In a discussion about Vaclav Havel and the art of literary translation, renowned English translators of Vaclav Havel’s works—Paul Wilson, Jan Novak and Stepan Simek—join playwright Edward Einhorn, Artistic Director of New York City’s Untitled Theater Company #61, to talk about the tricky parts of their projects and interlingual hurdles that accompany their wordcraft. Einhorn was the first ever to produce the complete plays of Vaclav Havel, all featured at the Havel Festival in New York City in 2006.
Actors from Untitled Theater Company #61, Craig Anderson, Peter Brown, Uma Incrocci, Yvonne Roen, and Richard Toth, will perform selected passages that each translator found particularly complicated to deal with: The Memo (1965), Office Party (1963), The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1968), and Ela, Hela and the Hitch (1961).
The Memo JV Brown: Peter Brown, Uma Kalous: Uma Incrocci
Office Party (translated by Jan Novak), Scene 1: Executive 1: Peter Brown, Executive 2: Uma Incrocci, Slug: Craig Anderson. Scene 2: CEO: Richard Toth, Executive 2: Uma Incrocci, Hue: Edward Einhorn.
The Increased Difficulty of Concentration Hummel: Richard Toth, Balthazar: Yvonne Roen, PAZUK: Uma Incrocci, Krieger: Craig Anderson
Ela, Hela, and the Hitch Ela: Uma Incrocci, Hela: Yvonne Roen, Driver: Craig Anderson
The discussion is followed by Q&A. It is free and open to the public.
This event will be broadcasted online, live on Zoom. RSVP is required to receive password for free viewing. RSVP online through Eventbrite.
EDWARD EINHORN is a playwright, director, translator, librettist, and novelist. Edward is the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61: A Theater of Ideas. Some of his notable projects include the production of The Vaclav Havel Festival (2006), a festival of all of Havel’s work, which Edward curated with Havel in attendance; Cabaret in Captivity, songs and sketches from Terezin; The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig, adapted from the work by Vaclav Havel and Vladimir Moravek; The God Projekt; Rudolf II, an original play about the emperor in Prague; and The Velvet Oratorio, an opera-theater production following Havel’s character Vanek through the Velvet Revolution. He also directed the stage production and film of Karel Svenk’s The Last Cyclist. Edward Einhorn’s works have been reviewed in The New York Times, Time Out, and The Village. He has received number of awards, such as SEED Magazine’s Revolutionary Mind Award and The NY Innovative Theater Award for Best Performance Art Production of the Year.
JAN NOVAK is a Czech-born writer and translator. He has translated into English all of Vaclav Havel's Vanek plays, and also translated Office Party, Havel’s first full-length theater piece. Jan has written several books, such as On the Far Side of the Pond; Grandpa; So Far, So Good; Commies, Crooks, Gypsies, Spooks & Poets; The Grand Life; The Willys Dream Kit; and Striptease Chicago. He was awarded two Carl Sandburg prizes for the Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Public Library, and the Magnesia Litera for the Czech Book of the Year. Jan has co-authored the autobiography of Milos Forman, The Turnaround. His screenplays include The Wonderful Years That Sucked and Broken Promise, which was nominated by Slovakia for the foreign films competition of the Oscars in 2009. Astorka Theatre in Bratislava, Slovakia, has in its repertory Jan’s plays An Ax Murder in St. Petersburg and Tolstoy and Money.
STEPAN SIMEK is a Prague-born director, translator, adaptor, and professor of theater at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Stepan has translated plays from Czech, German, and Russian, most notably works by Vaclav Havel, Petr Zelenka, Iva Volankova, David Drabek, Peter Handke, and Anton Chekhov. His translations have been published in a number of anthologies, staged across the USA, and received the 2006 PEN America Translation Award and the 2018 Eurodram Award for best English translation of a foreign-language play. He has directed over forty productions in Europe, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. He adapted for stage several novels and literary works, such as Kafka’s Amerika, Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bulgakhov’s Heart of the Dog, and Francois Villon’s The Testament. In addition, Stepan writes on the contemporary Czech theater and his articles have appeared in TheatreForum and SEEP (Slavic and East European Performance).
