[Vwoolf] Documentary Theater Symposium

Sat Jun 15 12:17:00 EDT 2013

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Greetings! Truth be told we cannot always attend one another's project. But if we share with one another what we're doing, it might speak future cooperation on mutual interest. 

This part March, my media project TheaterofOneWorld.org, which devotes its time to exploring cultural diplomacy and social change through media initiatives and publication, collaborated with the Embassy of Sweden. We organized a terrific seminar about the growing genre of documentary theater as part of the Nordic Festival at the Kennedy Center. 

My latest effort pushes that conversation deeper through a transnational collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland, and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. This International Symposium and Festival of Documentary Theater takes place at various D.C. venues from June 16 to June 19, with Ping Chong + Company, Douglas C. Wager and Rimini Protokoll among the blockbuster docu-artists involved.

In the afternoon, I will moderate "Creative Approaches," a panel on documentary theater as performance, focusing on the form/genre questions and providing information on what new documentary theatre projects are in the works in DC.  In the evening, I speaker in another panel about the implications of documentary theater for government policy and post-conflict reconciliation. We will be joined by policy expert Michael Pelletier (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State).

Most important is that we will introduce some of the leading documentary artists from the German-speaking world. As you know, the effort of introducing international artists into the American scene equals the effort of introducing new U.S. artists. In a culture of One World, it is the same agenda. Global migration challenges, government-sponsored genocide, terrorism and other manmade disasters that permanently alter our world view — these universal topics are addressed in non-fiction plays by playwrights interested in using their art for social change.

For more details, visit zeitgeistdc.org.

Warmly,

Randy Gener
randygener.org

Festival Schedule: 
Sunday, June 16, 7 pm
Goethe-Institut Washington (812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC)
a small, small world 
(with Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf, Germany)
Staged reading directed by Serge Seiden (Associate Producing Artistic Director, The Studio Theatre)

Monday, June 17, 11 am – 10 pm
Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center (37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC)
Theater of the Voiceless Symposium
	11 am – 12:15 pm	Presentation: “Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater”
		Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice (Ping Chong + Company)	
 	1 – 2:30 pm	a small small world (Germany)
Staged reading directed by Serge Seiden (Associate Producing Artistic Director, The Studio Theatre)
 	2:45 – 3:15 pm	Artistic response by Forum Theatre	
 	3:30 - 4 pm	Reading of excerpts from Worst Case (Austria)

Staged reading of excerpts

Directed by Jenny Lord (Resident Assistant Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company)

	4 – 4:30 pm	“This Really Happened”
		Artistic response by Taffety Punk Theatre Company
	4:45 – 6:15 pm	"Documentary Theater: Creative Approaches"
                                Panel discussion moderated by Randy Gener (Critical Stages and TheaterofOneWorld)

		Panelists: 

                Colin Bills (dog & pony dc), Chris Jennings (The Shakespeare Theatre Company), Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf 

(a small, small world), Jocelyn Prince (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), David Snider (Arena Stage), Doug Wager (Temple University)

	 7:30 - 9:15 pm	 Hate Radio (Switzerland)

Staged reading directed by Derek Goldman (Director, Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics), in partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

	9:15 - 10 pm	"Documentary Theater: Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation"

Panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Schneider (Co-Founder, Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University)

Panelists: 

Eva-Maria Bertschy (International Institute of Political Murder), Ping Chong, Randy Gener and Michael Pelletier (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, US Department of State)

Tuesday, June 18, 7:30 pm
Embassy of Austria (3524 International Court NW, Washington, DC)
Staged reading of Worst Case (Austria)
Staged reading directed by Jenny Lord (Resident Assistant Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company)

Wednesday, June 19, 6:30 pm
Goethe-Institut Washington (812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC)
Screening of the film of the groundbreaking Rimini Protokoll documentary theater piece Soil Sample Kazakhstan (Bodenprobe Kasachstan)

Subject: REMINDER: 6 DAYS until Documentary Theater Symposium

Theater of the Voiceless:
	An International Symposium on Documentary Theater

            a small, small world by Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf        

            Soil Sample Kazakhstan dir. Stefan Kaegi, Rimini Protokoll

	The Symposium
Monday, June 17
The Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University 

The all-day gathering explores the power of documentary theater as a platform for discussion of social, political, and cultural issues shared by the international community. It will feature staged readings of new plays by cutting edge European playwrights produced in partnership with three of Washington DC’s largest theaters. The day will begin with a presentation by Ping Chong + Company and contain panels with artists and experts (moderated by Randy Gener and Cynthia Schneider), and performances of works specifically created for this symposium by two of Washington’s most innovative theater companies, Taffety Punk Theatre Company and Forum Theatre.

                                click here to register for the symposium                            

		Documentary theater possesses the unique ability to respond to issues of pressing political import and social justice, and provides a platform and voice for the dispossessed. 
		The festival and symposium seek to create cross-cultural understanding and awareness of universal social, political and environmental issues through performances of new cutting-edge plays and films by innovative European artists.

	The Festival
	Sunday, June 16 - Wednesday, June 19
	Multiple Venues in DC

Four evenings of readings and screenings featuring works in the genre of documentary theater by some of the bravest playwrights from German-speaking countries. Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf (Germany), Milo Rau (Swiss founder of the International Institute of Political Murder), Kathrin Röggla (Austria) and the company, Rimini Protokoll (Swiss) use their art to tackle global migration challenges, government-sponsored genocide, terrorism and other man-made disasters that permanently alter our world view.                        

                                click for more information about the festival                            

                                        Hosted and produced Zeitgeist DC (a co-operation of the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, the Embassy of Switzerland, & the Goethe-Institut Washington) and the Lab for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University with Festival Artistic Director, Gillian Drake.                                     

                            Copyright © 2013 Gillian Drake, All rights reserved.
    You are receiving this email because you are presently a client of Gillian Drake/On Trial Associates, Inc. or have been in the past.    

    Our mailing address is:    

Gillian Drake
6406 Western Ave.
Chevy Chase, MD  20815

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