HowlRound

Nov 20, 2024 | howlround.com | Citlali Pizarro

Leaving the District of Columbia Central Detention Facility every week was, in some ways, more tiresome than the obstacle-laden process of getting in. In 2022, as a fellow at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, I had the unique privilege to be a member of Spit Dat Academy at the jail, a weekly spoken word poetry workshop with incarcerated poets. The program culminated in a poetry reading inside the jail, bringing together an audience of people from inside and out.

Sep 26, 2024 | howlround.com | Jean Graham-Jones |Caridad Svich

What do we mean when we say “original”? A playtext has many points of “origin.” Translation lives in this slippery area–between texts, people, cultures, languages, and sources. What happens when the word “adaptation” enters the arena of play? How do the words “translation” and “adaptation” dance around each other? During an extended Zoom chat in early August 2024, Caridad Svich and Jean Graham-Jones engaged with these points (and many others).

Sep 24, 2024 | howlround.com | Jeremy Tiang

Look at the credits for any Anglophone production of the musical juggernaut Les Misérables, and you may notice something curious: while Alain Boublil is credited for the “original French lyrics,” it is the late Herbert Kretzmer who is listed as the English-language “lyricist.” How might these lyrics have been transported from one language to another? One might assume this was through a process of translation and that Kretzmer must surely be the highest-earning theatre translator of all time.

Aug 19, 2024 | howlround.com | Lane Stanley

Before community was a core part of my artistic practice, it saved my life. I first started writing plays on my way out of recovery housing. I lived in a recovery house for six months, after my fiancé died suddenly in 2016. I survived my early sobriety and my early grief because I was around people: people who were also in crisis, who were always game to go to a meeting when you needed one, who showed up for each other. And, people who relapsed, and died, and went back to prison.

Jan 2, 2024 | howlround.com | Mark Valdez

Mark Valdez is an artist and cultural organizer whose forté is partnering with communities, organizations, civic institutions, and others, using theatre and creative tools to address community needs and lift up community voices and stories. He began his practice as the associate artistic director for Cornerstone Theater Company, a Los Angeles-based ensemble creating plays in/with/for communities there and across the nation. In June 2022, Mark became the artistic director of Mixed Blood Theatre. R.