IVP 2011
SPAIN 2011
Emilio Williams answers 5 questions from IVP Curator, Patrizia Acerra:
IVP: You have a diverse background. How did you decide to become playwright?
EW: Theater has always been part of my life. Even when I studied journalism and film-making, I was acting and directing in student groups. I’ve always written non-fiction, fiction, but dialogue always appeared to be my strength. For some reason it comes to me easier.
IVP: What is happening on stages of Spain today? Do you see any trends or ideas that keep coming up?
EW: We’re suffering a strong financial crisis in Spain. That has forced many independent theaters and companies to be more creative, to push their boundaries and think out-side the box. Lack of resources can be extremely motivating at times. Comedies seem to be more popular nowadays. There is also a trend of group-creation (so called devising theater) where unemployed actors build their own shows. The results can be very irregular, but some great things have come up, too.
IVP: What was your inspiration for TABLES AND BEDS?
EW: I wanted to revisit the “romantic comedy” genre, walk that fine line between the parody and the tribute. I also wanted to talk about the pain and joy of love, and most importantly about how lifelong friends are in a way, the loves of our lives. www.tablesandbeds.blogspot.com
IVP: Are there international playwrights writing today whose work inspires you?
EW: Sure. In Spain, Juan Mayorga and Antonio Zancada are two of my favorite. Yasmina Reza, from France is a global powerhouse. In New York, I love the work of Young Jean Lee. I’m also very interested in the work of Complicite in the UK, and of Robert Lepage in Canada. Both of them follow the tradition of Bob Wilson, who now spends more time in Europe than in the US. The three companies tend to work in the world of the visual and I think playwrights can learn from that.
IVP: What is your next project?
EW: Last month, we had the first reading of my new play “Smartphones” is a farce about lack of communication in the age of communication. I was inspired by the Theater of the Absurd, and the movies of Luis Buñuel. I believe surrealism and absurdism are becoming hyper-realistic ways to describe our lives.
IVP: You have a personal relationship with Chicago, correct?
EW: Yes, my father was born here, and I had the fortune to live in this great town for one year. I love the city, its people and the theater scene. Sam Sheppard and Tracy Lett are two of my favorite playwrights. And the actors that come out of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company are simply iconic.
FRANCE 2011
“With Hilda, Marie NDiaye emerges as a smart new voice in French theater.”
When I first read Marie NDiaye’s Hilda, I was struck by how fitting a text it was for the
International Voices Project: compact in scale, but far-reaching in its effect. Originally conceive of as a radio drama, it is wonderfully adaptable to the medium of concert readings as it is fueled by provocative, psychologically-driven dialogue. And though Hilda is dominated almost completely by the speech of one character, the wealthy and increasingly desperate housewife Madame Lemarchand, the play is most fascinated with the physically absent yet meticulously described title character. Through six scenes we meet three characters, each with his or her own interest in defining Hilda: her needs, her desires, her appearance, her role, her value. As an audience we are cut off from any space of objective certainty, and instead must rely upon our evaluation of who these three characters are and what motivates them in order to assess their behavior. Even the settings here feel unreliable; these scenes take place in liminal spaces—often in thresholds to individual homes, but rarely in fully private areas—so that consistently we are imagined to be looking into and peering at private places we cannot occupy. By the end of the play, then, each person in the audience will create his or her own version of Hilda—making this play part mystery, part Rorschact test, part thriller. NDiaye possesses the enviable ability to raise important cultural issues while still allowing the audience space to draw their own conclusions. The play never leaves the universe of these two troubled households—Mme. Lemarchand’s and Hilda’s—but immediately we sense their representational value for larger, more universal problems. What debts do we owe to those we wish to help, and what is owed in return? How much of ourselves do we project into our vision of someone else? And what dangers come when we are made vulnerable to the scrutiny of others? Hilda engages all these questions and leaves us to answer them for ourselves; it’s thoughtful, provocative theater sure to elicit conversation after the show!
-Lara Wagner, Resident Dramaturg
GERMANY 2011
I am thrilled to be directing The Golden Dragon reading for the International Voices Project. I first read the script several months ago and was immediately taken with this fantastic translation of Schimmelpfennig’s fearless work. I say fearless because the piece is bold and brave in so many ways; content, form, style, structure… it is clear in this piece why Schimmelpfennig is one of Germany’s most lauded contemporary playwrights. Structurally, the play consists of 15 characters and 48 short scenes through which we learn the fate of a Chinese brother and sister who are living undocumented in a city somewhere in central Europe (or just as easily, in the United States). The characters are played by five narrators who embody and express the perspectives of the many figures haunting this story. The twist is that each narrator plays characters of opposite gender, different ages and different races. By forcing these narrator/actors to play characters that are not their “type” Schimmelpfennig lifts the veil on the theatricality in the piece: one cannot confuse actors with their characters in this play, instead we are fully aware that we are witnessing an act of empathetic imagination as we watch an older man play a teenage girl, a young boy play his sister, and a young girl play a male aggressor. The narrators and audience imagine each experience together as the story plummets toward its devastating conclusion.
