As part of the 2014 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, The Segal Center will showcase play readings by nine of the world’s most respected dramatists.  With each writer hailing from a different world region as classified by the United Nations, the International Play Festival generates a conversation on art, politics, dreams, war and philosophy, meant to give American audiences a rich awareness of the greater global dialogue.  *Selected readings will be followed by discussion with the playwright.  The festival runs April 28th- April 30th.  All events are FREE and open to the public. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.

Wednesday April 30th

2:00 pm Cogito
Written by Huzir Sulaiman (SINGAPORE) | Directed by Mike Donahue

It is the year 2026. Katherine Lee is a wealthy socialite, married to Tony Szeto, a highly prized Singaporean biomedical scientist. When Katherine reads in a local newspaper that her husband has been assassinated, she discovers she is not the only one married to him.

The reading will be followed by a conversation with: the director, Frank Hentschker (Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center  The Graduate Center, CUNY) and Melissa Wong (PhD candidate, CUNY)  moderated by Peter Eckersall ( Professor of Asian Theater, The Graduate Center, CUNY).

5:00 pm Rechnitz (The Exterminating Angel)
Written by Elfriede Jelinek (AUSTRIA) | Directed by Katherine Brook | Translated by Gitta Honegger

Rechnitz examines the silence about a massacre at the Austrian-Hungarian border on March 25, 1945. During a party by Countess Margit von Batthyány, Nazis killed about 200 Jews as part of their entertainment. Until today, the remains of the victims were not found, neither was the whole affair properly investigated.

The reading will be followed by a conversation with the director and the translator Gitta Honegger, moderated by Frank Hentschker (Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY).

7:30 pm The Djinns of Eidgah
Written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar (INDIA)

Ashrafi and Bilal are orphaned siblings stranded in Kashmir. While his sister is caught in the past, 18-year-old Bilal is the pride of the region, part of a teenage football team set for great heights. However, Kashmir’s violence destroys his idealism, and he is torn between escaping the war and participating in the cycles of resistance.

The Djinns of Eidgah was developed as part of a long term project between the Royal Court Theatre in London and Rage Theatre in Mumbai. It was first produced as part of the Writers Bloc Festival in India and in the current draft by the Royal Court Theatre in October 2013. Both productions directed by Richard Twyman.

Presented in partnership with The Play Company.

The reading will be followed by a conversation with the playwright and the director, moderated by Frank Hentschker (Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY).