IDEA LAB
2012/13:
EVENTS FOR
Sunday, May 12 | Conversation with the Playwright
Roland Schimmelpfennig is one of Europe’s most prolific living playwrights. His works have been translated into over 20 languages, and he has received Germany’s top playwriting award, the Else-Lasker-Shüler-Prize, in honor of his entire Oeuvre. How does he manage it? Where do his ideas come from? What inspired The Golden Dragon?
Join us for this free public conversation with Roland Schimmelpfennig. No reservations or show tickets required.
Co-sponsored by the German Consulate New York and Goethe-Institut New York.
WHEN: Sunday, May 12 at 4:30pm (following the 3:00pm performance)
WHERE: The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street, West Village)
WHO: Roland Schimmelpfennig and moderator, Dr. Frank Hentschker, Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY
Additional events to be announced.
________________________________
EVENTS FOR
59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street
The following events were free to attend.
January 13, 2013 | Theatre of Necessity
A panel of international theatre artists discuss the notion that theatre is created from a sense of urgency, whether in response to inspiration or societal changes. How do we use theatre to address the needs and challenges of our communities?
Guest panelists: Aya Ogawa, writer/director/translator
Joanna Sherman Artistic Director and co-Founder of Bond Street Theatre
Ana Margineanu, Romanian director
2:00 pre-show discussion with mimosas.
Michael McGuigan
Managing Director of Bond Street Theatre
Bond Street Theatre creates innovative performances that cross cultural borders, and initiates theatre-based projects for education, healing and empowerment in critical areas worldwide.
Michael shared the insights he's gained on international collaboration through their work in Afghanistan.
Aya Ogawa
writer/director/translator
Founder of Knife, Inc.
http://knifeinc.org/wp/about/aya-ogawa/
Aya spoke about her experiences working with the human rights organization Adhikaar to create an original piece with immigrant women from the New York Nepalese community.
Ana Margineanu
New York-based Romanian director
Ana talked about her collaboration with Romanian playwright Peca Stefan and their project All the Best About Romania, an ongoing series of "performance-reports" focusing on various Romanian towns.
January 30, 2013 | Mexican Theatre in a Violent Climate
Post-show Discussion with Mexican actor/director/producer Antonio Vega
Mexican Theatre Creator, Antonio Vega, discusses how contemporary theatre artists are responding to Mexico’s current climate of violence and the impact it has on the work being produced on Mexico’s stages.
February 7, 2013 | Artist Talk with the Creators
Post-show Discussion with Ana Graham and Antonio Vega. Join us for a talk with Mexican theatre artists and the creators of Working on a Special Day as they share their insights into working on this very special piece. Ana is also the Artistic Director and Founder of Por Piedad Teatro. Antonio is the Literary Director of Por Piedad Teatro.
________________________________
2011/12 IDEA LAB SEASON:
PlayCo presented a series of post-performance events with audience members during our encore production of INVASION! and WORKING ON A SPECIAL DAY at The Flea Theater and as part of Soho Rep’s FEED for THE UGLY ONE. These events were presented as part of the Idea Lab and were free of cost after the show. A very special thank you to all of our participating collaborators for helping to make these events so engaging for this production. Please note that all events could not be filmed due to sensitive subject matter.
HECHO EN MEXICO:
Sunday, May 20 @ 7:30pm
Idiots Contemplating the Snow
by Alejandro Ricano
directed & translated by Ana Graham
A freewheeling comedy featuring a cast of colorful characters driven to increasingly comic extremes as they try to keep pace with Mexico's growing consumer society.
Playwright Statement: Idiots Contemplating the Snow was commissioned to me by the theater director of the Universidad Veracruzana (University of Veracruz). There was only one premise: to have as many characters as possible so the whole company could be in it. But the truth is that secretly I was writing the play for my parents. I also had my own premise, a personal one: that the play would be accessible to all audiences, especially for people that don’t usually go to the theatre. I wanted it to be able to attract a good crowd to make sure that the show sold out every night. So I wrote this play about and for my parent’s neighbors; who before then, before they found out that there’s was a play that was about them, had never been in a theatre. The theme came up from an idea that my father talked to me about a few years before: stupid things that people do to satisfy needs they don’t really have.
Monday, May 21 @ 7:30pm
Belize
by David Olguin
translated by Daniel Jaquez
directed by Debbie Saivetz
A young man goes in search of the father he never knew. His quest leads him to a mythical Belize and initiates him into the darker side of self-knowledge.
Playwright Statement: I am in New York and Belize - the territory of my play - is a strange world, a non existing place imagined from Mexico. As Melville says, "the only real islands are the unreal" and in this play you will experience the inner trip of a man looking for his father and, by the way, triying to resolve the deepest pains of his heart. Theater deals with people and everywhere, here and in México, we share a common scenario, that of human experience. I hope this play may touch you and get under your skin.