The play centers around The Golden Dragon, a Chinese-Vietnamese-Thai fast food restaurant. The characters consist of the staff of the fast food restaurant and the restaurant’s frequenters; local clientele largely unaware of their intersecting lives. The play captures a growing sense of urban isolation: the patrons of the restaurant are a group who might in a small town be considered a community, but here they are rather a string of individuals who cater to their own wants, needs and impulses, unable or unwilling to empathize with those who satisfy their basest needs. The play takes us through the underbelly; the back rooms and sweaty kitchens where immigrants fight for survival unnoticed by a city that feeds on their sweat, blood and weary existence. The Golden Dragon poses difficult questions for a city such as Chicago and folks such as we Chicagoans: what really goes into your latte, taco, burger or sweet and sour soup?
-Marti Lyons, Director
JAPAN 2011
Here’s the message from Toshiki Okada, director Kamada read in his remarks.
—Message to Chicago
I am delighted to hear that a reading of my play ‘Enjoy’ will be conducted in Chicago, directed by Ms. Anna Bahow of the Goodman Theater. We had a chance to visit Chicago in February, 2009, and perform a play by our company, Chelfitsch. It was my first chance to visit Chicago, and I recall that comfortable feeling that Chicago has, which I heartily enjoyed. I visited the Goodman Theater during my time there, and saw ‘The Hairy Ape’. The Goodman was having a Eugene O’neil restrospective at that time. It was a very intimate performance.
I wrote ‘Enjoy’ five years ago. The theme of this play is labor issues. What will this play bring to the people of Chicago today -a play that I wrote reflecting Japan’s situation at that time? The miracle of plays, or even art itself, is that something written about a particular issue in one time and culture can often bridge across to another.
CANADA 2011
The List‘s translator SHELLEY TEPPERMAN re-casts the “surfaces” and “textures” of original works
Translating a play makes me feel as though I have been given a beautiful clay sculpture with instructions to recreate it in an attractive block of wood. I wonder how on earth I will reproduce the surface and texture of the original as I chisel my way through the first clunky drafts, feeling constrained by everything the English language refuses to do.
Language is the material that writers and translators work with, and each has its own properties, limitations and possibilities. The most difficult things to translate into central Canadian English can be the most colloquial: for example, European French boasts a much wider variety of expletives and colorful synonyms for the sex act than are used in Toronto circles. (And I assume this is true for most American cities as well.) A translator’s small loss. But I try to compensate in other areas. When carving in wood, one seeks to work with the grain and bring out its beauty; this is what I strive for, especially in the poetic passages, making the most of the subtleties, nuances and aesthetics of the English language. At times, (usually with the author’s encouragement!) I take liberties with certain passages in order to achieve the desired music and accents.
But translation, especially in the case of a play, is never about translating the most obvious or literal meaning of the words, but rather about conveying the many things the author is accomplishing with the words. The words are the surface of the play; they provide codes and clues, and serve as a map for the creative team who will bring the play to life. The words must function as believable dialogue but deliver additional meaning: literary, psychological, social, political, and historical. And there is much to be said simply about the task of creating dialogue that is not only speakable but that gives actors the information necessary to build characters. By this I mean words that suggest a character’s personality, background, educational level, social class—all things that must be re-cast for the new audience. The translator also pays attention to the author’s choices of hard or soft consonants, long or short words or phrases, to the rhythms and cadences that convey emotional state(s), and to anything that signals the underlying dynamics and tensions between characters. Because different languages don’t behave the same way (just like clay and wood), it can be impossible to replicate all the functions of a line of dialogue in translation, so I try to know what should prevail at any given moment. Is it the nod to another literary work, the emotional state of the character, or is it most important to get a laugh? The wonderful thing about working with living authors is that they can weigh in on these difficult choices.
The most important thing about translating a play is that it has to be playable. Not just speakable, not just good dialogue, but playable. After I’ve achieved as much as I can alone with my computer, my dictionaries and my imagination, I need to test-drive the translation with a director and actors. If the actors aren’t finding what they need, it usually means something went missing in translation. Sometimes an actor’s choice makes it clear that I’ve given the wrong clue. Sometimes we discover that the actor needs a little something from the text—a more muscular word, a harder consonant, more or fewer syllables—to accomplish the dramatic moment. The actor might even propose a word or expression that’s a better fit. This sort of tweaking during workshops and rehearsals is part of an essential fine-tuning that brings the play into sharper focus. Even throughout rehearsals, I may continue to tinker with the odd line in search of the elusive mot juste. Ultimately, I see my job as “rewriting” in the author’s footsteps, imagining how they would work with the grain if they were carving in wood instead of sculpting in clay.
