Green Corridors | Ukraine

Playwright - Natalka Vorozhbyt

Translator - John Freedman with Natalia Bratus

Director - Kay Martinovich

Partner – Trap Door Theatre

Synopsis - Green Corridors tells the story of the involuntary European integration of four refugees from Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion. It is an attempt to analyze Ukraine's relations with the EU, the relationship that refugees have with those who have remained in Ukraine, and to reflect on the traumatic experience of living the life of a refugee who has lost one's home. The play was commissioned by the Kammerspiele theater in Munich with the hope of provoking Germans and Ukrainians into a frank conversation. This is a play with historical references, with elements of absurdity and black humor - the use of these tools allows a spectator to distance oneself from the play's events and to be more ruthless towards the characters. As such, Ukrainians are not victims in this play: They are funny, scary, touching and invincible.

All staged readings begin at 6 PM followed by a talkback.

Performances are FREE to the public and reservations are not required. DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

Natalka Vorozhbyt is a Ukrainian playwright and director, a leader in the resurgence of Ukrainian national drama in the 21st century. Her first major play, Galka Motalko, had success shortly after she graduated from Moscow’s Gorky Literature Institute in 2000. The Grain Store, a historical work about the Holodomor, the state-induced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 2009. Vorozhbyt took part in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013/14, and the theme of the ensuing war with Russia has colored her work ever since. In 2015 she was a co-founder, with Georg Genoux, of the Theater of Displaced People which offered an opportunity for refugees from the Donbas region to tell their stories in a formal, theatrical context. She wrote the screenplay for Cyborgs, a 2017 film about the bloody defense of an airport in Donetsk against Russian separatists. Bad Roads (2017) was staged at the Royal Court Theater in London, and, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has been one of the most-produced Ukrainian plays internationally. As a film directed by the author, Bad Roads was Ukraine’s official Oscar selection in 2022. Green Channels was written near the end of 2023, and has already been produced in Kyiv at the Theater of Playwrights, and several venues in Europe. Although she wrote in Russian early in her career, Vorozhbyt now writes in Ukrainian. She is presently a writer-in-residence at Oxford University. 

Natalia Bratus graduated in 1982 with a degree in metallurgical engineering in her hometown of Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro), Ukraine, the Soviet Union. She worked as a defectoscopist engineer for 10 years before becoming a private entrepreneur after Ukraine declared independence. She escaped the war in Ukraine with her daughter, grandson, and two family pets in March 2022, and immediately began working with John Freedman on translations of Ukrainian dramatic texts. Together they have produced 45 translations in two years.

John Freedman is an American writer and translator who, after working 30 years in Russia, now resides in Greece. He was the theater critic of The Moscow Times from 1992 to 2015. His play Dancing, Not Dead (2011) was winner of the Internationalists Global Play Contest (2011); his short play Five Funny Tales from the Heart of Buenos Aires (2013) has been performed in New York City, Chattanooga, and Edinburgh. He has translated over 160 dramatic texts, of which productions have been mounted in five continents. He is the author or compiler of numerous books, including Silence’s Roar: The Life and Drama of Nikolai Erdman (1992), and Provoking Theater: Kama Ginkas Directs (2003). He edited the anthology A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Short Works by Ukrainian Playwrights (Laertes Press), named one of the 50 best books published in 2023 by The Telegraph. He was Russian Director of The New Russian Drama: Translation/Production/Conference (2007-2010) conducted by Towson University and the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD); and Director of New American Plays for Russia (2010-2015), a CITD project bringing cutting edge American drama to Russia with the support of the U.S. embassy in Moscow under the auspices of the Bilateral Presidential Commission. He is the curator of two Worldwide Play Readings projects: Insulted. Belarus (2020 to present) and Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings (2022 to present).

