Showing posts with label NYC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYC. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2015

"Cultures collide in virtual space" with IAN ROWLANDS (Wales, UK)

What do you hope to gain from this project?
Inspiration as different genres / cultures collide in virtual space.

Who is your greatest writing influence?
My influences are outside the theatre. At 13, it was Jack Kerouac, in my thirties it was Umberto Eco then Baudrillard. Increasingly, Peter Sloterdijk, having been introduced to him by a Dutch colleague, Jeroen van den Berg, with whom I’m collaborating upon a production, Fragments of Journeys Towards the Horizon, to be staged internationally in 2016

Describe your writing room / process.
As I wrote, in an essay inspired by a comment once made by Amanda [Feldman, Lead Coordinator of The Around-the-Globe Chain Play] (and included in Historia, NoPassport Press, NY - a collection of plays I wrote whilst in NY).

‘The house in which I write these few notes is built upon a Roman wall on land once owned by a pre-Reformation monastery. I exist in a palimpsest of history. In the main, most Europeans do. In Europe it appears that there is no ‘No-space’. Here, no single thing is ‘virgin’. For no single thing is free of historic association; layered history is lived as life in the Old World.’ The room is a small back room; a book lined bubble (see Sloterdijk)

My process is haphazard / shards of time snatched in between the school run and the quotidian demands of life

How old or young are you?
Too old, but blessed by my children’s youth and surprised by my eternal anger at injustice, which drives my need to keep dreaming of Utopia for my children.


NATALIA ANTONOVA (Russia)-- "My life is eternally split between at least three countries"

Who is your greatest writing influence?

It's hard to say. I think others are always more qualified to make such an assessment. A critic friend once compared my work to the work of Russian screenwriter Alexander Mindadze. 

What makes a great play in your country?

I don't know if there is such a thing as "my country," per se, since my life is eternally split between at least three countries. If we're talking Russia - then that's really hard to say. Are we talking about modern plays, the classics, the popular foreign plays that have found a home in local theaters? Considering the conservative backlash currently going on in Russia, I'd say a great play is a play that gets people talking.

Describe your writing room / process.

I don't have a writing room, I write wherever and whenever. That's what happens when you're always busy/have a small child. I probably get my best ideas in the shower/when I'm walking somewhere, listening to music. I usually make notes on my phone, to look up later.

How do you wake up?

Usually, my kid wakes me up by demanding something or other, as kids do. 

Friday, March 20, 2015

"All is not what it seems" with playwright, JC NIALA (Kenya)

How were you contacted to participate?
I was contacted to contribute through The Theatre Company in Nairobi, Kenya.

Who is your greatest writing influence?
My greatest writing influences are the magical realists who thankfully remind us all is not what it seems. 

What makes a great play in your country?
In Kenya, the populist plays make people laugh and the profound plays make people think. Both types of plays are considered great if they speak to the essence of how Kenyans see themselves.

How do you wake up?
I wake up at 4am full of excitement and anticipation to get to my writing desk and the to watch the sunrise. 



JC Niala (Kenya) is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been performed and aired on radio in Kenya and the UK. Her play The Strong Room was shortlisted by Wole Soyinka in BBA Africa Performance 2010. She is also a producer and founder of KikoPro. KikoPro specializes in publishing diverse Children's Books and Adult Non Fiction Books. 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Kicking Off 2015...Playwright KRISTOFFER DIAZ (NYC, USA)


What do you hope to gain from this project?
It's just great to connect with writers from across the world, collaborating to make something that crosses all imaginable borders. 


What makes a great play in your country?
Impossible to answer, as this country has a wide range of aesthetic tastes. For me, a great play is one that feels like nothing else out there.


How do you wake up?
To the sounds of my son yelling: "Daddy! Dad! It's daytime!"


How old or young are you?
37, which honestly feels ancient. 


Kristoffer Diaz (NYC, USA) is a playwright and educator living and working in Brooklyn. Full-length titles include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety, Welcome to Arroyo’s, The Upstairs Concierge, and The Unfortunates. Awards: 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; winner, 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play; winner, 2011 OBIE Award, Best New American Play; and the inaugural Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowship from The Public Theater (2011). His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among many others. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista; a resident playwright at New Dramatists; a co-founder of the Unit Collective (Minneapolis); the creator of the #freescenes project; and a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists). Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performing Arts Management program.

