Play Readings: Remembering Playwright and Director RENÉ POLLESCH

Remembering Playwright and Director

RENÉ POLLESCH

Volksbühne Berlin, Germany

LIVE / IN PERSON

Free + Open to the public

Live stream on Howlround here

Segal Theatre, 365 Fifth Ave @ 34 St.

Join us for an evening celebrating the life and work of the late playwright and director  who died unexpectedly at age 61. New York theatre artist Matt Gasda and his ensemble from the  will be joined by for readings of two Pollesch plays  (translated by Rose Riggs) and (translated by David Tushingham.)René PolleschHeidi HohInsourcing at Home. People in Crappy HotelsBrooklyn Center for Theatre ResearchDavid Levine

Readings in English followed by a panel with ,  and others. Moderated by Frank Hentschker.Matt GasdaDavid Levine

"René Pollesch, a prolific playwright and stage director whose work—intellectually serious yet irreverent, chatty, goofy and riddled with pop-culture references—made him one of the most significant forces in German theater of the past three decades, died on Monday in Berlin. He studied under Andrzej Wirth and Hans-Thies Lehmann at the legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, Germany. He was 61. His sudden death was announced by the  theater, where he had been artistic director since 2021. Pollesch wrote roughly 200 plays and directed virtually all of them himself, often at leading theaters in the German-speaking world. But while his plays lit up stages in places like Stuttgart, Hamburg, Vienna and Zurich, he was most closely associated with the Volksbühne, a publicly funded playhouse in what once was East Berlin that had a reputation for making daring and provocative theater." (A.J. Goldmann, New York Times)Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

Special thanks to Nils Tabert, Head of Rowohlt Theater Verlag, Germany. With the support and in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute New York, Jörg Schumacher.

DIRECTORS

( is a playwright and director and the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research. His first collection is available from Applause, and his next collection will be released in 2025. His newest play, has just begun its run at the BCTR.Matthew Gasda Heidi Hoh)Dimes Square and Other Plays Zoomers and Other Plays Morning Journal,

() is an OBIE and Guggenheim-award winning director and visual artist. His work has been covered by Frieze, Artforum, and The New York Times, and his writing has appeared in n+1, Theater, and Parkett. He is Professor of the Practice of Performance, Theater and Media at Harvard University, and the author, with Shonni Enelow, of A, published by 53rd State Press. His holographic film, , premiered at the Museum of the Moving Image last October. His eulogy for Rene Pollesch is forthcoming in .David Levine Insourcing . . . Discourse on MethodDissolutionTheater

ACTORS

an actor and producer. A graduate of Mason-Gross School of the Arts and Shakespeare's Globe. Most recently she has appeared in as SOPHIA ENGLESBERG Ella, Morning Journal, Ardor, and Afters.ZOOMERS

(she/they) Film: ), Off-Broadway: (Red Bull), Clubbed Thumb, The Public Theatre. New York: . Regionalby Ruby Rae Spegiel, (Seattle Rep). Reps: , Daniel Hoff. She is a founding member of The Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research. @izzyetc, Izabel MarBabygirl, Showing Up (a24), Year of the Fox (SIFFFBI: Most Wanted.MAC BETHJoan of Arc in a Supermarket in California, galatea 2.0 (InvulNos), Audible, Improvised Buffy: StacyMAC BETHAuthenticizabelmar.com

is an actor, writer, educator, and founding member of The Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research in Greenpoint. Ten collaborations with Matthew Gasda since 2021. Further theater credits include Roundabout, The Vineyard, Bedlam, Rattlestick, People's Light, Trinity Rep, SpeakEasy Stage, Epic Theater Ensemble, Dixon Place, Bay Street Theater, & A Noise Within. George can be seen in works for Netflix, AppleTV+, Amazon Prime, ABC, FOX, CBS, and Starz. Actor in Residence at Maine Media Workshops since 2018. Recipient of the Brown in the World Grant for a performing arts research fellowship in Berlin, serving as a graduate assistant to Bard College Berlin’s inaugural Summer Theater Intensive. His ongoing solo work premiered at the legendary Beckett’s in 2022. MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep. @george.oleskyGeorge OleskyJoan

is a recent Graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts. She starred in Matthew Gasda's and is producing BCTR's current show, Renee Nicole PowellZoomers Morning Journal.

is a writer, actor, and filmmaker. Select theatre: (Playwrights Realm/MCC), (Primary Stages), (EST)(The Hearth), (Lesser America)(softFocus)(UTR, Fusebox), and productions with Actors Theater of Louisville, Williamstown, Clubbed Thumb, New Group, LAByrinth, The Whitney Museum. Film/Television: , and countless indie narrative shorts Education: Yale, Juilliard. New Georges Affiliated Artist. Claire SiebersMary Gets Hers New Golden AgeGeorgia Mertching is Dead , Events Agnes , The Workshop , LA Party Gossip Girl, The Blacklist.clairesiebers.com

is a recent graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (2023). Performances for CMU include and . NYC work includes LCT3 and Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research. Regional work: Seattle Public Theater, Seattle Shakespeare Company. She has also studied with LAMDA and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Rep: Brave Artists Management, Henderson Hogan. @tessaweinlandTessa WeinlandHamlet, Woyzeck,You On the Moors Now

Photo Daniel Karmann / dpa. Courtesy Goethe Institute New York.