Out of the Wings: Spanish and Spanish American Theatres in Translation

Stephen Duncombe teaches the history and politics of media and culture at the Gallatin School Of New York University. He is the author, of among other books, Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in the Age of Fantasy, and the editor of the Cultural Resistance Reader.  11:00 AM Theatre and Social Justice panel -moderated by Catherine Filloux  panel: Erik Ehn, Susana Cook, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Barclay Goldsmith, J.T. Rogers, Betty Shamieh; Featuring a performance excerpt from Killing the Boss currently playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre;  SUSANA COOK is a playwright/performer/director of political theater from Buenos Aires, Argentina living in New York since 1991. Her current work focuses on parallels between the dictatorship in Argentina and the present U.S. administration. creating powerful political satires that use humor as a tool for exposing the rationales used by those in power to justify oppressions against minorities. Erik Ehn is married ot Patricia Chanteloube. He's a playwright, artistic associate at Theater of Yugen (SF), Dean of the School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts, and a graduate of New Dramatists. Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about genocide, human rights, and social justice for the past twenty years. Her plays are published by Playscripts, Inc., Smith & Kraus, Vintage, Dramatic Publishing & Seagull. She is a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders.  

Amparo Garcia-Crow is a playwright, director, actor/singer. She heads the City of Austin's new $16 million dollar Mexican American Cultural Center.

Barclay Goldsmith is Artistic Director of Borderlands Theater in Tucson, Arizona. J.T Rogers’ plays include The Overwhelming and Madagascar. He is resident playwright at New Dramatists and is currently on commission from the Royal National Theatre in London. Betty Shamieh is currently an NEA/TCG playwright-in-residence at Magic Theatre, where her play Territories is running through February 2008. Her recent productions include Roar at the New Group and The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop. 11:45 AM Making Theatre in Mad Times  panel -moderated by Charlotte Meehan  With Elaine Avila, Christine Evans, Elana Greenfield, Ken Prestininzi, Ken Urban  ELAINE AVILA’s plays have been performed across the U.S., Canada, and Europe–including Lieutenant Nun (based on the true story of a woman conquistador), Burn Gloom (a music-theatre collaboration involving writers from 14 cities). Elaine is the Robert Hartung Endowed Chair of Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico. 

Christine Evans is an internationally produced playwright now based in the U.S. Ms. Evans teaches playwriting at Harvard.

 ELANA GREENFIELD is the author of At the Damascus Gate: Short Hallucinations (Green Integer, 2003), her play Nine Come is included in New Downtown Now: An Anthology of New Theater from Downtown New York (University of Minnesota Press, 2006). She is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award, and teaches at The New School's Eugene Lang College, and NYU Tisch Dramatic Writing Program. CHARLOTTE MEEHAN is a resident artist in the RAPT program at Perishable Theatre (Providence, RI) where her multimedia stage work, Sweet Disaster, will premiere in April 2008 under Ken Prestininzi’s direction.  Ms. Meehan is Playwright-in-Residence and Associate Professor of English at Wheaton College. 

KEN Prestininzi is a Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre, Providence, a seasoned

playwright/director/producer and  Associate Artistic Director of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre, and teacher of ensemble theatre, directing, dramaturgy and other acts of daring. 

Ken Urban’s plays have been produced and developed by Target Margin, Annex Theatre, Luna Stage, Son of Semele Ensemble, and The Chocolate Factory. His new play The Happy Sad is being produced by The Flea in March 2008. He is the Artistic Director of The Committee in New York and he is currently a Playwriting Fellow at the Huntington Theater in Boston. www.kenurban.org