Friday, February 27, 2015

NYC World Theatre Day Coalition is excited to officially announce...

The Staged Reading of the Third Annual





Thursday, March 27th at 7:00pm

To be performed at the Lark Play Development Center
(5th Floor, 311 West 43rd Street, NYC)

Tickets are FREE
To make reservations go to nycwtdchainplay2015.eventbrite.com

The reading will also be live streamed on innovativetheatre.org/live

Starting and ending in NYC, a play is being written as it travels around the world, making 18 stops with playwrights from across the globe. Each playwright is contributing one to five pages of text, moving the plot forward from where the previous playwright left off. Our playwrights are:

Kristoffer Diaz (NYC, USA)
Andrew Templeton (Canada)
Mariana Levy (Argentina)
Mariana Hartasanchez (Mexico)
Ross Mueller (Australia)
Sarah Treem (Los Angeles, USA)
Michelle Tan (Singapore)
Purva Naresh (India)
Vera Ion (Romania)
Natalia Antonova (Russia)
Najwa Sabra (Lebanon)
Deborah Asiimwe (Uganda)
JC Niala (Kenya)
Ogutu Muraya (The Netherlands)
Lola Blasco Mena (Spain)
Oladipo Agboluaje (United Kingdom)
Ian Rowlands (Wales)
Qui Nguyen (NYC, USA)

The reading will be directed by Ana Margineanu, Co-Founder of the international, site-specific theatre company, PopUP Theatrics. Casting will be announced when the script is finalized after March 8th, 2015.

The reading will be followed by a World Theatre Day Reception, where a number of NYC theatre luminaries will read the International Theatre Institute's World Theatre Day 2015 Message.

The reading will once again be globally live-streamed, to watch click HERE >>


To watch the 2014 Around-the-Globe Chain Play click HERE >>
To watch the 2013 Around-the-Globe Chain Play click HERE >>


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Celebrating World Theatre Day in NYC...

Attend the NYCWTD's Around-the-Globe Chain Play: nycwtdchainplay2014.eventbrite.com
And then attend:
A window into the creative process, The Rough Draft Festival is a showcase of exciting new work currently under development by LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and other companies. Highlighted by performances at the ON-stage theater; interactive Q&A sessions; and online opportunities to engage the artists with social media, The Rough Draft Festival runs Wed, Mar 26 - Tue, Apr 1. 
Participating artists include: Built for Collapse who Time Out NY called, “An ambitiously subversive young troupe”; Debut readings from LPAC New Play Development Residents; and co-curators Audrey Dimola and Tyler Rivenbark create an immersive theatre experience in site-specific locations throughout the LAGCC campus.
KICK-OFF EVENT, FRI, MAR 27, 9PM-12AM
CLOCKTOWER BUILDING IN LONG ISLAND CITY
In collaboration with HOLOCENTER (Center For the Holographic Arts), LPAC kicks off the annual Rough Draft Theater Festival on WORLD THEATER DAY, Fri, Mar 27. Clocktower performances include: DJ BUILT4COLLAPSE; Yoga theatrics from actress April Evans; musical stylings of QUEENIE; social media installations; and pop-up dramas from festival participants.

**Light refreshments and cash bar available at the reception. To RSVP.

    
Other ways to participate:

