This weekend, Cornell University and The Cherry Artspace hosted Drama Across Borders, a rare and wonderful site-specific conference of playwrights, translators, theatre scholars, directors, publishers, and producers of drama in translation from around the world. Panels and performances explored the role of international drama in expanding the limits of our theatrical imagination and pushing the boundaries of our political conversation. The conference kicked off Friday evening at 6:30pm at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Cornell University with a keynote speech from distinguished theatre producer Elyse Dodgson, Director of the International Department at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Saturday the conference moved to The Cherry Artspace in downtown Ithaca and featured presentations and discussions on new works in translation from Chile, China, Palestine, Lebanon, Korea, Austria, Turkey, Romania, Finland, and France. As part of the presentations, Samuel Buggeln (Cherry Arts) and Rebekah Maggor directed a number of short performances with members of The Cherry Arts Acting Company and students from Cornell University.
Drama Across Borders was made possible with support from the Department of Performing and Media Arts, The Translation Network at the Society for the Humanities, the University Lectures Committee, the Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Department of German Studies, Near Eastern Studies, the Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East and North Africa, and an Affinito-Stewart Grant of the President’s Council of Cornell Women.
Photos by Rachel Philipson