–Shelley Tepperman
Shelley Tepperman is one of Canada’s more prolific and important translators, having translated works for such prominent artists as Wajdi Mouawad, Serge Boucher, Yvan Bienvenue François Archambault, and Suzanne Lebeau. Her work with The List is demonstrative of her sensitivity to a play’s many surfaces, its “playability” and its cultural readability. Join us Monday, 27 June for our concert reading of The List to truly appreciate Shelley’s skillful ear for language! –Lara Wagner, IVP Resident Dramaturg
INDIA 2011
IVP India Brings a Classic, The Toy Cart, to Life
Rasaka Theater Company gives us a sneak-peak into their upcoming performance of The Toy Cart:
The Toy Cart, ascribed to ??draka, is consistently one of the most appealing ancient India’s Sanskrit dramas (2nd to 5th centuries CE). The play has it all – colorful Brahmins, fast-paced action, a political uprising and a “happy ending.”
Set in the ancient central Indian town of Ujjain, The Toy Cart is a love story that features the noble Brahmin hero C?rudatta and the beautiful courtesan Vasantasen? (during this time, courtesans were connoisseurs of the arts of music and dance, as well as the art of love).
The play opens with C?rudatta bemoaning his poverty and loss of friends to his old and still loyal friend Maitreya. Overhearing a group of men in pursuit, they discover it is a woman – Vasantasen?, running away from the lusty villain, Samsth?naka, the King’s brother-in-law. She seeks refuge in the house of C?rudatta, whom she secretly loves. Since her tinkling jewels make it difficult for her to escape, she leaves them with the trustworthy C?rudatta.
Mishap befalls C?rudatta and the entrusted jewels when the jewels are stolen so another character can buy the freedom of his beloved. Hilarity ensues while the thief recites the Manual of Burglary during the theft.
The jewels are then presented as payment to the courtesan, who is quietly amused to receive her own property as payment, but still releases the lovers to be wed.
Meanwhile, C?rudatta is devastated that Vasantasen?’s jewels are missing from his house. He sends Maitreya to tell Vasantasen? that he gambled them away and begs her to accept a pearl necklace. Vasantasen? sees through the ruse and that night travels through a storm to her beloved’s house, where both delight in each other’s presence.
The next morning, Vasantasen? sees C?rudatta’s son sadly playing with a clay cart; what he really desires is a golden one. Charmed by the child, Vasantasen? fills his clay cart with her jewels to fulfill his wish.
The play continues, with the lovers facing many hurdles, mix-ups, drama and joy. To know the whole story, you must come and see us at the Indian Consulate on July 2nd! This production is directed by Lavina Jadhwani.
EGYPT 2011
“The sword that imposes but exposes!” or “The law that threatens but protects!”
Throughout history, leaders have had to choose between using force or legal means to deal with opposition and discontent. This strenuous moral test is the main dilemma facing Tawfiq al-Hakim’s “perplexed sultan” when he discovers that he was never manumitted before becoming the supreme ruler of the land.
As Al-Hakim explains throughout THE SULTAN’S DILEMMA, the use of force generally achieves fast results, but carries along the consequence of naked exposure to the eyes of the world—a hefty loss to regimes that prefer to hide behind masks of insincere benevolence and well-crafted artifice. On the other hand, abiding by the law curtails the free reign of many regimes and forces them to compromise, but also shields them from being prosecuted, or pressured to dissolve.
Although the play is set in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250-1517), Al-Hakim clearly intended its moral message to be addressed to contemporary society (He wrote THE SULTAN’S DILEMMA during the height of Nasser’s socialist era, shortly after the 1952 revolution). It is not surprising then, that this piece is so timely now that the world’s attention is focused on the inspirational events of the 2011 Arab Spring. Herein lies the power of great, timeless theatre.
I recently re-read THE SULTAN’S DILEMMA on a short vacation in Cairo, a few minutes away from Tahrir square and a few days before I was honored to participate in a protest organized in Tahrir on May 27th. That Friday I managed to get a taste of the vibrancy and complexity of emotions that pervaded this square during the eighteen days of the Egyptian revolution, those eighteen days that I had missed and was forced to watch and experience from a distance alongside the rest of the world. I couldn’t help then but think about how millions of protesters elected to express their demands through peaceful means, and by so doing managed to force a considerable opponent to abide by the rule of law. These masses truly conquered as they succeeded in toppling the ruling regime and in achieving liberty and freedom, but they continue to date to grapple with the trials and tribulations of transitioning to a full democracy. This same battle currently rages on in neighboring parts of the Middle East as many misguided rulers fail to grasp the reality that Tawfiq Al-Hakim so masterfully draws, namely that law inevitably triumphs over the sword.
I am certain that you will greatly enjoy the reading of “The Sultan’s Dilemma” that director Adam Webster and his all-star cast will present to you on Tuesday, July 12th. Just make sure to hang around for the reception and to ask your Egyptian neighbor how he, or she, got to first experience Tawfiq Al-Hakim!
-Fouad Teymour is an Egyptian American living in Chicago. He is Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT, and a Chicago Dramatists Network Playwright. He has acted as the liaison between EAS and IVP during the production of the “SULTAN’S DILEMMA” reading performance.