Kay Martinovich is a Chicago-based director. Recent credits include the Jeff-nominated and Chicago premiere of The Father at Remy Bumppo, Deirdre of the Sorrows at City Lit, and Jeff-nominated Naked and Jeff-award winning La Bête both at Trap Door Theatre. Kay has a long-standing association with Trap Door, having directed several shows over the years, starting with Bremen Freedom in their fourth season.  As Associate Artistic Director for Irish Repertory of Chicago, Kay supported season selection, production casting, and media materials. For Irish Rep, she directed the American premiere of By the Bog of Cats ... , the Jeff-nominated Bailegangaire, Pentecost, The Mai, and Two by Friel: from Chekhov: The Bear and the American premiere of The Yalta Game. She is Artistic Associate at both Her Story Theatre and Perennial Theatre, where she is also involved in new work development along with Chicago Writers Bloc. Kay’s work has been seen on many Chicago stages including GreatWorks, American Blues, The Gift, Lifeline, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Mary-Arrchie, Live Bait, Circle, Apple Tree/TYA, Famous Door, Emerald City, Theatre Wit, and Chicago Dramatists, among other theaters in the Midwest. She holds a PhD in Theatre Historiography from University of Minnesota and an MPhil in Irish Theatre from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Kay is Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University where she teaches Meisner-based acting, audition technique, directing, and professional development for the actor. Proud member of SDC, the professional director's union, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Visit kaymartinovich.com

Trap Door Theatre is committed to seeking out challenging and obscure works. Whether a forgotten European classic, an international project rarely seen in the United States, or an untarnished piece of American literature, Trap Door seeks diverse voices and presents them through innovative expression. We mix established and imaginative techniques to illustrate the absurdities of living in today’s society. www.trapdoortheatre.com

DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

Shahadat (The Testimonies)

Researcher - Manal Hamzeh

Playwright/Adapter- Fouad Teymour

Director - Tina El Gamal

Partner - Silk Road Cultural Center, In Partnership with the Borderlands and Ethnic Studies Department at New Mexico State University

Synopsis - Based on Dr. Manal Hamzeh’s scholarship, Shahadat is an interdisciplinary theatre project based on the testimonies of three Egyptian women who experienced state-sponsored sexual violence during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. This project is rooted in Arab feminist methodologies and will challenge patriarchal oppression and its “usefulness” to the Egyptian state, while centering the stories of three incredibly brave activists in their pursuit of justice.

All staged readings begin at 6 PM followed by a talkback and complimentary reception.

Performances are FREE to the public and reservations are not required. DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

WATCH: Manal Hamzeh and Fouad Teymour discuss Shahadat (The Testimonies) for IVP 2024

Fouad Teymour is a Chicago-based Egyptian American playwright. He is an associate artist of Silk Road Cultural Center (SRCC), a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists (CD), and a board member for International Voices Project (IVP). The Jeff-nominated (best new work, best scenic design) world premiere of his play Twice, Thrice, Frice… directed by Patrizia Acerra, was co-produced by SRCC (then Silk Road Rising) and IVP. It was listed among Chicago Best Plays 2019 by Picture this Post. His play Blue Fish in A Tall Clear Vase, directed by Jason Smith, was produced at Three Cat Productions (2017). His plays received several staged readings, most recently An Afternoon with my Mother in the CD Out the Box festival (2023) and Egyptian Bride in IVP 2023, both directed by Warner Crocker.  Twice, Thrice, Frice… was part of the Crescent and Star Staged Reading Series at Silk Road Rising (August 2017), the New American Voices Series at Queens Theater, NY (October 2018), and a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival BAPF 2018, and will have an upcoming production at the American University of Cairo (AUC) theater in October 2024. Fouad has acted in Jamil Khoury's video play Obstacle Course, and has translated Ahmed Serag’s The Castle and The Sparrow from Arabic (Performed in IVP 2014. Published in 2015 by Dar Ibda’a in Egypt).  

DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

The Karloff-Lugosi Brothers &

A Long Night Into Day | Puerto Rico

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PREMIERE

Playwright - Carlos Canales

Translator -Dr. Liza Ann Acosta

Director - Antonio Bruno

Partner: - Urban Theater Company

Join us for two short plays:

A Long Night Into Day: Jamie, a lonely drunk, argues with the ghostly figure of his brother Edmund in this reflection on Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical play.

The Karloff – Lugosi Brothers: A visitor and a homebody argue over who does what for whom and, most importantly, who they are each other.

All staged readings begin at 6 PM followed by a talkback and complimentary reception.

Performances are FREE to the public and reservations are not required. DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

Watch:Interview with Carlos Canales and Liza Acosta

Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, in 1955, Carlos Canales’s contributions to Puerto Rican theatre history and current development are many.  He studied Political Sciences, Drama, and Education at the University of Puerto Rico and then obtained a Master in Spanish at the University of Connecticut. He taught acting and dramaturgy at the School of Fine Arts in Arecibo, and he taught film, language, and Hispanic cultures at several Connecticut Universities.

