Nick Rongjun Yu - Shakespeare and Censorship in China

What was your first experience of theater that converted you to wanting to pursue it as a career?

I watched a play, Othello, by Shakespeare in the theater when I was in university in 1994, it is the first time I watched a drama in theater, I got a job in hospital as a doctor after I graduated from the university, but I quit the job and found another job in theater in 1995, during that period I watched many plays and then I decided to be a playwright and started to write play.

If you can have a drink with any dramatist (living or dead) who would it be and why?

Shakespeare, I am adapting a play from Richard III, and I have a lot of questions for him.

Why is theater important to you?

It is a good way to express myself. Also I can use theater to connect with people and share the thoughts.

If you could have one of your plays produced in any country in the world, which play and which country would you choose, and why? 

My new play The Eighth Day of the Week, in China, because it is a play about the period of 1959-1960 in China, but it can not be presented on stage right now.

Nick Rongjun Yu (China) is the most produced living playwright in mainland China and the Deputy General Manager for Shanghai’s only state-run theater company, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (SDAC). Since 2000, Mr. Yu has authored more than forty-seven works for stage and screen with performances in other countries as well as in China. He received Asian Cultural Council Fellowships in 2004 & 2007 to conduct research on cultural exchange programs in the USA and participated in the International Residency program at the Royal Court Theatre in 2008. He has also translated works from other lands, which have been performed in China and other countries. His plays have been presented in English and Japanese as well as other languages and dialects with performances in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, Austria, Romania, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Macao. His works were published in Chinese, Japanese, English, and Turkish. As the manager of the Arts Theatre, Drama Salon, and D6 Studio of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, Mr. Yu has hosted more than four hundred projects on three stages in Shanghai, including Chinese and international productions, and has facilitated international tours for SDAC productions. Since 2003 as a dramaturg and producer of the SDAC, he also has co-produced several productions with theatre companies from abroad. Since 2005, he has been the Chief Director of the Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre Festival, which is an annual festival for theatre companies from all over the world.

"the arts shift souls" an Interview with Aditi Kapil

What was your first experience of theater that converted you to wanting to pursue it as a career?

I remember when I first fell in love with theatre. My mom and I went to a performance of Sam Shepard's 'Fool for Love' at this theatre in Stockholm that brought in English language productions. We got tickets through my high school, it was maybe the 3rd live play I'd ever seen, and the first non-musical. I think it was a brilliant production, I mean I wouldn't have had anything to compare it to. It blew my mind in a serious way though, nothing in my experience had ever prepared me for that live fighting, loving, naked, writhing in pain, old guy mooing in the corner, I'm not sure what's happening but we're all mesmerized... me, my mother, the entire audience. And something in the world had shifted by the end. Something I'd never known before, was possible in art. Anyway, that was the moment, but it took me a way long time to discover that there might be such a thing as a career in theatre, that's just not a natural thought for an immigrant kid growing up in Sweden.

If you can have a drink with any dramatist (living or dead) who would it be and why?

Tom Stoppard. Tom Stoppard, if you happen to read this, can I buy you a drink? I don't know, his virtuosity... the meticulousness of his craft... and you need that when you're going to break some realities, you need craft. I think I attribute the reality-breaking, accurately or inaccurately, to the East Bloc/Indian background, the idea that nothing has to be what everyone thinks it must, in fact it's our job to mix it up a bit, that sense that there's more to the world than you see at first viewing, I love that, I yearn for that. Also, I bet he'd be fun to have a drink with.

Why is theater important to you?

A healthy society needs to be in conversation with itself, a constant dialogue, a constant evolution of ideas, philosophy, humanity. That's the arts. Debate, free press, textbooks, etc., all of those things can inform and change minds. But the arts shift souls, connect us, weave us together. And for me theatre, having that conversation live in a room full of people having an common experience, gasping together, laughing together, feeding each other and the performance, is the most thrilling and uplifting variation. As a practitioner. I can palpably feel conversations starting, in our minds and hearts, and trickling out into our daily lives, and just a little bit the world shifts. Like that first time.

