 Welcome to the Martin E. Siegel Theatre Center here at the Graduate Center CUNY and to Prelude 21. Start making sense. It is our annual Theatre and Performance Festival celebrating the work of New York theatre artists of ensembles and it's hard enough in normal times to create work for the stage and for spaces inside and outside but at the time of corona we all are faced with exceptional challenges and we are here to celebrate again the extraordinary achievements that come out of the New York Theatre community. It is time I think and we feel to start making sense to ask questions why are we making theatre but also how are we producing it and for whom. And this is a great investigation again into the mechanics of making art in New York City and we also invited theatre ensembles from around the U.S. from Detroit and Cincinnati, St. Louis and Philadelphia and New Orleans to join us and this will be an extraordinary look into what is on the minds of artists right now. We also have many panel discussions. We have an award which will be giving out to honor outstanding members of the New York Theatre community so I would like to all of you to join in and get an insight of what is happening. Welcome everybody back here to a Siegel talk at the Martin E. Siegel Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY and it's my great pleasure and honor to welcome my colleagues who are here in New York City representing the world, the global thinking that we need. We all do know that problems like racism, the climate crisis, homophobia, sexism and class and race, it's not a local problem, it's not a national problem. These are global issues and they can only be solved in a global way. The feel of theatre and performance has taught right away since many, many decades actually so the contributions of these institutions to the life here in New York City has been tremendous and I think important and significant as a window into the world we have with us here. Ariana from the Royal Norwegian Council Council, Rachel Cooper from the Asia Society, York from the Great Goethe Institute and Laurent Nicole from the Brilliant French Cultural Services. I think our colleagues from Quebec will also join us later. We could have had a much, much larger panel but it's good to have a limited number of colleagues so we can really have a conversation of what role these institutions have played, what they are playing and they might be playing, what are they thinking about, what has changed in their own countries and also here. We feel it's of significance to listen to the world, to the global context. We collaborate with Penn, the right organization. They always point out that 95% to 96% of all books published are from American, North America or from the British publishers, the rest of the 4%. Half of it is German and French because it's supported by governments but actually one or two books arrives on the tables in the bookstores on the homes of people from around the world and that is wrong. We have to think away from that idea of insular thinking. It's more like the idea of archipelagos. We have to think we're all together, it forms a landscape but we are all connected and I think these fantastic colleagues over here today are representing that role. So I'm really curious to hear how they are, what they are doing, the difficulties they face and what they are thinking about, what they are dreaming about. Like all of us, they are thinking right now about the future of reopening role and perhaps also changes have been taking place. So welcome you all and our program really is about listening and listening to you so I apologize for the slightly longer opening. I'm here at the Siegel Theater Center, Frank Henschka is my name and we bridge academia and professional theater, international and American theater and performance and for over 15, 20 years might have presented I think also significant work from around the world. So this is very close to us. I'm going to ask you guys to introduce yourself and just say a few words about who you are and then also who you work for and I would like to thank HowlRound, our great host, the great streaming service for non-profit theater here in America but also listen to around the world. So I think maybe colleagues of you guys, of the good and the French embassies around the world are watching you. So welcome everybody and Arianna, even so you got just a booster shot today. You joined us. Tell us a little bit about you and we will come. Taylor down there and John Pierre from the Quebec Cultural Services who just joined us below. I don't know if they can hear us. They seem to be frozen by. Arianna, tell us a little bit about you and your work. Sure and apologies for any mental fuzziness on my part. I've just been boosted as Frank mentioned. I work as the art and culture advisor for the Norwegian Consulate General in New York and in that capacity. I work with all of our partners on projects in the field of performance but also contemporary art, film and craft. And the way that we work is very partner based and so there's always a local institution and organization that we are working with and we also work very closely with our sister organization performing arts hub Norway which is based back home. So we work hand in glove with them to offer support for projects that have originated in Norway to make their way further afield to new audiences. Wonderful and you are also based partly in your colleagues in this Scandinavia house that you also represent Sweden and Finland I think and it's a great place here in New York City. Rachel, you are representing the Asia Society, a fantastic, brilliant, great organization we admire