Thirty of his plays have been produced not only in Puerto Rico and in the United States but also in Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Venezuela, England, Spain, Costa Rica, República Dominicana, and Perú. He has published the following plays: María del Rosario (1986), Vamos a seguir bailando (1993), Margie (1994), Vórtice (1994), Teatro (2002), Salsa, tango y locura (2003), Bony and Kin(2004), El cine del pueblo (2004), Luz Celeste (2004), ¡Qué bueno está este país! (2004), La casa de los inmortales (2004), Trilogía de los dictadores (2006), Ecuajey (2006), Los intocables (2006), El Generalísimo Brujillo (2008, 2012), ¡Maldita sea el Capitán América! (2013, 2017), A la Luz de la Luna (2015), y Teatro del lado de allá(2016).  He has also published two short story collections and a novel. The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the Ateneo Puertorriqueo have recognized him for his distinguished career in drama.

Antonio Bruno (He/Him) is a Chicago native, growing up in the West Humboldt Park and Belmont Craigin Neighborhoods. He currently serves as Managing Director for UrbanTheater Company and sits on the Steering Committee for The Latinx Theater Commons. Antonio has been a freelance Sound Designer, Production Manager, Composer, Teaching Artist and Producer. Antonio has worked with Teatro Tariakuri, After School Matters, Windy City Theater, Street Level Youth Media, Digital Youth Media, En Las Tablas, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, Chicago Dramatist, Adventure Stage Chicago, Theater Wit, Colectivo El Pozo, The Massive, Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, Aguijon Theater, Teatro Luna West, Latino Theater Company, University of Illinois at Chicago, The Dawn Project, La Vuelta and Dreamworks Films. As a Composer Antonio explores music in many different ways, in his “you sent the message” series of work, Antonio entered the creative process as an exploration of instinct and familiarity, finding challenges with Time as a limited resource yet a freedom to engage with sound without hesitation or the hindrance of practicing perfection. Tonio is super excited to have the opportunity to tell these stories for our community.

Urban Theater Company (UTC) is founded by, led by, and for people of color in order to preserve the Puerto Rican and Humboldt Park community voice. We celebrate cultural experiences through interdisciplinary art forms. Through fellowship and community, we aim to elevate a diverse and culturally specific collective of Chicago creatives. We create innovative and accessible theater through a decolonized praxis.

DONATIONS help keep the festival free!

Map of T/Errors | Romania

Playwright: Catalina Florescu

Dr. Catalina Florina Florescu is a Romanian born American author who teaches at Pace University in New York and Stevens Institute in Hoboken. She holds a PhD in Contemporary Literature/Medical Humanities conferred by Purdue University. She is the author of 11 books and several book chapters. She is the sole author in the world of a breast cancer trilogy. http://www.catalinaflorescu.com/

Statement from the Author: I started to write the play because I have always hated whenever I am asked, “Where are you from?” If the dialogue started with, “What is your name? What are your passions?” my reaction would have been somewhat acceptable. I have been here since 1998 and I love my accented English. Furthermore, what happens with immigrants from Mexico and South America is a disgrace. When defining what is an “American,” my advice is to be skeptical, especially when someone veers from patriotism to jingoism. Therefore, I use this piece to protest against virulent cruelty in which some people are treated like they do not have any rights and are consequently scarred emotionally for life. On the other hand, I admire institutions, agencies, and people who have embraced D.A.C.A and immigrants knowing that a place is inasmuch fluid and alive as it allows people from various backgrounds to co-exist.

Synopsis: Connected by THE GHOST OF A HISTORY TEACHER, two pairs of characters, two teens and their respective grandfathers, from two geographically distinct places, Romania and the United States, have a chance to break all walls and look at the map of the world via theatrical devices and chance encounters. History is a live performance; actors, its messengers; and audiences must decide if their role is active or passive. 

Dream of Autumn | Norway

Playwright: Jon Fosse

Translator: Sarah Sunde

Director: Warner Crocker

More information coming soon.

In the Shadow of a Man | Egypt

Playwright: Nesreen Nour

Translator: Dina Amin

Director: Anna Mahow

In Partnership with the Egyptian American Society

Synopsis: Coming soon.

