WELCOME TO THE INTERNATIONAL VOICES PROJECT 2020 VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING
THE FESTIVAL IS NOW CLOSED
Although we could not be physically together, we were able to present works from around the world for eight consecutive weeks, engage you with fun and informative LIVE Q+As, introduce audiences to new global talents, celebrate Chicago artists and expand our audience. We are proud of what we were able to accomplish and wanted to hear from you. We are currently reviewing the festival and all of its facets and would appreciate your feedback.
Please click the link, below, to take our nine question survey. After completing the survey, send us an email here and be entered to win a cup of coffee or other non-alcoholic beverage at your favorite coffee shop!
Thank you, in advance, for providing us with much appreciated information about how the Festival was and how we may improve it!
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Wed Sept 2
“Jauria” | Spain
Playwright: Jordi Casanovas
Translator: Tim Gutteridge
Director: Iraida Tapias
In collaboration with Instituto Cervantes of Chicago and Water People Theater
Synopsis: "Jauria" is based on the transcriptions of the court trial of "la manada,” built up with fragments of the actual court declarations of defendants and the accuser. A documentary-like fiction from very real material, too much real, allowing a trip inside the minds of the victim and her aggressors. A court trial where the victim is forced to provide more details on her personal intimacy than the defendants. A case that once more removes the concept of masculinity and its relationship with sex in our society. A court trial that sets up a milestone.
Content Notice: "Jauria" contains sexual violence, sexually explicit and strong language
Playwright: Jordi Casanovas
Jordi Casanovas Güel (Vilafranca del Penedes, Barcelona, 1978) is a playwright and theater director. From the 2010-2011 season and until 2013 he was artistic director of the SALAFlyHard in Barcelona. He is currently the professor of Dramaturgy at the Institut del Teatre, Eolia and Escac. During his professional career he has written more than 30 theatrical texts such as Mala Broma, Gazoline, Cervantes, Port Arthur, Idiota, Vilafranca, or A man with glasses of paste, among others. In addition, he has received several awards and recognitions such as the Marqués de Bradomín Prize, the Barcelona Critics Prize, the Butaca Prize or the Max Prize, among others.
Wed Sept 9
“Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha” | Ukraine
Playwright: Natal’ya Vorozhbit
Translator: Sasha Dugdale
Director: Nicole Hand
In collaboration with Promethean Theatre Ensemble
Synopsis: Sasha, a colonel in the Ukrainian army, who has died of a heart failure, sees his widow Katia and his step-daughter Oksana prepare his funeral feast. A year later, the country will be engulfed in the events that can make the dead rise. Sasha is ready to be resurrected, but his family is not. They are reluctant to bury him again.
Playwright: Natal’ya Vorozhbit
Natal’ya Vorozhbit (aka Natal'ia Vorozhbit) is a leading Ukrainian playwright. Her work includes The Khomenko Family Chronicles (Royal Court and BBC World Service; rehearsed reading at the Royal Court, 2006); The Grain Store (RSC, 2009); Maidan: Voices from the Uprising (Royal Court, 2014); and Bad Roads (Royal Court, 2017). She is the co-founder of the Theatre of the Displaced in Kiev and curator of the Class Act project in Ukraine.
Wed Sept 16
“All Adventurous Women Do” | Serbia
Playwright: Tanja Šljivar
Translator: Aida Spahić
Director: Anna C. Bahow
Synopsis: Imagine, investigate and reimagine what happens when a group of teenage girls decide to rewrite patriarchy's concepts of family, to have sex, get pregnant, get abortions and get severely punished from the society for doing it all, and yet not the least caring about the punishment and exclusion from the society to to which they never really belonged. "All Adventurous Women Do" is a play about the necessity of challenging cultural expectation in order to fully realize one's own sexuality, body, and life.