PAUL WILSON is a writer, translator, editor, and radio producer. He has translated into English numerous works by Vaclav Havel, including his seminal essay, The Power of the Powerless; his prison correspondence, Letters to Olga; two autobiographical books, Disturbing the Peace and To the Castle and Back; and many of his presidential speeches and occasional essays. In addition to Leaving and The Memo, Paul has translated Havel's plays The Beggar’s Opera and Guardian Angel. His translations are also familiar to readers of The New Yorker, Granta, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times and The New York Review of Books. Paul’s translation of The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skoverecky was awarded the Governor General's Award for Fiction (1984), and the translation of Ivan Klima's My Golden Trades was short-listed for the Independent newspaper's International Translation Award (1993). He has contributed essays, articles and reviews to many North American and European publications, such as The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Toronto Star.
CRAIG ANDERSON is excited to team up with Edward again for this reading. Previous works with Untitled Theater Company #61 include Doctors Jane and Alexander, The Resistible Rise of J.R. Brinkley, The Iron Heel, Cabaret in Captivity, and both the concert and fully-staged productions of Velvet Oratorio. He also worked with Edward in the stage production and film of The Last Cyclist, the film version of which is starting to appear in festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Other local productions include the world premiere of Painted Alice, a site-specific musical in the Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City, Stephano in The Tempest for Dysfunctional Theater, Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler for Love Creek, and many others.
PETER BROWN was one of the founding members of Untitled Theater Company No. 61, performing in numerous productions during its first 20 years. He originated the role of JV Brown in the Paul Wilson translation of The Memo, for the 2006 Havel Festival. He also acted in countless indie theater productions throughout New York. He has since retired from theater and now lives with his wife, Chang-hui, in Taipei, Taiwan where he works as Assistant Pastor at Friendship Presbyterian Church.
UMA INCROCCI originated the role of Uma Kalous in Paul Wilson's translation of The Memo, performed at the Havel Festival in 2006. Other theater credits include The Public Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, New Jersey Repertory, and seven seasons at Connecticut Free Shakespeare. TV credits include Modern Family, How To Get Away With Murder, Jane The Virgin, Bored to Death, Louie, Pan Am, Lipstick Jungle, and Chappelle’s Show.
YVONNE ROEN recently joined UTC61 once again for Doctors Jane and Alexander Previous productions with UTC61 include Performance for One, Neurology of the Soul, The Iron Heel, Money Lab, The Velvet Oratorio, Pangs of the Messiah, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Rudolph II, Hiroshima: Crucible of Light, and Golem Stories. She has travelled the United States performing in classical and modern works, performing in 28 states, as well as abroad.
RICHARD TOTH was co-founder and director of the Prague-based theater company, Misery Loves Company, which performed in Divadlo v Celetne in the 1990s. Notable productions include the Eastern European premiere of Angels in America by Tony Kushner and, in collaboration with Divadlo Kaspar, an original adaptation of Carlo Gozzi’s King Stag. Richard has frequently worked with Edward and UT61, appearing in Protest for the Havel Festival and a number of performances and readings at the Czech Center.
ABOUT THE 2020 SPRING WEEKEND
The 2020 Spring Weekend is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), in partnership with Polish Cultural Institute New York and Untitled Theater Company #61 . Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by New York City-based actors and directors. The program has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; Zuzana Ulicianska, Chair of the Slovak Center - International Association of Theatre Critics; and Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
All Spring Weekend productions are FREE. Today we ask you to make a donation of $5, or any amount you can. You can donate here or when you register for an event through Eventbrite. All proceeds will benefit children from New York City schools in Elmhurst, Queens, which has been one of the worst hit neighborhoods by COVID-19. Your contribution will allow us to buy colored pencils and other art supplies for children whose parents are often essential workers and first responders. Every dollar counts!