Nesreen Nour is an Egyptian playwright and director. She is also a member of the acting syndicate and accredited by the Radio and Television Union. She studied theater at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, and is currently a lecturer in drama at the Higher Institute of Media and Technology in Alexandria. Nour has received many awards from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and festivals: the award for best theatrical script at the International Theater Festival for Youth of the South in 2023 for her play al-haya mina-al-nahiya al-ukhra (Life on the Other Side); best play at the National Theater Center for  dhid al-nisyan (Against Forgetting) in 2019; best dramatic script award at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Youth Theater Festival in 2018 for al-hawja (The Upsurge).  Her latest work, `ala sath al-wad hamada (On the Roof of Young Hamada), was produced by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 2023 and a radio play, illa rasul-allah (Not the Messenger of God!), with the support of the Swiss Cultural Center and under the supervision of Swiss director Eric Al-Tawfar, in 2020.  Fi-qafa ragil, (In the Shadow of a Man), written and directed by her, received the Nihad Selaiha Grant for Arab Creativity, and was presented by the Mesaha Festival in Goethe Institute in 2019. The play was also previously produced at the First Experience Festival on the al-Nahar Theater in 2018. Nesreen Nour’s novel hijrah ila-al-ma’luf  (Migration to the Ordinary) was published by Kalima Publishing & Distribution House in 2015, and the collection of plays, tajarib naw`iya (Mixed Experiences), was published in 2020 by the General Authority for Cultural Palaces. Al-hawja and Ibn-souq (The Upsurge and Street Smart) was published by the General Book Authority in 2022.

Dina Amin - MFA, PhD, is a stage director and Associate Professor of Theatre and Director of the Theatre Program at the American University in Cairo. She is a co-recipient of the Research Project Award of the Year from Times Higher Education in 2023. She is currently Director General of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre 2014-2019 and again since 2022. Amin is the author of Alfred Farag and Egyptian Theater (2008), co-editor of Salaam: Anthology of Middle-Eastern-American Drama (2009), and From Orientalists to Arabists: The Shifts in Arabic Literary Studies, Journal of Arabic Literature (2010). Amin holds a PhD in Dramatic Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Eng & Comp Lit from AUC the American University in Cairo.  She is the recipient of the West Coast Drama Clan Award (in honor of William Ball) for best director at CMU for her production of Ibsen’s A Lady from the Sea. She directs in both the U.S. and Egypt, in Arabic and English. Her latest production is Bank al-Qalaq (Bank of Anxiety) in 2023 and Qanun Antigon (Antigone’ Law, 2022) and Shababik `Attia (Attia’s Windows) in 2021at the American University in Cairo.  Amongst her other directing credits are:  Hikayat `Alina (Stories About Us, 2019), Al-Farafir (Flip Flop and His Master, 2017), Arden (an Egyptian adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2016), Matsanafneesh (Don’t Label Me, 2015) Segn al-Nisaa (Women’s Prison) by FatHeyyah al-`Assa (2013), Third by Wendy Wasserstein (2012), Beyond Therapy by Christorpher Durang (2008). Dina Amin is published in major academic journals and has translated a number of Arabic plays into English.

Anna Bahow is a Chicago-based theatre director committed to the development of new work and a diversity of voices. She is an Artistic Associate with Silk Road Rising foregrounding Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern artists, an Associate Artist with The International Voices Project bringing plays from around the world  to Chicago, an Associate Artist at Chicago Dramatists and a member of Promethean Theatre. She was honored to have served as a Maggio Fellow at the Goodman Theatre, to be a recipient of a 3ARTS WAVE Grant and several Chicago Individual Artist Grants.  Bahow has received  awards for her direction and her productions have received JEFF Awards for New Work and Use of Multi-Media.

Seduction | Switzerland

Playwright: Lukas Bärfuss

Translator: Neil Blackadder

Director: John Green

English Language Premiere

In Partnership with Goethe-Institut Chicago

Synopsis: Hauke is a con man who’s almost completed a six-year prison sentence. For much of that time, he’s been in therapy with Tania, whose task now is to help him reintegrate into society. She tells him that a woman called Sonja has come forward, claiming to be Hauke’s daughter. He agrees to meet her, and they hit it off. But is she really his daughter? Or is she motivated by the seven million that went missing? Who’s seducing whom? And just what role does Tania play in determining responsibility and what should happen next?

Neil Blackadder translates drama and prose from German and French. He has contributed many translations to IVP, including of plays by Lukas Bärfuss, Mishka Lavigne, and Ewald Palmetshofer that were later produced by theatres in Chicago, London, New York, and elsewhere. Neil has received grants from the NEA, PEN, and the Howard Foundation, and he’s Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine. In Spring 2023, Neil was Translator in Residence at Princeton University.