Content Notice: "All Adventurous Women Do" contains graphic language and sexual content
Playwright: Tanja Šljivar
Tanja Šljivar was born in Banjaluka, SFR Yugoslavia in 1988. She holds both BA and MA degrees in dramaturgy at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade. She wrote full length plays How Much is Pate?, Scratching or How My Grandmother Killed Herself, We Are The Ones Our Parents Warned Us About, But The City Has Protected Me, All Adventurous Women Do and a short play Stillborn, which were published, publicly read and produced in professional theaters in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Spain, Poland, Austria, Germany. She also writes short stories, radio plays, screenplays for short films and theater-theory texts. She won several awards for her playwriting, most recently the prestigious Sterija Award for the best contemporary play in Serbia, MESS market co-production award for All Adveturous Women Do in Bosnia, as well as a nomination for the Retzhoferdramapreis 2017 for the same play, in Austria. Her plays have been translated in 10 languages. She has been a guest of writing residencies IHAG in Graz, Austria, Museums Quartier 21 in Vienna, Austria, and Prishtina has no river in Prishtina, Kosovo. She is currently attending MA course in Applied Theater Science in Giessen, Germany.
Serbian playwright Tanja Šljivar talks about All Adventurous Women Do, premiering this Wednesday, September 16th at 7 PM CST
Wed Sept 23
“Testosterone” | Germany
Playwright: Rebekka Kricheldorf
Translator: Neil Blackadder
Director: Warner Crocker
Synopsis: A hilarious, pitch-dark parable about toxic masculinities and the limits of liberal do-goodery in extreme times. Kricheldorf’s play takes as its starting point the Grimm Brothers fairy tale “The Boy Who Set Out to Learn Fear.” This outrageous comedy has seen productions in several Latin-American countries as well as Germany and the US. "Testosterone" takes on the subject in a humorous way. When Cherry Arts Inc., Samuel Buggeln, artistic director, commissioned the English translation and first produced the play in Ithaca, New York, the Ithaca Times said “violence and viciousness, class conflict and consumerism, immorality and amorality––Kricheldorf decries it all.”
Playwright: Rebekka Kricheldorf
Rebekka Kricheldorf 1974 born in Freiburg im Breisgau, lives in Berlin. She studied Romance Philology at the Humboldt University Berlin (1995 – 1997) and then Creating Writing for the Stage at the Berlin University of the Arts (1998 -2002). In 1999 she attended an internship at Theater Lüneburg/Germany and in 2004 she was in-house author at Nationaltheater Mannheim/Germany. She was the artistic director and in-house author at Theaterhaus Jena/Germany (2009-2011). Among her most works are Villa Dolorosa, Robert Redfords Hände selig, and Gotham City I.
Wed Sept 30
“Decomposed Theatre” | Romania
Playwright: Matei Visniec
Translator: Jozefina Komporaly
Director: Josiah Davis
In collaboration with Trap Door Theatre
Synopsis: Imagine the fragments of a shattered mirror. Once upon a time, the mirror was perfectly whole, it reflected the heavens, the world, the souls of us all. And then it shattered, no one knows when, why, or how. What we do know is that we probably have all of its parts, and that they still hold the spirit and atmosphere of the original whole.
The challenge before us now is to reconstruct that original. But beware that this may prove to be impossible, because no one has ever seen the mirror in its complete state, no one even knows what it looked like. Maybe even a shard or two are missing . . .Still, it promises to be a fascinating journey because each time we impose an order on the pieces, we create something, a mirror that reflects so many surprises despite its imperfections.
Playwright: Matei Visniec
Matei Visniec is a Romanian-French playwright, poet and journalist living in Paris. He is internationally known especially for his writings in the French language. He graduated in 1980 from the History and Philosophy Faculty of the University of Bucharest.Between 1977 and 1987 he wrote 8 plays in two or three acts, about twenty short plays, and some screenplays, but all were turned down by the censors. In 1987 he was invited to France by a literary foundation, and he asked for political asylum. Between August 1988 and October 1989 he lived in London, where he worked for the Romanian section of the BBC.
After the fall of communism in Romania, in 1989, Matei Vișniec became one of the most performed playwrights in the country, with more than 30 plays put on in Bucharest and other towns. In 1996 the National Theatre of Timișoara organized a Matei Vișniec Festival with 12 companies presenting his plays. His international audience as a playwright started in 1992, with the play Horses at the Windows performed in France, and Old Clown Wanted at the "Bonner Biennale".
