Fauna | Argentina
Playwright: Romina Paula
Translators: April Sweeney and Brenda Werth
Director: Susan E. Bowen
Synopsis: Fauna is a play about the making of a film that that brings together a daughter, a son, an actor, and a director. Together they will attempt to tell the story of Fauna, a wild but well-read otherworldly being.
Join us from 5:30 to 6:30 for a special pre-performance reception before each reading. Enjoy sweets, along with juice and coffee before we begin our reading. The reading will begin at 6:30 PM followed by a talkback.
Performances are FREE to the public and reservations are not required. DONATIONS help keep the festival free!
Romina Paula (Playwright)
Romina Paula (Playwright) is an Argentinean multidisciplinary artist: writer, actor, and director of theater and film. She studied playwriting at EMAD Drama School in Buenos Aires and trained as an actor with Alejandro Catalán, Ricardo Bartís, and Pompeyo Audivert. She is the author of three novels, Archivos de Word (Editorial Manslava), Agosto and Acá Todavia (Editorial Manslava); a volume of plays, Fauna, El tiempo todo entero, and Algo de ruido hace (Editorial Entropía); along with a collection of short stories (Editorial Manslava). Fauna and Other Plays by Romina Paula is forthcoming with the series In Performance, Seagull Press (2023). Paula has staged her plays across Latin America and Europe, and she has appeared as an actor in numerous films and plays directed by notable Argentine directors. In 2019 she made her debut as filmmaker with De nuevo otra vez (Again Once Again), followed by Edición Ilimitada (Unlimited Edition) in 2020 produced by Varsovia Films.
Susan E. Bowen (Director) is a Chicago-based director who has worked with Jackalope Theatre, About Face, Lookingglass, A Red Orchid, and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, among others. She received her MFA in directing from Northwestern University, where she directed plays by José Rivera, Mark Schultz, and Spanish Golden Age playwright Félix Lope de Vega. Select projects include No More Maids by Anne García-Romero (Broken Nose Theatre, Bechdel Fest), the world premiere of Stix by Molly Pease (American Theatre of Actors), and a staged reading of Kallan Dana’s Racecar Racecar Racecar (Once and Future Festival). Most recently, Susan participated in the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab’s “Media and Mental Health” Symposium at Northwestern, where she directed a reading of Sick by Zayd Dohrn.
April Sweeney (Translator) is an actor, director of theater and film, and Professor of Theater at Colgate University. She is co-translator and co-editor (with Brenda Werth) of the volume, Fauna and Other Plays by Romina Paula, forthcoming with Seagull Press in 2023. She has performed in theaters and festivals in Argentina, Bolivia, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Hungary and in theaters across the U.S. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, National Endowment of the Humanities, New York State Council for the Arts, and the NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre award by the City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment in association with the New York Foundation of the Arts.
Brenda Werth (Translator) is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at American University. She is co-translator and co-editor (with April Sweeney) of the volume, Fauna and Other Plays by Romina Paula, forthcoming with Seagull Press in 2023. Her current research explores the politics of non-fiction in twenty-first-century Argentine theater and film. A second project examines modes of feminist activism against gender violence across Latin America.
The translation of Fauna was made possible with generous support from the National Endowment of the Arts, American University, Colgate University, and the Martin E. Segal Theater Center. The forthcoming publication will be available in July 2023 through Seagull Books; In Performance Series, edited by Carol Martin.