John C Green was born and educated in the United Kingdom, where he received his undergraduate degree Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in Theatre and Education from the University of London, his Master of Arts (MA) in Theatre and Film from the University of North London, and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Plymouth University, where the focus of his research was on experimental actor training techniques in mid-20th Century Western theatre practice. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in theatre at Columbia College Chicago. His professional directing credits include four productions at the Edinburgh International Festival, and at international theatre festivals in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Russia and Australia. In the United States he has directed plays, musicals, opera, and created site-specific installations at Pittsburgh State University Kansas, Butler University Indianapolis, Columbia College Chicago, and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He has had a long association with the Indiana Repertory Theatre as guest director, and with Chicago’s International Voices Project. He has received a number of “Best Director” awards at festivals including: The London Student Drama Festival, The National Student Drama Festival of Great Britain, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In addition to directing, Green is the author of two books on theatre and performance and has made presentations of his research at numerous international conferences, most recently in Italy. He is delighted to be collaborating once again with Neil Blackadder and Kendra Thulin on a third play by Lukas Bärfuss for IVP.

On Sunday, April 2nd, poet Bayan Fares will perform some of her poetry at 2:45 PM and the Students for Justice in Palestine will join us for a special event including a talkback.

Bayan Fares is a Palestinian writer, poet, Licensed Social Worker, Tatreez Instructor, and small business owner of Badan Collective. She's been writing poetry for 16 years, is from the Chicagoland area, and is currently the Studio and Community Manager at Watan Palestine as well as the Administrative Coordinator for Muslim Women Professionals. Through all of these different endeavors, Bayan is able to serve her community, connect with her Palestinian roots, and center her work around healing trauma, advocacy, and building community through the arts and culture. Follow Bayan on Instagram

Totentanz: Black Night, Black Death | Poland

Playwright: Ishbel Szatrawska

Translator: Soren Gauger

Director: Michael Mejia

Partner: Trap Door Theatre

Synopsis: March of 2020, Bergamo, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Francesca, a former model and her husband, Luca, a television host, have invited some neighbours to an illegal dinner. This innocent social evening gradually turns into a quarrel over the pandemic, Italy, European values, social solidarity, and political and ideological views in the crisis situation.

The play is built on structures drawn from commedia dell’arte: the protagonists come from various regions of Italy and personify the stereotypical attributes associated with dell’arte characters, yet the conflict rests on twenty-first-century divisions. Venetian wealth and Sicilian poverty, the refugee crisis in Lampedusa, immigrant labour, the breakdown of the health system during the pandemic, the collapse of faith in European solidarity—these are only some of the subjects the drama raises. The story of the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975 hovers over everything like a sinister omen—this was a homophobic and political crime that smacked of wild capitalism and the fascist history of Italy and Europe.

Yet two characters seem to belong to another world entirely. These are Salvatore, the equivalent of the dell’arte Dottore and his helper, Chiara, a young girl, a character who seems to be a mix of Arlecchino and perhaps an Italian Lisbeth Salander. It is they who ultimately take one of the guests into the underworld. Who are they? Etruscan gods? Messengers of Hades? A delirious dream of Claudia, who turns out to be a doctor in a Covid unit?

The play makes a wide range of references to Italian, European, and world culture. We encounter Pier Paolo Pasolini, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Tarkovsky, Tarantino, even the opening words of the Comendatore from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and allusions to the Aeneid. The action is broken up by intermezzi—some take the form of television shows, others resemble musicals. There is also a grotesque parody of Wheel of Fortune, ending with the prize of a luxury coffin, and the performance of a medieval song that is an ode to Pluto, lord of the underworld.

In the finale the violinist dies, the bourgeoisie are ridiculed, the helpless doctors await international aid, and Chiara performs her contemporary song, which might be read as the triumph of death.

Comedy mixes with tragedy, mythology with the global problems of the twenty-first century. The Italian context turns out to be merely a costume for the challenges standing before most of the societies of the West.

Totentanz: Black Night, Black Death was a finalist for a Polish national award, the Gdynia Dramaturgical Prize, in 2021; it has been translated into English, German, Ukrainian, and Danish.