If you could have one of your plays produced in any country in the world, which play and which country would you choose, and why? 

Oh, wow. "Agnes Under the Big Top, a tall tale" in Stockholm, Sweden. In the US people very much see this play as a New York play because of the subway throughline, but in actuality for me it comes from growing up in Stockholm. My parents and my brother all worked for the Stockholm subway at some point, my dad was a driver, I'd hear him over the speaker, this one time he told me to pick up milk on the way home. I grew up on the blue line, took the train every day, the sliding doors, announcer v/os, passing lives, universe in "Agnes..." is Stockholm for me. I was also a home care worker in the summers, whenever I came home from college. In my blood, this is my Sweden play. To have it produced there would be incredible.

Aditi Brennan Kapil (Minneapolis, USA) is a playwright, actress, and director, of Bulgarian and Indian descent, raised in Sweden. Her play Love Person (Stavis Playwright Award), a four part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English, has been produced to critical acclaim around the US. Her most recent play, Agnes Under The Big Top, a tall tale, was selected as a 2009 Distinguished New Play Development Project by the NEA New Play Development Program hosted by Arena Stage. Her latest work, the DISPLACED HINDU GODS Trilogy, consisting of the plays "Brahman/i, a one-hijra stand-up comedy show", "The Chronicles of Kalki", and "Shiv", premiered in repertory at Mixed Blood Theatre in October 2013, earning several end-of-year honors, including City Pages naming Aditi Artist of the Year for 2013. Current commissions include Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and South Coast Repertory Theatre. She is the Playwright-in-Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre, an Artistic Associate at Park Square Theatre, and a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center. aditikapil.com

Interview with Phillip Dikotla Johannesburg, South Africa

Interview with Phillip Dikotla

Johannesburg, South Africa

Can you tell me a story from your childhood that influenced the person and/or playwright you are today?

I don’t really like talking about this but otherwise, I grew up in a poor family of four siblings and a single parent whom I love wholeheartedly (My Mother). Being the last born in the family, I didn’t know my father, he died the same year I was born, in 1990. We didn’t have a TV, just a radio and our voices which always told beautiful stories, about people I didn’t know, like my father, my grandfather and many other people, whom I had to imagine as their stories were being told. It was an automatic thing that I think helped me a lot with being able to imagine as I do today, when telling stories, as a comedian, and an actor. It helps me.
So with me being the last born in my family, I took upon myself one responsibility, which was to change the my family's situation, to make things better for myself, my family, and later my country, and hopefully the world. But even so, I later learned that I can’t change the world. I can only make a contribution, which I try to do with each and every story I tell. When I feel like my voice is not clear enough in a story, that the story has no reason to be told, I stop. I think that too influenced the kinds of stories I tell, and the comedy I do. Which is just being myself, and playing my role in society. Putting in my contribution. In honestly telling my stories, I believe, people see themselves, because we are not as unique as we think we are. So as hard as it is, I always try to reveal and give all of myself.
There is a lot that I still have to say and learn. Hopefully some other time.

If you could have a drink with any dramatist (living or dead) who would it be and why?

It wouldn’t be a dramatist, it would be my father. It would be nice just to talk to him. I feel like not knowing him has pushed me to gain a lot in my life. So it would be a pleasurable experience.

Why is theater important to you?

It heals me, it challenges my perspectives, and it makes me happy.

What advice do you have for new playwrights?

Write about things that you know the best. Write about things that speak to you. Anyway that also depends on what type of plays you want to do. What brought us here is not the same. So always remember what made you want to be part of this field/industry. Even though it might have changed as you grow and get wiser.

Phillip M. Dikotla is 24-year-old South African playwright, actor, and comedian. He is an Arts and Culture Trust Impact Award recipient for theatre 2012. He is part and cast of the Naledi Award winning production Sekwatlapa (2010), writer of the Zabalaza Festival Best production Skierlik (Standard Bank Ovation Award recipient 2013), and Nominee for best actor at the Zabalaza Festival 2013. He has worked with a variety of directors, and performed in different productions such as: Skierlik, Vuka Matchelle, Reconciliation, Matters of the heart, Dr Roto, Ordinary, Ngwanaka, Monnamolora, invasion 2.0, and Narrative Dreams, just to mention a few. As a writer he has written, Skierlik, Ordinary, Trekker (the story of Dimitri Tshafendas), Gae, The fatherland, David II, Buru (co-written), and currently working on his new play titled khukhu. As a comedian he continues to perform around South Africa.

