Looking Back: “Between Languages”

On October 28, 2024, Drama Panorama’s workshop Between Languages with theater scientist and translator Barbora Schnelle and playwright Sivan Ben Yishai took place at Refugio Berlin. Information can be found on the event page. We offer here a short review with photos by Egge Freygang.

While the panorama #3: New Translations of International Drama festival in May 2023 presented these and their respective landscapes to a broad audience in discussions with authors and translators as well as in readings, we were able to turn to a specialist audience in panorama #3 – The Workshops with two further educational and research workshops. With this format, proven in our previous work, we wanted to undertake in-depth explorations about specific topics with specialist groups by introducing and discussing all-round questions, aspects and texts. Through dialogue and encounters as well as input from all sides, we were able to raise and discuss new questions at such events in the past.

This workshop was able to address several aspects that arise when writing and translating multilingual theater texts. Structurally, the balance of theoretical (lecture) and practical mediation (exercises) as well as several discussion phases in the process enabled the participants to contribute to the discussion with their collective experience and their very different perspectives. It is also to be expected that the topics raised and the aspects of multilingualism in work and society discussed will be continued in other formats and events, such as the translationale berlin 2025 festival of literary translation or in in-depth workshops by Drama Panorama, VTheA or in university seminars, just as this workshop represents a continuation of Drama Panorama’s previous discussions and artistic-scientific research. We are very happy that, thanks in particular to the funding of our work by the German Translators Fund, there is now a continuity in our research work, which can be seen both in returning participants and the increasing exchange. These links cannot be valued highly enough in the development of such intricate topics, as they develop synapses, so to speak, for the perception of the topics that are dealt with in a sustainable manner.

Once again: Our brochure Mehr Sprachen, Mehr Theater (More Langauages, More Theater; by Henning Bochert, Barbora Schnelle, Lydia Nagel) from the 2021 workshop can be read or downloaded here. A second brochure Mehr Sprachen, mehr Theater II (by Henning Bochert and Katharina Rösch) will be published shortly and will also be available on our website.

The workshop was funded by the Deutscher Übersetzerfonds.