  • Share Bailey and Rodriguez’s message on or around March 27 through program notes, curtain speeches and online media.
  • View videos of international theatre artists reading translations of Bailey’s message in their own language on ITI Worldwide in Paris’ website: www.iti-worldwide.org.
  • Read the Crossing Borders World Theatre Day salon on the TCG Circle, which will feature interviews with and essays from Mexican and Canadian artists, as well as other globally-minded theatre people working across borders: http://www.tcgcircle.org/.
  • Connect with other global theatre-makers on TCG’s year-round online community platform, Conference 2.0.
  • Write your own globally-minded essay for the TCG Circle.
  • Tune into The NYC WTD Coalition's The Around the Globe Chain Play.
  • Follow WTD updates on Twitter, and tweet about World Theatre Day using hashtag #WTD14 with a message like, “Celebrate World Theatre Day 2014 on March 27"
  • Follow the International Theatre Institute on Facebook, and post your own messages like this one, “Join us as we celebrate World Theatre Day 2014 leading up to the 52nd Anniversary on March 27. There are many ways to get involved, so please help us champion the power of theatre to strengthen cultural exchange and mutual understanding across borders!”
  • Host a round table with your community to discuss the themes related to World Theatre Day
  • Offer ticket discounts in celebration of the day
  • Make your backstage space available for audiences to tour
  • Register with the Human Rights Watch to learn about human rights issues from around the world
  • Consider applying for a Fulbright to conduct theatre research, training, and teaching —our world needs more creative solutions and leadership to resolve many of our challenges, and the Fulbright is making an effort to include more artists and theatre scholars in their programs
  • Set a goal to work with your local community and Sister Cities International to create a reciprocal cultural exchange or project with your sister city
  • Purchase a copy of the World of Theatre, published by ITI Worldwide, which serves as the best reference guide available to explore the diversity of the current global dramatic scene

And, of course, the best way to celebrate 
World Theatre Day
 is to create and attend theatre!!!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Around-the-Globe Chain Play Returns for 2014

Headlined by award-winning playwright Lisa Kron, The NYC World Theatre Day Coalition is pround to present… 

The Staged Reading of the Second Annual
Around-the-Globe Chain Play

Thursday, March 27th at 7:00 PM

To be performed at The Lark Play Development Center

Tickets are FREE
To make reservations go to nycwtdchainplay2014.eventbrite.com.

Starting and ending in NYC, a play will be written as it travels around the world making 15 stops with playwrights from across the globe. Each playwright will contribute the next one to four pages of text, moving the plot forward from where the previous playwright left off. The playwrights are Lisa Kron (USA, NYC), Aditi Kapil (USA, Minneapolis), Nicolas Billon (Canada), Luz Estrada (Colombia), Thomas Sainsbury (New Zealand), Nick Rongjun Yu (China), Anuvab Pal (India), Oded Liphshiz (Israel), Lily Bevan (UK), Nina Mitrović (Croatia), Lana Nasser (The Netherlands), Phillip M. Dikotla (South Africa), Amy Conroy (Ireland), Sol Rodríguez Seoane (Argentina), and Chisa Hutchinson (USA, NYC).

The final script will be given a stage reading on World Theatre Day, Marcy 27th at 7:00 PM. The reading will take place at The Lark Play Development Center (311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036). The reading will be directed by Sherri Kronfeld, Artistic Director of the NYC based theatre company SUPERWOLF. Casting will be not be announced until the script is finalized after March 5th.


The reading will also be live streamed on innovativetheatre.org/live.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

NYC World Theatre Day 2013



We had a great turn out for the reading of the Around-the-Globe Chain Play. The reading of the play was followed by a reading of the 2013 International Messages that was penned by Dario Fo.

Here are some of the photos of this exciting event.


The Around-the-Globe Chain Play









The International Message

Friday, March 29, 2013

An Ancient Tradition






"We are all a part of an ancient tradition of bringing people together."
                                - Amanda Feldman
                                  March 27, 2013
                                  Introducing the Around-the-Globe Chain Play in NYC



Thursday, March 28, 2013

World Theatre Day All Year Round



It is nice to set aside a day every year for theatre artists and audiences around the world to celebrate this art. It gives us a chance to reflect on how theatre changes, impacts or enriches our lives.

However many of us celebrate theatre everyday. TCG has created a list of ways you can participate in the international theatre community, year round.

Check out their list.



Wednesday, March 27, 2013

World Theatre Day Message 2013




by Dario Fo

A long time ago, those in power resolved their intolerance of ‘comedians’ by banishing them from the country. Today, actors and theatre companies have trouble finding public spaces, theatres and audiences - everything because of the crisis.

Therefore, rulers no longer worry about controlling those who express themselves with irony and sarcasm, since there are no longer places for the actors to perform or spectators to perform for.

In contrast, during the Renaissance, those in power had to struggle to keep comedians, who enjoyed a wide public, at bay.