Ishbel Szatrawska was born in 1981 in Olsztyn. She is a playwright and theatre scholar. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University’s Theatre Studies Department, and studied film and  American culture at the same university and at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. In 2013–14 she studied at the private Multi Art Academy film school in Krakow under some renowned names in Polish cinema, including Xawery Żuławski, Jacek Bławut and Janusz Kondratiuk. In December 2019 she had her debut with the drama Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear in the Nasz głos e-anthology published by the National Stary Theatre in Krakow. Her subsequent dramas were published in Dialog magazine: Polowanie [The Hunt] in no. 4/2020 and Totentanz: Black Night, Black Death in no. 2/2021. In 2020 she received a City of Krakow Creative Scholarship, which allowed her to write the drama Kateriny brak [Katerina’s Absence]. She was named the winner of the DRAMATOPISANIE scholarship competition (2nd edition; 2021) organized by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. This scholarship enabled her to create the drama Wolny strzelec [Free Lancer] on the war in Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. A competition is currently underway to decide the public theatre that will get to stage this play. In 2021 she wrote the play Żywot i śmierć pana Hersha Libkina z Sacramento w stanie Kalifornia [The Life and Death of Mr. Hersh Libkin from Sacramento, CA]. The play was published by Wydawnictwo Cyranka in April 2022, making it her book debut. The Life and Death of Mr. Hersh Libkin from Sacramento, CA was selected among the plays in the international Eurodram 2022 contest. It's a selection that is made once every two years by a committee which recommends the chosen plays for translation. Totentanz was shortlisted in Stückemarkt contest as part of Theatertreffen – Berliner Festspiele 2022. She has lived in Krakow since 2000.

Soren Gauger is a Canadian novelist, translator, and essayist. He has translated such Polish authors as Bruno Jasieński, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Jerzy Ficowski, Dorota Masłowska, and Wojciech Jagielski into English, and freelances for wide array of theaters, art galleries and cultural institutions across Poland. He has published two volumes of his own short fiction in English (Hymns to Millionaires, Quatre Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus), and three novels in Polish, co-translated by himself. His essays have recently appeared in books on Andrzej Wróblewski and Paweł Bownik, and Opera Buffa Theater’s experimental travel magazine. He lives in Krakow with his wife, Magdalena, and his son, Milo.

A Dictionary of Emotions in War Time

Call Them By Their Names

The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel

| Ukraine

Playwrights: Elena Astasyeva, Tetyana Kitsenko, Oksana Gritsenko 

Translators: John Freedman, John Freedman/Natalia Bratus, John Freedman/Natalia Bratus

Director: Warner Crocker

Partner:

Synopsis: Three voices from the War in Ukraine meld together chronicling thoughts, emotions, and horror from the war in Ukraine as it begins and changes the world. Call Them By Their Names by Tetyan Kitsenko, The Peed Upon Armored Personnel Carrier by Oskana Gritsenko, and A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War by Elena Astasyeva immediately transport us to the moments that changed their world and ours in an instant and presage a rupture that will take generations to heal.

Elena Astaseva was born in the city of Kherson (Ukraine), which she considers her hometown to this day, although she currently is in exile outside of Ukraine. She studied at the Kiev Institute of Culture. Worked as a librarian, bookseller, copywriter. She is the author of stories and a number of plays that were repeatedly shortlisted for the Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week festival and were staged in the theaters of Kherson and Kyiv. A founding member of the Theater of Playwrights in Kyiv, her short play A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War has been presented, read, performed and filmed in a dozen countries since it was written in March 2022.

Tetiana Kytsenko is a playwright and screenwriter. She specializes in social and psychological drama. She has won numerous awards at Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week (Kyiv, 2011, 2012, 2013), the DramaUA festival (Lviv, 2012), and the Coronation of the Word competition (Kyiv, 2015). She has participated at the festival SPECIFIC (Brno, Czech Republic, 2014) and the Wilder Osten. Ereignis Ukraine project (Magdeburg, Germany, 2016). She was awarded the Grand Prix of the Free Theater competition (London-Minsk, 2016), and was curator of the following events: To Document!; Drama Of Freedom; and Insight Contemporary Drama (Kharkiv). She was author and curator of the socio-artistic Lifelong Importance project (2018-19). She is a member of the Board of the Theater Platform NGO (Kyiv), and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Union of Theater Actors.
Oksana Grytsenko is a Ukrainian playwright and screenwriter. She wrote her first play, Saniok, in 2019 following completion of courses in dramatic writing conducted by Maksym Kurochkin and Anastasiia Kosodii. This play was shortlisted at the Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week in 2019, and had a staged reading at Lesia Ukrainka Drama Theater in Lviv. Her second play, Don Juan from Zhashkiv, was shortlisted at Contemporary Play Week in 2020. Based on this play, Grytsenko created a screenplay for a feature film with the same name. The film was produced by Kristi Films and was funded by Ukraine’s State Film Agency. The release of the film was scheduled for December 2022. Grytsenko is a co-founder of Kyiv’s Theater of Playwrights. Before starting her artistic career, Grytsenko worked as a journalist for about 20 years, covering the Russian invasion of Georgia, Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and Russia’s war against Ukraine. She has worked for Ukrainian and foreign publications, including the Kyiv Post, AFP, the Guardian, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Marie Claire, Ukraine Verstehen, Huck Magazine, Nikkei and the Wall Street Journal. 

