Eugene O'Neill Theater Center & Lark Play Development Center Hosts International Conference Today

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center will co-host the first North American gathering of The Fence at its Waterford campus from January 20-22. The Fence is an international network for "working playwrights and people who make playwriting happen," and is interested promoting greater international collaboration between theater artists. In its tenth year, the network comprises over 200 members from 40 countries.

Domestic partners include Melissa Hardy of The Play Company, Doug Howe of New International Theatre Experience, and John Eisner, Lisa Rothe, Michael Robertson and Catherine Coray of the Lark Play Development Center.

The initial convening at the O'Neill is intended as a retreat and planning session for a much larger convening in January 2015. Members will explore issues related to theatre translation, and begin the process of developing scripts for translation. After departing the O'Neill, The Fence will reconvene in New York City, hosted by Lark Play Development Center.

The overarching focus of these two gatherings is the art of translation. Noted literary theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak points out, "Translation is a necessary impossibility," and The Fence plans to investigate this paradox by engaging in both in-depth dialogue and hands-on exploration so that it may discover innovative solutions to the complex challenges of translating for the stage.