It’s commonly known that the greatest exodus of comedians happened during the century of the Counter-Reformation, which upheld the dismantling of all theatre spaces, especially in Rome, where their existence outraged the Holy City.

In 1697, under harassing demands from the most reactionary part of the bourgeoisie and the leading clergy, Pope Innocent XII ordered the elimination of the Tordinona Theatre, whose stage, according to the moralists, was accountable for the greatest number of obscene performances.

At the time of the Counter-Reformation, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, serving in the north of Italy, committed himself to the redemption of the ‘children of Milan’, establishing a clear distinction between art - the highest form of spiritual education, and theatre - the lowest expression of profanity and vanity. In a letter addressed to his collaborators, which I quote by heart, he stated more or less as follows:
While eradicating the evil weed, we had done our utmost to burn texts containing infamous speeches, to eradicate them from human memory, and at the same time prosecute those who spread such texts in print. But even as we sleep, the Devil works with renewed trickery. How far more penetrating to the soul than what the eyes can see! How far more devastating to the minds of boys and young girls is the spoken word, with appropriate voice and gesture, than a dead word in a book. It is therefore as critical for us to rid our cities of performers as we would do with unwanted souls.

Therefore, the only way out of this crisis is to hope that a great hunt will be organized against us, especially against the young people who want to learn the art of theatre: a new Diaspora of comedians, who, from such an imposition, will undoubtedly reap unimaginable benefits from a new kind of performance.

Translated by Mirko Grewing (Milan) and Douglas Howe (New York)




Tuesday, March 26, 2013

World Theatre Day Tomorrow!



Join us on World Theatre Day (tomorrow) for a reading of the Around-the-Globe Chain Play!





Wednesday, March 27th at 7PM at The Lark Play Development Center (311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036)

Tickets are free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. www.eventbrite.com 

A reception follows the reading.

Monday, March 25, 2013

A Distinctly Canadian Perspective





The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) and l'Association des théâtres francophones du Canada (ATFC) have once again joined forces to promote World Theatre Day.

They have come up with some fantastic ways for everyone to contribute to this global celebration.

Check out their site!



Caridad Svich


Meet the playwrights who are contributing to the Around-the-Globe Chain Play.


Caridad Svich (New York City, USA) received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel. She has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times, including in the year 2012 for her play Magnificent Waste. In the 2012-13 season: 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award round two recipient GUAPA receives a rolling world premiere courtesy of NNPN at Borderlands Theater in Arizona, Miracle Theatre in Oregon and Phoenix Theater in Indiana; her 4-actor play Love in the Time of Cholera, based on the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, premiered at Repertorio Espanol in NYC, where it is still running, The Tropic of X premieres at Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore. There will also be regional US premieres of In the Time of the Butterflies (based on the Julia Alvarez novel) at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, The House of the Spirits at Gala Hispanic Theatre in Washington D.C, and academic premiere of her fantasia on 1963, Pop culture and the Kennedy assassination The Archaeology of Dreams at University of Nebraska-Omaha. Her new play Spark received 32 readings across the US and abroad, including a reading at the Cherry Lane Theatre produced by TEL and Mannatee Films under Scott Schwartz’ direction in November 2012 to honor female war veterans (http://www.nopassport.org/spark). Among her key works: 12 Ophelias, Any Place But Here, Alchemy of Desire/Dead-Man’s Blues, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (a rave fable), Instructions for Breathing, Magnificent Waste and the multimedia collaboration The Booth Variations. Five of her plays radically re-imagining ancient Greek tragedies are published in the September 2012 collection Blasted Heavens (Eyecorner Press, University of Denmark). Her works are also published by TCG, Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Arte Publico Press, Smith & Kraus, Alexander Street Press, and more. Among her awards/recognitions are: Harvard University Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship TCG/Pew Charitable Trusts National Theater Artist Residency at INTAR, NEA/TCG Playwriting Residency at the Mark Taper Theatre Forum Latino Theatre Initiative and a California Arts Council Fellowship. She has edited several books on theatre including Out of Silence: Censorship in Theatre & Performance (Eyecorner Press), Trans-Global Readings and Theatre in Crisis? (both for Manchester University Press) Divine Fire (BackStage Books), and Out of the Fringe: Contemporary Latina/o Theatre & Performance (TCG), and Conducting a Life: Reflections on the Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes (Smith & Kraus). Her translations of Federico Garcia Lorca’s plays are collected in Lorca: Six Major Plays (NoPassport Press) and Impossible Theatre (Smith & Kraus). She has also translated theatre works by Julio Cortazar, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca, Antonio Buero Vallejo and contemporary plays from Mexico, Cuba, Serbia and Catalonia. She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, founder of NoPassport theatre alliance & press, Drama Editor of Asymptote journal of literary translation, associate editor of Routledge/UK's Contemporary Theatre Review and contributing editor of TheatreForum. She is affiliated artist of the Lark Play Development Center, Woodshed Collective, New Georges, and a Lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. She holds an MFA in Theatre from UCSD, and she trained for four consecutive years with Maria Irene Fornes at INTAR. She has taught playwriting at Bard College, Barnard College, Bennington College, Einhorn School of the Arts at Primary Stages, OSU, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, ScriptWorks, UCSD, and Yale School of Drama. She is an entry in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino Literature. Website: http://www.caridadsvich.com


