NEWS

Margherita Laera’s Theatre & Translation was published by Red Globe Press in December 2019. We are so proud that this little book is part of the fantastic ‘Theatre &’ Series, edited by Jen Harvie and Dan Rebellato. The volume is the culmination of our Translating Theatre research project. Please find out more about it HERE.

Margherita Laera’s article about Translating Theatre is out! It is part of a fabulous special issue of Modern Drama on Migration and Multilingualism.

Here is the table of contents:

Introduction: Migration and Multilingualism

Multilingual Expression and Postnational Frames in 100% Brussels and Isabella’s Room Janine Hauthal

Strange Homelands: Encountering the Migrant on the Contemporary Greek Stage Marissia Fragkou

Multilingualism and Postmigrant Theatre in Germany Azadeh Sharifi

New Dramaturgies in Contemporary Vienna: Wiener Wortstaetten, Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Schutzbefohlenen, and Die schweigende Mehrheit Inge Arteel, Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner

Performing Heteroglossia: The Translating Theatre Project in London Margherita Laera

The Racial Unconsciousness of the Parisian Public Theatre: Borders and Demotions in Francophone Contemporary Drama Selim Rauer

Principal Investigator Margherita Laera has won the Theatre and Performance Research Association’s Early Career Research Prize 2018 with the Translating Theatre Project.

Launched right at the point when the UK’s Brexit referendum was reaching its explosive conclusion, the judges felt that the ‘Translation, Adaptation, Otherness’ project represents an important – and deeply timely – investigation of how theatre in translation can be used to address contemporary tensions between varying cultures and languages by disrupting audiences’ expectations. Identifying and addressing a unique problem in a highly innovative way, the project constitutes a significant expansion of our current knowledge of theatre in translation and adaptation, with major implications for both performance scholarship and practice.

The books of our translations have been published by Cue Press and are now available to purchase online!

Denise Despeyroux, Black Tenderness: The Passion of Mary Stuart. Translated by Simon Breden. Edited and with an Introduction by Margherita Laera. Imola: Cue Press, 2017

Marie NDiaye, The Snakes. Translated by Kélina Gotman. Edited and with an Introduction by Margherita Laera. Imola: Cue Press, 2017

Piotr Peter Lachmann, Gliwice Hamlet. Translated by Bryce Lease and Aneta Mancewicz. Edited and with an Introduction by Margherita Laera. Imola: Cue Press, 2017

Read about us in The Linguist, the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. Issue 56.3, June-July 2017.

Join us at the V&A on Sunday 30th April 2017, when director Arne Pohlmeier and performers Kudzi Hudson and Tonderai Munyevi reveal a new brand-new staging of Piotr Lachmann’s Gliwice Hamlet. Tickets here.

A more in-depth looking at the first phase of research conducted on Translation, Adaptation, Otherness was published in worldwide theatre news website, The Theatre Times.

We’re delighted to present our Translating Theatre Documentary, hosted by The School of Arts at the University of Kent. This short film documents the Practice as Research phase of Dr Margherita Laera’s AHRC Leadership Fellowship “Translation, Adaptation, Otherness”, which addresses the ideological and ethical infrastructure of translation and its consequences. The project explores how we can minimise the inherent domesticating effect that turning a text from a “foreign” to a “familiar” language has on the source’s cultural difference, and how we can counteract ethnocentric practices in translation for the stage. In the summer of 2016, the project commissioned three translations and staged readings of contemporary plays from Spain, France and Poland: Denise Despeyroux’s “Black Tenderness”, Marie NDiaye’s “The Snakes” and Piotr Lachmann’s “Gliwice Hamlet”. The film includes interviews, rehearsal and performance footage from the three processes. Filmed and edited by Dominic Hicks.

Read some post-symposium thoughts by Dr Jan Parker (University of Cambridge) on the Arts and Humanities as Higher Education blog.

Margherita Laera and Flora Pitrolo will be holding a research seminar and ‘foreignisation’ workshop at the University of Kent (Jarman 7) on Nov. 23rd 2016. Bring a fragment of a play in a foreign language for a collective experiment in the ethical effects of foreignisation.

Registration is now open for the Translating Theatre: ‘Foreignisation’ on Stage symposium, to be held at Europe House in central London on October 21st 2016. We have a great range of speakers confirmed for the Translating Theatre symposium this October. You can view the draft schedule for the day here, and click here to book your tickets.

Theatre critics Catherine Love, Diana Damian Martin and Bojana Janković have written rich and interesting features about out work in Exeunt Magazine. Read articles about our three rehearsed readings here: : Tara Robinson’s Black Tenderness, Daniel Goldman’s The Snakes, and Arne Pohlmeier’s Gliwice Hamlet.

Europe House, the London base of the European Parliament and the European Commission, will host our autumn symposium on October 21st 2016. Featuring members of our team and advisory board discussing the outcomes of the first phase of our investigations, the one-day event is open to all those interested. 

We are delighted to confirm that leading theatre and translation scholar Prof. Sirkku Aaltonen, from University of Vaasa, Finland, will be delivering our keynote lecture at the Translating Theatre ​symposium. Have a look at our preliminary programme here and read some of Sirkku’s work here.

We are looking to employ 4 London-based postgraduate collaborators to help us carry out research as part of Translation Adaptation Otherness: ‘Foreignisation’ in Theatre Practice. The work would particularly exciting for people who have an interest in audience research and interviewing techniques and would like to carry out work as part of a large research project.

Translating Theatre: ‘Foreignisation’ on Stage will be presenting translations of some of the best contemporary plays to have come out of Spain, France and Poland over the past few years. Join us at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London in June and July 2016 for a programme of rehearsed readings and public debates.