediterranean arts and culture in New York City. This year the Festival will take place from July 21-27 at The Wild Project, and will feature Catalan playwright Esteve Soler, among others. Staged readings of Soler's Trilogy Against Progress/ Against Democracy/ Against Love will be presented on Sunday, July 27th.
Between the Seas Festival was founded in 2010 by theater artist and scholar Aktina Stathaki as the first and only festival in North America focusing on contemporary Mediterranean performing artists. The annual festival that runs for one week each summer in New York City, has quickly grown into a unique platform of high quality work, presenting some of the most exciting and thought provoking artists working in the Mediterranean region. With an eclectic programming of performances that so far have included Egypt, Israel, Greece, Lebanon, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Canada, Morocco and the US, the festival's past editions have offered NYC audiences numerous new works including NYC, USA and world premieres by established and young artists. Balletto Teatro di Sardegna, Lina Abiad, Mancopy Dansekompagni, Elias Aguirre, Rachel Erdos, Ido Tadmor, Korhan Basaran, Malika Zarra, are some of the artists that have honored Between the Seas with their participation.
With the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Arts Council, BTS will begin its first year of the 4×4 project: NYC Meets the Med. This project will pair 4 Mediterranean plays and playwrights with 4 NYC directors and casts for staged readings, talk backs, and educational panels. Many of these are North American and/or English premieres of experimental, original, political plays.
Featuring:
Esteve Soler, Against Progress/Against Democracy/Against Love (with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull), Catalonia;
Lena Kitsopolou, The Price, Greece;
Jeton Neziraj, One Flew Over the Kosovo Theatre, Kosovo;
Mohammad al-Attar, A Chance Encounter, Syria.
Esteve Soler (Barcelona, 1976) is a playwright who trained at Barcelona’s Institut del Teatre and at the Sala Beckett, where he gives classes on playwriting. Since 2008, the trilogy formed by his worksAgainst Progress, Against Love and Against Democracy has been translated into nine languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Danish, Rumanian and Czech), while nearly 40 directors have offered their own interpretations of the works in countries such as Germany, the United States, France, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Venezuela and Chile. He has formed part of the official sections of the Theatertreffen and Literaturfestival festivals, both held in Berlin, and of the French festival La Mousson d’Été (twice). Some of his other works have premiered at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Jo sóc un altre!), at the Teatre Lliure (Davant de l’home) and at London’s Bell Theatre (Memòria).Against Democracy was awarded the 2012 Serra d'Or prize tho the best play of the year.
This is the first time Esteve Soler's Trilogy will be translated into English and performed in its entirety in the US, directed by Pop UP Theatrics, a dynamic theatre partnership between Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu.
Esteve Solers’s Trilogy will be presented as a staged reading alongside artist talk backs and educational panels exploring contemporary theatre in Southern Europe and the role of the arts in social movements.
Read the interview with Esteve Soler for BTSF.
BTS full program will be available soon.
Support Between the Seas Festival.