Since then, Visniec has had more than 20 plays performed in France (Théâtre Guichet Montparnasse, Studio des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Rond-Point des Champs Elysées – Paris, Théâtre de l'Utopie – La Rochelle, Compagnie Pli Urgent – Lyon, Théâtre Le Jodel – Avignon, Théâtre de Lenche and Théâtre de la Minoterie – Marseille, Compagnie Nice-Théâtre Vivant – Nice, etc.). Old Clown Wanted has been performed in: France, Germany, United States, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Romania, Moldavia, and Georgia
Wed Oct 7
“Second Nature” | Finland
Playwright: Pipsa Lonka
Translator: Kristian London
Director: Breahan Pautsch
In collaboration with Akvavit Theatre
Synopsis: Second Nature (Den andra naturen) is a play about getting used to living, the ethical choices that are hidden in our everyday lives and the moments in life that shake up our habitual behaviour. The play contemplates our mortality, that we share with all the other living beings.
Playwright: Pipsa Lonka
Pipsa Lonka is a playwright and dramaturg who holds an M.A. degree from the Theatre Academy in Helsinki. She is a versatile author whose works include plays for both adults and younger audiences. Her plays are built around strong emotions and often ponder about the relationship that people have with art and the world that surrounds us, especially nature. She has received the Heidelberg Stückemarkt International Award, the Lea Award and New Baltic Drama 2011 Award for These Little Town Blues Are Melting Away as well as the Prix Europa Special Award for Varjoinen Talo.
Wed Oct 14
“The Boatman” | Egypt
Playwright: Sameh Mahran
Translator: Dina Amin
Director: Liz Carlin-Metz
In collaboration with Egyptian American Society and Silk Road Rising
Synopsis: In a society that views premarital sex as illegal and prohibits marriage until the groom can assure that he has secured an apartment or a house, many couples endure long and frustrating engagements. This crisis is further compounded by a critical shortage of housing and what housing stock is available is prohibitively expensive except for the very wealthy. The Boatman follows a young couple who have been engaged for 7 years and are aching for each other as they struggle with their desire to marry and begin their lives. They encounter a censorious policeman and his wife who condemn them and threaten to turn them in to the authorities for public demonstrations of affection. The policeman accepts a bribe to provide them with contact for his brother, a boatman, who, for a small fee, will take them out on the water beyond the damning eyes of society where they may finally share their love. Of course, that is not what happens.
Playwright: Sameh Mahran
Sameh H. Mahran, PhD. Playwright and Professor. Mahran has written and published over forty plays and is the recipient of numerous national awards for best playwright. He was President of Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre 2014-2019 He is Former President of the Academy of Fine Arts (2008-2014), Head of Theatre Committee at the Supreme Council of Culture, Ministry of Culture (2009 to present). Head of Education and Communication Department at Cairo University in 1999 and Vice Dean of the College of Fine Arts for Graduate Studies at Cairo University (1999-2001). Mahran has published a number of books on dramatic and cultural criticism and theory, and his research papers are published widely across the Arab World.
Wed Oct 21
“A Distinct Society” | Canada
Playwright: Kareem Fahmy
Director: Patrizia Acerra
In collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in Chicago, Silk Road Rising, and the Citadel Theatre of Canada
Synopsis: A quiet library that straddles the border of the U.S. and Canada becomes an unlikely crucible for five people from around the world. When an Iranian family, separated from one another by the "Muslim ban," use the library as a meeting place, the head librarian, a U.S. border patrol officer, and a local teenager have to choose between breaking the law and saving themselves.
Playwright: Kareem Fahmy
Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born playwright and director of Egyptian descent and is 2020 TCG Rising Leader of Color. His plays, which include A Distinct Society, The Triumphant, Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the acclaimed Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building, have been presented at Atlantic Theater Company, New York Stage & Film, Target Margin Theater, The Lark, Fault Line Theater, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, and Noor Theater. As a director, he has worked at at theaters around the country, including MCC, The New Group, Atlantic Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, The Civilians, Geva Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, Silk Road Rising, and Berkeley Rep. He has been a fellow or resident artist at the Sundance Theatre Lab, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center (National Directors Fellow), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), The New Museum (Artist-in-Residence), and New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow & Usual Suspect). Kareem is the co-founder of the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at The Lark and a co-founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for organizations and artists engaging with stories from the Middle East and beyond. MFA: Columbia University. www.KareemFahmy.com
WEDNESDAYS @ 7 PM CST