Tuesday, May 22 @ 7:30pm
I Hate F**king Mexicans
by Luis Enrique Gutierrez Ortiz Monasterio
translated by Debbie Saivetz, Ana Graham, and Danya Taymor
directed by Danya Taymor
A woman in a Texas border town recounts the racial tensions that divide her community and lead to an explosive encounter. The play enters a bizarrely poetic world that is both disturbing and funny.
Playwright Statement: I'm a great admirer of Faulkner. I Hate F**king Mexicans is an intent to bring him to the present as an excuse to talk about minutemen, immigrants and aliens.
This public reading series was presented at:
THE ROOM @ New Georges
520 8th Avenue, Suite 326
New York, NY, 10018
These public readings are made possible in part by the support of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.
________________________________
EVENTS FOR INVASION!:
Friday, September 9th, 2011 | Meet the Artists
Tony Award-Winning playwright David Henry Hwang moderated a post-performance conversation with INVASION! playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri and director Erica Schmidt.
Click HERE to watch video excerpts.
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 | Sojourners
Carol Fouke-Mypoyo, Director of the Sojourners Program in the Social Justice Ministry at Riverside Church, led a discussion after the play about the work her organization does visiting and befriending asylum seekers in local detention centers. The all-volunteer group also vouches for asylum seekers so they can can leave their months (or years) of detention on parole, and helps them to find free housing and resources in the city until they win asylee status. www.theriversidechurchny.org
Monday, September 26th, 2011 | Cast Chat
In the Cypher, a performance group dedicated to opening conversations between people of different backgrounds and world views, hosted a post-performance conversation with cast members of INVASION! www.inthecypher.org
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 | The Power of Language
Bobby Moreno, a cast member in both of PlayCo's productions of INVASION!, moderated a discussion on the power of language, featuring 3 of New York City’s foremost emcee/activists from Say Word Entertainment. Based in NYC, Say Word Entertainment is a collection of artists, producers, promoters, activists, educators and agents of change dedicated to maintaining and supporting authentic Hip Hop globally. www.saywordentertainment.com
Click HERE to watch video excerpts.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 | ACLU National Security Project
Hina Shamsi, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project, which advocates for national security policies that are consistent with the constitution, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights, participated in a post-performance conversation about legal and rights issues raised by the play. www.aclu.org
EVENTS FOR WORKING ON A SPECIAL DAY:
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 | Guest Speaker Martin Acosta
Coffee and Conversation about Contemporary Mexican Theatre with guest speaker Martin Acosta @ 10am in The Flea Theater lobby before the performance of WORKING ON A SPECIAL DAY.
“[Acosta is] one of the most important creators of theater in Mexico.” -El Informador
Click HERE to watch video excerpts.
Monday, January 9th, 2012 | Q & A with HB Studio
Students from HB Studio join us for a post-show question and answer session with actors Ana Graham and Antonio Vega about the process of curating new work, translating theater, the actor as producer, and the challenges of the international actor working in New York. www.hbstudio.org
Click HERE to watch video excerpts.
EVENTS FOR THE UGLY ONE:
Saturday, February 4th, 2012 | Marius von Mayenburg in conversation *after the matinee
The playwright in conversation with Dr. Frank Hentschker (City University of New York, Martin E. Segal Theater Center).
Friday, February 17, 2012 | Creative Team Talk
Join members of THE UGLY ONE Creative Team as they discuss the production. Moderated by Soho Rep’s Literary & Humanities Manager Raphael Martin.
Saturday, February 18, 2012 | The World of Self-Betterment
Why do we in America feel an obsessive desire to better ourselves with therapy, pills, surgery and positive thinking? Join an illustrious panel of thinkers and writers in cogitating this issue.
Thursday February 23, 2012 | The Economy of Beauty
Is Beauty spurred by Capitalism? What is the role of big-business and the magazine industry in defining what is beautiful?
Kate Loewald, Founding Producer | Lauren Weigel, Executive Producer
The Play Company | 321 West 44th Street | Suite 802 | New York, NY 10036
(212) 398-2977 (Main) | (212) 398-7182 (Fax) | info@playco.org (Email)
©2011 The Play Company. All rights reserved. SITE MAP
The Play Company complements its production season with an eclectic series of stand-alone events, including reading presentations of plays and literature, evenings that examine a particular topic through the work of a variety of prose and poetry writers and/or other media, and panel discussions featuring theatre artists, writers, scholars and community leaders. These events may link to a production, or extend our programming to other ideas or issues of interest to our community.
The Play Company | Celebrating Eleven Years of New Plays from Around the World! Visit playco.org for more
Celebrating Thirteen Years of New Plays from Around the World