Warner Crocker (Director) is delighted to return to one of his favorite gigs, The International Voices Project. Before returning to Chicago in 2013 he served as the Artistic Director of Wayside Theatre in Virginia for 15 seasons. Before that stint on the East Coast he worked for 20 years in Chicago Theatre as Artistic Director for Absolute Theatre Company, New Tuners Theatre, and Pegasus Players, and also directed for other Chicago theatres. He has produced and directed more plays than he can count, is the author of several, and has won a few awards along the way. Recent regional and Chicago directing gigs include The Play That Goes Wrong; Shear Madness; Peter Pan, the US premiere of Diamonds and Divas; Junk; Pinocchio; Bunny Bunny Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story; The Bridges of Madison County; Mama Won’t Fly; Boing Boing; Barnum; The Seven-Percent Solution, and The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes.

Turks, Fire | Germany

Playwright: Özlem Özgül Dündar

Translator: Neil Blackadder

Director: Anna Bahow

Partner:

Synopsis: When a residential house is engulfed in flames five people are killed, three children and two women. The perpetrators are youths from the neighbourhood. The name of the small town is soon known nationwide thanks to a flurry of media reports. But the nation’s attention soon turns elsewhere to other, more pressing issues. Yet for the survivors and victims of the arson attack that fateful night will never end. The mother who leapt from a window cradling her child trying to protect the baby with her own body tells her story over and over, detailing the moment of her death. The mother of one of the perpetrators talks about the silence that enveloped her home, of her inkling that something had happened, of her doubts about her son’s guilt. A female relative who survived the fire sees the flames every day, feels the heat and smells the smoke. Each person is trapped in their memory and pain yet searches for a way to talk about what happened, yearns to meet other people and find a way to communicate.

The 1993 arson attack in Solingen is the starting point for Turks. Fire. Writing with great sensitivity and precision, Özlem Özgül Dündar searches for a language to describe those harrowing events that permits all the various perspectives a space to exist. The resulting play retains a painful relevance for today’s social and political climate.

Özlem Özgül Dündar was born in 1983 in Solingen. She writes poetry, prose, essays and performs with “Kanak Attak Leipzig” as well as the “Ministry of Compassion”. She is also active as a publisher and translator. She won the 2015 Retzhof Drama Prize. Recently, she was awarded the Kelag Prize at the Klagenfurt literary festival as well as the 2018 Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Scholarship. Her volume of poetry tugging thoughts (2018) was published by Elif Verlag.

Neil Blackadder translates drama and prose from German and French, specializing in contemporary theatre. He has contributed many translations to IVP, including of plays by Lukas Bärfuss, Mishka Lavigne, and Ewald Palmetshofer that were later produced in cities including Chicago, London, and New York. Neil has received grants from the NEA, PEN, and the Howard Foundation, and he’s Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine. In Spring 2023, Neil will be the Translator in Residence at Princeton University.

Give Me A Happily Ever After | Norway

Playwright: Marius Leknes Snekkevag

Translator: Kyle Korynta

Director: Breahan Pautsch

Partner:

Synopsis: Welcome to Life! Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride! Living is scary, will we be okay in the end?

Marius Leknes Snekkevåg has been active as a playwright since 2009. His plays have been performed all over Norway, including Rabinowitz (nominated for Performance of the year at the Hedda Awards in 2011), We Are the Voice of our People (2013), I Want to Wash the World Clean (2017), Traitor (2018) and Kim F. (2018). In 2013 We Are the Voice of our People was staged as a reading at Akvavit Theatre in Chicago directed by Wm. Bullion. We Are the Voice of Our People and I Love You, Let Me Go were performed as staged readings directed by Kathy Curtiss at Scandinavian American Theater Company in New York in 2016. In 2022 his stream of consciousness text You Should Have Held My Hand Poor Soul If Both My Hands Weren't So Full was published by Flamme Forlag. Marius Leknes Snekkevåg is represented by Nordiska ApS.