 12:30-1:00 PM
LUNCH 1:30 PM Narrative Connections: Dramaturgy, Design and New Technologies -Presentation and panel moderated Randy Gener With Ping Chong, Kevin Cunningham, Kirby Malone, Jay Scheib and (pending confirmation) Sam Buntrock  Rapid developments in animations, video-game and computer technologies are profoundly affecting the domain of narrative and scenography. This presentation & panel investigates and explores the work of American theatre artists who have been deeply involved in new media.  Randy Gener gives an excerpt from “Storytelling by Digital Design: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create Plays,” a multimedia lecture that was presented at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial for World Scenography with the support of the Ford Foundation, through the Institute of International Education. The talk will be followed by a panel discussion, featuring  Ping Chong (Director and Media Artist); Kevin Cunningham (3-Legged Dog Media and Theater Group); Jay Scheib (Director), Kirby Malone, co-editor of Live Movies: A Field Guide to New Media for the Performing Arts; and pending confirmation: Sam Buntrock, director of Sunday in the Park with George at Studio 54 Randy Gener is a New York city-based writer, playwright and critic. He is the senior editor of American Theatre, a monthly magazine published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG). He has lectured widely on arts and culture in the U.S. and in Europe.  2:30 PM Reconfiguring the classics in new writing panel-moderated by Saviana Stanescu With Matthew Maguire, Chiori Miyagawa, Diane Paulus, Shoshana Polanco, Jay Scheib, Caridad Svich, Anne Washburn Matthew Maguire is a co-artistic director of Creation Production Company and the Director of the Theatre Program at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.  His plays include The Tower, Phaedra, and Abandon.  He is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.  His awards include an OBIE for Acting and an OBIE for Directing.  www.creationproduction.org Chiori Miyagawa is a playwright and dramaturg based in NYC.  She is a
resident playwright of New Dramatists. Diane Paulus is director of The Donkey Show, which has toured internationally and played an open run Off-Broadway. She is currently on commission from Ambassador Theatre Group in London. Shoshana Polanco has been producing Jay Scheib’s work since 2006. Past productions: Women Dreamt Horses for BAiT – Buenos Aires in Translation at PS 122 and This Place is a Desert at ICA in Boston and Under the Radar, Public Theater, NYC. Upcoming productions: Untitled Mars (this title may change) opening in April at PS 122 and the opera The Making of Americans opening at the Walker Arts Center in December. She has worked for BAM, Lincoln Center, Cervantino Festival, and TeatroStageFest among others.

Saviana Stanescu is a Romanian-born playwright teaching at NYU, TSOA, Drama Department. Her play Waxing West (La MaMa Theatre) won the 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Script. She's currently a NYSCA writer-in-residence with Women's Project. CARIDAD SVICH is a playwright who has adapted works by Euripides, Sophoc
les, Shakespeare, Wedekind, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca, & Federico Garcia Lorca. Anne Washburn is a Brooklyn based playwright. Her plays include Apparition, The Internationalist, The Ladies, The Communist Dracula Pageant, and a sort of translation of Euripides' Orestes. 3:15 PM Translation on Deck: Intercultural Negotiations -moderated by Sarah Cameron Sunde & Marie Louise Miller  with Chantal Bilodeau, Daniel Brunet, Jean Graham-Jones, Peter Meineck, Jerry Ruiz  *(This is a Translation Think Tank session) Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator originally from Montreal. She has translated plays by Koffi Kwahulé (Ivory Coast), Catherine Léger (Quebec) and Jean Cocteau (France), as well as scenes from a play by Pierre Mumbere Mujomba (Congo). Current translations include new plays by Larry Tremblay (Quebec) and Mohamed Kacimi (Algeria).

Daniel Brunet is a director, producer and translator. Based in both Berlin and Brooklyn, he is the Associate Director of German Theater Abroad and has translated nearly a dozen contemporary German plays in the last five years.Jean Graham-Jones is a professor of theatre at CUNY's Graduate Center, where she specializes in Latin American theatre,performance, and theory.Her translations of plays by Argentinean dramatists Ricardo Monti, Daniel Veronese, Federico León, Lola Arias, and Rafael Spregelburd have been published in two book-length collections: Reason Obscured: Nine Plays by Ricardo Monti (2004) and BAiT: Buenos Aires in Translation (2007).  Peter Meineck is Artistic Director of the Aquila Theatre Company and a clinical professor of Classics and Ancient Studies at NYU. He was the winner of the American Translators Association Galantiere Award for his translation of Aeschylus' Oresteia. A volume of his Sophocles translations was recently published by Hackett.

Marie-Louise Miller is a director and dramaturg who has worked internationally as well as in and around New York City. She is a proud member of NoPassport, Theater Without Borders, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. She is also the smitten mother of two children.

