Readings, panel discussions and book launch
The world language Spanish is hardly represented on the German stage, except occasionally through touring performances during festivals. This is where the New Spanish-Language Drama project comes in, bringing contemporary plays from Spanish to German-language stages. After the successful events in autumn 2021 around the publication Mauern fliegen in die Luft. Theatertexte aus Argentinien, Chile, Kolumbien, Kuba, Mexiko, Spanien und Uruguay, the work on translating new Spanish-language drama is entering its second round. In autumn 2022, a second volume entitled Schattenschwimmer will be published in the series Drama Panorama – Neue internationale Theatertexte by Neofelis Verlag.
Spain is the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Heidelberg Stückemarkt. The anthology, edited by Carola Heinrich and Franziska Muche, will be presented in Berlin, Vienna and Frankfurt am Main during the Frankfurt Book Fair and plays from both volumes will be presented in staged readings throughout 2022, each followed by a discussion with the translator/editor.
Traduescena: Stage open for translation
Berlin: Theater unterm Dach
A theatre text becomes sound, spoken language, comes alive in the actor’s body. A theatre translator has all this in mind, and yet the step from imagined theatre to the actual boards is always a revelation. Do the texts hold up? Based on the performance principle Ambigú developed by Franziska Muche and Thorsten Schlenger in 2013, theatre texts from both anthologies will be presented and tested in 2022 in collaboration with the director Alexander Schröder. The conclusion of this series of readings will be the book presentation of the volume Schattenschwimmer. Neue Theatertexte aus Spanien around the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Translating memories
Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Buchmesse, Mousonturm.
19th October 2022, reading of Himmelweg by Juan Mayorga (ES), book launch and talk
The play Himmelweg (2014) by Juan Mayorga is about the nature of theatre – and about Theresienstadt concentration camp. It is his most frequently performed play worldwide; only it has not yet been translated into German. Who has the power to interpret, what is tabooed? How and why does a play find its way into a language region or not?
The editors will present the play as a staged reading at the Frankfurt Book Fair (19. – 23.10.2022) in cooperation with the Theater Heidelberg and will also launch the volume Schattenschwimmer. Neue Theatertexte aus Spanien. This will be followed by a panel discussion on memorial culture.
Voces: Translating polyphony
Vienna: Theater Spektakel und Instituto Cervantes (Palais Wiener von Welten)
29th November 2022, reading of A.K.A. (Also Known As) by Daniel J. Meyer (ES/AR) and Die Einsamkeit der Hundesitter by María Velasco (ES), and book presentation
Different voices, images and text types combine to form autobiographical fiction; the characters in a polyphonic monologue use youth language and bilingualism – polyphony presents translators with special challenges. How can it be convincingly produced? What decisions were made and how do they work in the actors’ bodies on stage? The readings (directed by Stefan Schweigert) and talks will take place in connection with the book launch of the book Schattenschwimmer in the context of the Vienna Book Fair (23.–27.11.2022).
An event by Drama Panorama: Forum für Übersetzung und Theater e. V. as part of the project panorama #2: übertheaterübersetzen, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Deutscher Übersetzerfonds as part of the Neustart Kultur programme. In cooperation with Neofelis Verlag Berlin and die taz.