Producing

Workshop: Multilingualism on Stage in a Global Context

*Drama Panorama’s workshop on multilingualism in 2021 | Foto: Drama Panorama*

Leitung: Katharina Rösch and Henning Bochert

Guests: Anne Bérélowitch, Dora Cheng, Mîrza Metîn

23 October 2023, 10 am-6 pm

In 2021, Drama Panorama first organised a workshop (folowed by a public reading and talk) to explore multilingualism on stage in the panorama #1: übertheaterübersetzen series.

This time around, we will, in this extensive subject area, explore texts in a global context, focussing on the political aspects of multilingualism. The workshop leaders, the guests, and the participants propose texts which we will discuss together. The workshop will be held in German and English (other languages may appear subject to the topic).

Furthermore, we will, as we did in 2021, compile an accompanying brochure introducing more examplatory texts and playwrights.

Open Call for the Workshop

We plan the workshop for around 15 participants. The participation is free of charge. We are looking forward to meet interested theatre makers, translators, playwrights and other interested individuals. Please send your registration starting now until 9 October 2023 to henning.bochert@drama-panorama.com including:

a short introduction, a short explanation why you are interested in the topic
the languages you speak
if applicable: a short decription of your project, and,optional: your project (a short decription) is very welcome, but no prerequisite, and
optional: If you would like to discuss a multilingual theatre text as part of the workshop, please send it to us in advance

Open Call for the Texts

In this context, we are looking for theater texts and playwrights from around the world outside of Europe (or outside of the European theater context) who work with multiple languages. We are particularly interested in multilingualism in African and Afro-diasporic theater texts, and those from the WANA region (West Asia/North Africa) that also work with non-European languages.

We are looking forward to receiving your submissions and messages at: henning.bochert@drama-panorama.com

Katharina Rösch is a dramaturg and has been with Schauspiel Essen since the 2023/24 season. She previously worked internationally as a freelance dramaturg in Istanbul and Cape Town. She is a member of Drama Panorama: Forum für Übersetzung und Theater e. V.

Foto: Thomas Köster

Henning Bochert works as an author, dramaturg, and has been translating English and German for more than 25 years, including works by Susan Glaspell, Dawn King, Carlos Murillo and George Brant. He runs a translation agency and is involved with several organisations, including Drama Panorama: Forum für Übersetzung und Theater e. V., raum4-netzwerk für künstlerische alltagsbewältigung e. v., Weltlesebühne e. V..

Foto: Elmar Engels

Anne Bérélowitch

is the artistic director of Cie l’instant même (France) and Instant MIX Theater Lab (Europe and beyond). She has been directing and / or writing for the theater for more than twenty years. She is mostly a practitioner, but is interested in verbalizing and conceptualizing, which is why she works in close collaboration with researchers (in translation studies esp.). She is also a teacher and has created specific methods to train actors and directors in bi-multilingual performance, and teach languages through theater practice.

Foto: private

Mîrza Metîn studied dramaturgy and theatre criticism and dramatic writing at the Istanbul University. His writing adventure started in Turkish (the language of his education), and later he added Kurdish (his mother tongue) which he started to learn in 2001. He wrote in both languages for a long time. Now he prefers to write only in Kurdish. Of the eighteen texts he has written to date, sixteen have been staged. Some of his texts have been translated into Zaza, Turkish, German, English, French and Hungarian and some of them published in Turkey, France, Germany, Finland, and the United States. He has been invited to many festivals such as the PEN World Voices International Playwrights Festival in New York and the Welt/Bühne Festival in Munich.

Image: Biba Kayewich

Dora Yuemin Cheng, trilingual playwright, works and lives in Berlin, Beijing and Shanghai.

Born and raised in Nanjing, China, she completed B.A.-Dramatic Writing at Shanghai Theatre Academy and M. A. Visual Language of Performance at Wimbledon College of Art. Her Chinese plays have been read or performed in several cities in China.

In 2021, the Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim’s production of Qingdao: a messy archive, in which she worked as a dramaturg, was nominated for Best Play by nachtkritik.de. Her multilingual play Epiphanie 顿悟 was shortlisted for the Stückemarkt at the Theatertreffen 2022.

Foto: Annika Nagel