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Join us on World Theatre Day, Wednesday, March 27th at 7PM at The Lark Play Development Center (311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036)

Tickets are free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. www.eventbrite.com 

A reception follows the reading.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sigtryggur Magnason


Meet the playwrights who are contributing to the Around-the-Globe Chain Play.


Sigtryggur Magnason (Iceland) was born on January 20th, 1974. He graduated with a B.A. degree in Icelandic literature and language from the University of Iceland in 1997. From 1998 onwards, worked for various media outlets, such as the Icelandic Broadcasting Service, as an editor of a daily radio programme, and as a media correspondent for the cultural supplement of Morgunblaðið. In the spring of 1997 Sigtryggur published the poetry book Ást á grimmum vetri / Love in a Cruel Winter. Five years later Mál og menning published his poetry book/play Herjólfur er hættur að elska /Herjólfur Has Stopped Loving, which was staged in the spring of 2003 by the National Theatre of Iceland and recorded for radio broadcasting.  In the spring of 2007, Sigtryggur's work Yfirvofandi / Imminent, directed by Bergur Þór Ingólfsson and performed by Edda Arnljótsdóttir, Ingvar E. Sigurðsson and Jörundur Ragnarsson, premiered in Sigtryggur's own home, as a part of the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The work earned Sigtryggur a nomination for Gríman , the annual Icelandic drama awards, as playwright of the year. The work was also performed by the Icelandic Broadcasting Service Theatre in 2009, and won a Gríman award in the same year for best radio play. It was published in a bilingual edition, in Icelandic and English, as translated by Lani Yamamoto. In 2010 the play won 2ndprize in a Nordic radio play competition. In 2011 Imminent was published, along with two other Icelandic works, by Hänschel Schauspiel in Berlin.

In 2007, Sigtryggur's translation of the play How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel was staged by Akureyri Theatre Company. Herjólfur Has Stopped Loving was staged at The Internationalists Theatre Festival in New York in the fall of 2008 (directed by Jeremy Lydic). In June 2012 Herjólfur was staged in The University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, directed by Lauren Allison. In 2009, Sigtryggur was asked to write a play for the graduating class of the drama department of The Icelandic Academy of the Arts. The resulting work, Bráðum hata ég þig / Soon I'll Hate You premiered in January 2010, directed by Una Þorleifsdóttir. In May 2012 Sigtryggur’s play TRANS was performed in a Champagne Club in Reykjavík as a part of Reykjavík Arts Festival. The play was recorded for the Icelandic Broadcasting Service and premiered on air 17th of February 2013. His newest play, Nú er himneska sumarið komið / The Heavenly Summer Has Arrived, will premiere in Iceland in April.  Sigtryggur is currently working on a TV-series with Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson and a film script with Árni Thor Jónsson.



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Join us on World Theatre Day, Wednesday, March 27th at 7PM at The Lark Play Development Center (311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036)

Tickets are free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. www.eventbrite.com 

A reception follows the reading.