In June 2020, an initiative of 300 theatermakers in the U. S. published a statement adressing the “White American Theater” and quoting August Wilson’s historical 1996 speech. For publication of the statement in the July 2020 edition of the Theater heute magazine, Bochert Translations translated this statement into German.
by Eve Leigh
A lonely voice sleepless in front of the Internet, at night. New tab – a man in the bathtub. New tab – a young woman inside a watertank. New tab – a girl on the tracks.
Eve Leigh’s dream – or nightmare – about the solitude of pain, about digital bodies as (questionable) freedom from one’s own limited body, about handicaps, accessibility, force and personal freedom, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in November/December 2019.
Commissioned by Rowohl Theater Verlag, Bochert Translations translates this fascinating text by the British-American playwright into German.
This year’s edition of the international theatre festival Theaterformen in Hannover will present, among many others, the production LOKIS by Anka Herbut, directed by Łukasz Twarkowski from Wroclaw, Poland, and Vilnius, Lithuania. Over the course of its more than three hours, the play creates an atmospheric pull, drawing the audience into a world of laconic chill in which underlying obscure aggressions can develop surprising powers. The cast investigate and re-enact unsolved murders, follows leads, considers possible scenarios – what actually happened that strange night? Eugenijus Sabaliauskas’s light design and Bogumił Misala’s music and sounds engross from the very first moment.
The translation of the supertitles from Englisch into German has be accomplished by Bochert Translations, the arrangement and production of the titles by Panthea.
In their mission statement, the international theatre festival in Munich explain: “SPIELART, however, also always concentrates on posing questions about theater itself as an art form, and on consistently re-exploring or re-establishing theater with approaches from the fringes. Important accents of the festival’s platform are also its entrenchment in the city’s cultural life and the dialogue between the city’s artistic and institutional energies.”
So the festival links unusual, pioneering forms of performative expression of international theatre artists to its audience in Germany’s third largest metropolis, Munich. This year in November, artistic teams will come from China, South Africa, Argentina, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Belgium, Scottland, the U.S.A., the Lebanon, Kenia, and many other countries. Far beyond an also international, European horizon, the selection of productions is truly intercontinental.
The translations of programme descriptions into English will be provided by Bochert Translations.
Since last year’s edition, the international theater festival Theaterformen runs a blog with an editorial team of its own to accompany the festival with thematic and critical contributions. The articles are composed, among other languages, in German, Arabic, or French.
The translations into and from these languages are provided by Bochert Translations.
Foto: Kalle Nio
This year’s selection of production invited to the UNIDRAM theatre festival in Potsdam includes Kalle Nio and the WHS ensemble from Finland. They present their production CUTTING EDGE. In a kind of stage magic show, or physical theatre, the three performers Inês Campos, Vera Selene Tegelman and Jukka Tarvainen·deal with violent kinds of dying. Executions, beheadings, people cut in two, severed heads – all glossy, no splatter, even funny.
The show provides German supertitles. The translation of the titles has been accomplished by Bochert Translations.
From 08-18 June, the annual theatre festival THEATERFORMEN took place in Hannover. Productions from Belgium, South Africa, Slovenia, Sweden, the U.S.A., Mexico, France, Italy, and other countries were invited. This year, the festival direction decided to not only offer magazines and material about the plays, but also to run a festival blog for bloggers to describe and announce festival contributions and events and publish interviews in various languages.
The translations for this blog were accomplished by Bochert Translations.
The Theaterformen festival at Theater Braunschweig published the 2015 essays around the event on their website. After 13 April, this year’s essays around Theaterformen 2016 will appear in Bochert Translations’ German translation.
My translation of Patrick Ellsworth’s DANCER IN THE DARK will be produced at Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau. The opening is scheduled for 18 March 2016.
This is what the playwright said about it:
“I just wanted to commend you on a masterful job! The German text is unbelievably faithful to the original. I am truly proud to share your translation with both the cast and the German theater-going public.”