FREE + Open to public. First come, first serve.

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.

Tuesday April 29th

2:00 pm Yakiniku Dragon
Written by Chong Wishing (JAPAN) | Directed by Victor Maog | Translated by Philip Flavin

Set in the years 1969 to 1971 in the Yakiniku Dragon, a restaurant without plumbing in a Korean-Japanese ghetto, Yakiniku Dragon tells the story of a young boy who feels welcomed neither by the Japanese nor Korean societies. The play is based on Chong’s own childhood experience, and is told through the six family members and guests who frequent the Yakiniku Dragon.  

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

5:00 pm No Matter How Hard We Tried or We Exist on the Best Terms We Can
Written by Dorota Masłowska (POLAND) | Directed by Paul Bargetto | Translated by Artur Zapałowski

With wildly inventive language and razor-sharp humor, No Matter How Hard We Tried captures Poland’s contemporary moment, bringing together nouveau-riche media celebrities, the abject poor, phony artists, and disaffected youth all struggling to stay afloat in a toxic stew of commercialism, inter-generational confusion, Catholic nationalism, and idealized visions of Poland’s tragic past.

Presented in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute/Culture.pl

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

7:30pm Holiday
Written by Raimondo Cortese (AUSTRALIA) | Directed by Oliver Butler

Holiday is an eclectic mixture of baroque song, video installation and gentle conversation, contemplating the world as a place where we can no longer cope with large occurrences and succeed only in retreating further into our own private spaces.

Presented in Partnership with Australia Council for the Arts

The reading will be followed by a conversation with the playwright and the director, moderated by Peter Eckersall (Professor of Asian Theater, The Graduate Center, CUNY).