Jerry Ruiz has directed at Repertorio Español, HERE Arts Center and Ensemble Studio theatre, and has upcoming projects with Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis and Flux Ensemble Theatre (NYC).  A two time recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship and currently a Directing Resident at Second Stage, Jerry received his MFA in directing from UCSD. SARAH CAMERON SUNDE is associate artistic director at New Georges and co-founder of Translation Think Tank. She is a director and as a translator she specializes in contemporary Norwegian drama, most recently the work of Jon Fosse. 4:00 PM COFFEE BREAK 4:15-5:15 PM Brownout 2: Who's Listening? From casting through presentation, the practicalities of working with accents. -Moderated by Abel López.  With Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, Gita Reddy, Shirley Rumierk, Nilaja Sun* (This is an Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts session) Abel López (Director/GALA Hispanic Theatre) is Associate Producing Director of GALA Hispanic Theatre, where he directs for their mainstage season, and serves as president of the board of directors of the American Arts Alliance, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and the Helen Hayes Awards. Mr. López is also immediate past president of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), vice president of Americans for the Arts, chair of the Creative Communities Initiative of the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, Chair-Emeritus of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and serves on the board of directors of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, In Series, Black Women's Playwrights Group, and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.  Antonio Ocampo-Guzmán (Actor/Director/Dialect Coach/Linklater Voice Teacher/Northeastern University) joined the faculty of Northeastern University this past fall. Originally from Colombia, trained as a voice teacher with Kristin Linklater ( Freeing the Natural Voice ) and since 2003, has
been adapting this popular practice into Spanish and has offered both bilingual and Spanish-only training here in the U.S. as well as in Columbia , Panama , Mexico, and Spain . Gita Reddy (Actor/Director/Freelance Casting Director) Recent casting projects include productions include productions for the Culture Project and Alter Ego.   As an actor and director she has worked extensively in downtown theater, and was the 2005-07 Casting and Artistic Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop.  Shirley Rumierk (Actor) made her Broadway debut playing multiple Latina characters in Latinologues!  A versatile performer who has also worked on television and in film and numerous commercials, she is Co-Host of the hit New York City series, Cool in Your Code. Nilaja Sun (Actor/Playwright) is the solo performer and writer of the Off-Broadway smash No Child…, which concluded its run at the Barrow Street Theatre in June 2007 and is currently on tour. For her creation and performance of No Child…, Nilaja garnered a Lucille Lortel Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Theatre World Award, an Obie Award, the John Gassner Playwrighting Award, and was named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.  The Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts (formerly The Non-Traditional Casting Project) was established in 1986 to address and seek solutions to the problems of racism and exclusion in film, television, and theatre.   Today, its mission is to serve as an expert advocate and educational resource for full inclusion in theatre, film, television, and related media.   5:30-6:30 PM DINNER 6:30 PM Trans-border Queerings: Intermedia Performances Re-imagine the Hemisphere
–Ramon Rivera-Servera (Northwestern University, Performance Studies)
Ramón H. Rivera-Servera is assistant professor in the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. He is completing a manuscript entitled Grassroots Globalizations: Queer Sexualities and the Performance of Latinidad and co-editing with E. Patrick Johnson, Blaktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology.
7:05 PM Plan Mexico: Impunity, the ‘Drug War’ and Human Rights in Mexico-moderated by Jason Grote with Harry Bubbins, Laura Carlsen, Hector Sánchez Harry J. Bubbins is an environmental educator who was named Bronx Advocate of the Year, the Enterprise Foundation's Hero of the Month, accepted the Clearwater Award from the Waterfront Center and was a finalist for the Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award by the Municipal Art Society   He was a friend and colleague of Brad Will and has been involved in the movement to achieve accountability for his murder. Laura Carlsen is director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy www.americaspolicy.org  She has worked as a foreign policy analyst and journalist in Mexico for two decades and is co-editor of  Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular resistance in Mexico.

Jason Grote is a playwright. His plays include 1001, Box Americana, This Storm is What We Call Progress, Hamilton Township, and Maria/Stuart. Visit him at jasongrote.com.
Hector Sánchez is the Policy Education Coordinator for Global Exchange's Mexico Program. He represents the program in Washington, D.C., where he coordinates efforts to inform and organize legislators and key organizations in support of new priorities on trade and immigration. http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/

8:05 PM History, Memory and Transculturation: NoPassport Press Book Launch-moderated by Otis Ramsey-Zoe with Anne Garcia-Romero, Oliver Mayer, and Alejandro Morales NoPassport Press presents a conversation with three writers who each have a newly available collection of plays.  Otis Ramsey-Zöe is a freelance dramaturg who has developed new plays with The Sundance Institute, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, and Center
Stage, among others.

Anne García-Romero's plays have been developed and produced at the NYSF/Public Theater, Summer Play Festival, The Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Borderlands Theater and South Coast Repertory. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama and is an alumna of New Dramatists.

 Oliver Mayer is Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at USC School of Theatre. He is a working playwright, screenwriter, and librettist.

Alejandro Morales is a New York based playwright and co-Artistic Director of Packawallop Productions.  His most recent production was the silent concerto at the 14th Street Theater. 8:45-9:00 PM Networking/Reception