About The 2014 World Theatre Day Messages

The NYC World Theatre Day Coalition was thrilled to learn that this year the International message will be written by South African playwright, designer, director, installation maker and artistic director of Third World Bunfight, Brett Bailey. Upon its release in March, the message will be translated into more than 20 languages to reach tens of thousands in the international theatre community.

Additionally, The Theater Communications Group (TCG, The US Center for the International Theatre Institute) is proud to announce that noted theatre artist and TCG board chair Diane Rodriguez, the associate producer/director of new play production at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, will give the U.S. World Theatre Day message. Past U.S. World Theatre Day messages were given by actor Jeffrey Wright and playwright Lynn Nottage.

Brett Bailey is a playwright, designer, director, installation artist, and the artistic director of Third World Bunfight. He has worked throughout South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe, Uganda, Haiti, the U.K. and Europe. His acclaimed iconoclastic dramas, which interrogate the dynamics of the post-colonial world, include Big Dada, Ipi Zombi?, iMumbo Jumbo and Orfeus. His performance installations include Terminal (Blood Diamonds) and Exhibits A & B.  He directed the opening show at the World Summit on Arts and Culture in Johannesburg (2009), and from 2006-2009 the opening shows at the Harare International Festival of the Arts. From 2008-11 he was curator of South Africa’s only public arts festival, ‘Infecting the City’, in Cape Town. His works have played across Europe, Australia and Africa, and have won several awards, including a gold medal for design at the Prague Quadrennial (2007). He headed the jury of the Prague Quadrennial (2011) and was a juror on the International Theatre Institute’s Music Theatre Now competition (2012/13).

Diane Rodriguez is an Obie Award-winning multi-disciplinary theatre artist. She is an accomplished actor, anthologized writer, regional theatre director and associate producer/director of new play production at Center Theatre Group (CTG) in Los Angeles. She began her career as a lead actress with the seminal ensemble, El Teatro Campesino. Recognized as one of the country’s leading advocates for non-text based and ensemble-driven work as well as a long-time advocate of Latino playwrights and actors, Diane maintains her artistic career while being a member of the artistic staff of Center Theatre Group, which includes the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Currently, under her tenure as director of New Play Production (NPP), CTG’s NPP program was awarded a one million dollar grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the commissioning and development of seven new collaborative works from ensembles or creative collaborators. She has developed and directed the works of numerous writers including Nilo Cruz’s Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams and Dreams of My Father, Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation at Sundance Theatre Lab, Lloyd Suh’s American Hwangap at Ojai Playwrights Conference, Erik Patterson’s Sick for Playwrights Arena, and Les Thomas’ Cave Quest for East West Players, among many others. In 2008, for Mattel Toy Company, she wrote the book and was the supervising director for the first live Barbie musical Barbie Live/The Princess Adventures. The show premiered in Buenos Aires and toured Brazil in 2012. She won an OBIE for Performance (Best Ensemble) in 2007 for playing 23 characters in Heather Woodbury’s Tale of Two Cities. In 2012 her two plays, Living Large in a Mini Kind of Way and Pitch like a Girl were produced in Chicago and Los Angeles, respectively. With Mark Murphy and Mark Russell she co-directed the RADAR LA Festival in 2011. She lives in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles with her long time husband, friend and advisor, Jose Delgado.

The first World Theatre Day international message was written by Jean Cocteau in 1962. Succeeding honorees include Arthur Miller (1963), Ellen Stewart (1975), Vaclav Havel (1994), Ariane Mnouchkine (2005), Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi (2007), Augusto Boal (2009), Dame Judi Dench (2010), Jessica A. Kaahwa (2011), John Malkovich (2012) and Dario Fo (2013).

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 27^th 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 43^rd Street, 5^th 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.