Kyle Korynta graduated with a BA in Norwegian and Studio Art from St. Olaf College and his MA and PhD from University of Washington, Seattle, in Scandinavian Languages and Literature. His research has focused on Norwegian drama and Nordic film. He has translated plays written by Norwegian playwrights Jon Fosse, Per Schreiner, and Marius Leknes Snekkevåg. He currently teaches Norwegian language courses and Nordic literature and film courses in English translation at the University of Minnesota.

The Shroud Maker | Palestine

Playwright: Ahmed Masoud

Director: Maren Rosenberg

Partner: Uprising Theater, Medina Theater Collective, Intercultural Music Production

Synopis: From the critically acclaimed Palestinian writer Ahmed Masoud, who was born and raised in Gaza. Hajja Souad, an 80-year old Palestinian woman living on the besieged Gaza Strip, knows about business. She has survived decades of wars and oppression through making shrouds for the dead. A compelling black comedy, The Shroud Maker delves deep into the intimate life of ordinary Palestinians to weave a highly distinctive path through Palestine’s turbulent past and present. Loosely based on a real-life character still living in Gaza, this one-woman comedy weaves comic fantasy and satire with true stories told first hand to the writer and offers a vivid portrait of Palestinian life in Gaza underscored with humor.

Ahmed Masoud is the author of the acclaimed novel Vanished - The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda. Ahmed is a writer and director who grew up in Palestine and moved to the UK in 2002. Last year he worked with Maxine Peake on Obliterated, a theatrical experiment and artistic protest. You can learn about it here.  Ahmed's theatre credits include Application 39 (WDR Radio, Germany 2018) Camouflage (London 2017) The Shroud Maker (London 2015-2019), Walaa, Loyalty (London 2014, funded by Arts Council England), Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea (London and Edinburgh 2009) and Escape from Gaza (BBC Radio 4, 2011)  Ahmed is the founder of Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre (2005) where he wrote and directed several productions in London, with subsequent European Tours. After finishing his PhD research, Ahmed published many journals and articles including a chapter in Britain and the Muslim World: A historical Perspective (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011). An earlier version of Vanished won the Muslim Writers Awards (London 2011 supported by Penguin Books). For more information, please visit www.ahmedmasoud.co.uk.

Maren Rosenberg (she/her) is the co-artistic director of Uprising Theater. Uprisings is an interdisciplinary arts non profit dedicated to giving voice to the people of Palestine and other historically marginalized communities.  

www.uprisingtheater.org Maren, in addition, is an actor, producer with a focus on immersive experience. Maren lived and worked in Palestinian on theater, television, film, and circus for many years before resettling in Chicago. www.marenrosenberg.com

Synopsis: A nearly-fossilized village in a desert suddenly goes into turmoil when Yeon-Ahm, a “four-legged beast,” starts talking about the world outside. When an inspector from the Emperor arrives, her talking makes her the scapegoat to save the village from being “erased.”

Date/Time: Thursday June 4 at 6:30 pm

Country: South Korea

Title: Inching Towards Yeolha

Playwright: Sam-Shik Pai

Director: David Rhee

Translator: Walter Byongsok Chon

In collaboration with Token Theatre

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Synopsis: A dark comedy about a clown from the "unhappiest country in the world," Moldova, who pins her hopes on a US work visa. Chased by Homeland Security, a deportation letter deflates Nadia's enthusiasm and a pair of spike heels might be all it takes to burst her American Dream (or turn it into a nightmare...). New York City, with its special energy, seems like the perfect solution for her problems, but is it really? Luckily, Nadia is not alone in her journey: A Russian illegal immigrant, Borat, her fellow clown, tries to find his own path in the Big Apple, by working as a cab driver. Lupita, her Latina roommate, an exotic dancer and wanna-be actress, shows Nadia the tough side of the city. Meanwhile, Bob, an American washed-up musician finds himself in the relationship with the Moldovan girl. Aliens With Extraordinary Skills is based on true stories of immigration explored and fictionalized by a playwright who tries to understand her own story. The moral of the "fable" might be that - regardless our passport and native language - we are all "aliens" in search for love, understanding and a place to call "home."

Date/Time: Tuesday May 30 at 6:30 pm

Country: Romania

Title: Aliens with Extraordinary Skills

Special Guest Playwright: Saviana Stanescu

Director: Patrizia Acerra

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