and when people speak about the work of Lamama of Alan Stewart who was the first to brought International Theatre over, people will tell you well actually the very first organization brought the puppet players and dancers over that were not from America or what we often call now the NATO countries you know who art we seem to be closer than others unfortunately it was the Asia Society so it is an incredible institution so tell us a little bit Rachel about you and the Asia Society. Are you muted? Maybe take the earphones out again. No, now you are muted, your muted button is on. Click it off. How about now? Yes, perfect. Alright, Frank, thank you so much. I want to correct something though. I just heard a wonderful lecture about Chinese opera a theater form that is so complete that has been in the United States since the 1850s so I think there are many forms of international theater from different communities that are just not on our radar screen so one of the opportunities with this festival with an international festival is to retell this story so that it's not just the major institutions or even embassies that are part of the cultural exchange important as they are but that so many communities and organizations that are not quite so official are also doing really dynamic and important work and I say this as an American citizen because I think in some ways for me Chinese opera is part of the American landscape so all of these theater forms as much as European theater is and I know that Indian performance was also coming in early on as was Filipino so anyway I just had to add that international perspective the Asian society is only 65 years old so it may predate Lamama but there are others that predated that and exchange is really important to us and exchange in all the various meanings that that can hold and we do a lot of commissioning and producing of new work but much of it is really some kind of a collaboration and I would really say it is artist centered with a very strong contextual base so there's no reason that we wouldn't do something on vocal music from Java and India and Germany and Venezuela because I see that our role is connecting and if the artists are looking to do that that's what we try to do as well so I'll leave it at that, we'll come back around but I'm honored to be on the panel with you all Thank you Rachel York, tell us a little bit about you and your institute Yeah thank you very much Frank Thank you very much for having me at this panel it's a pleasure, my name is York Schumacher I'm in New York since last spring so I moved here in April, I started my work in May so I didn't meet everybody in person yet which is A my fault but B also the pandemic's fault I guess so it was a bit hard during the past month for everybody and also for an institution like us as we depend on making personal connections and people just as Rachel was pointing out sounds like a very similar approach that we follow as a good institute as well so it's not only bringing Germany to New York but also just connecting the world in art maybe I can elaborate on the art scene in Germany that we're working together with is an international one so there is no such thing as a German-German art scene in theater or in visual arts and I can maybe give an example it's like outside the theater world to illustrate that with a beautiful show with Portuguese artists living in Germany since I guess 10 years my name is Vada Quilomba she's at the Amman Foundation in a newly built beautiful building in Brooklyn now and again that's very much part of our work is to enable her to stay in the city as I can during her exhibit as I saw so this I just want to elaborate on how we work at the Good Institute we're the German Institute I think the title is like we're the official German Cultural Institute of the Federal Republic of Germany but I'm not part of the government so I'm not employed by the General Consulate in this case as I was representing the state relations here in New York City but we do operate to a third with government funds so this is a speciality of the setup of the Good Institute in a way that we do have strong ties of course with other German institutions and with the German government it's good to note I think there are over 80 good institutes all around the world how many? 100 I was working in our communication department a while ago so I think it was like 100 back at that time 157 in 98 countries well this is maybe I hope none of them closed in the meantime and I'm pretty sure they hope they didn't yeah except the rough figure extraordinary I think unmentioned if I know also more or less the same budget so this is quite stunning so thank you you're going to come back to you and now we have our two colleagues here from the French Cultural Services they are I think their work is legendary here in New York they have made tremendous contributions not only bringing theater artists like Nush Queen others but also exchanges also residencies and the great night of philosophy that they started which was a night of discussions and lectures that goes on for almost 24 hours so maybe Laurent we start with you just to follow the clockwork and tell us a little bit about you and part of it and so we leave a little bit to Nicole also but tell us a bit about your work thank you very much for the invitation it's really great to be here this afternoon actually if there is one legend it would be Nicole because she's the legend I'm not because I'm here since three years now and I'm the cultural attachee of the French Embassy and obviously it was fantastic but at the same time it was very strange yours and well let's hope it will be better in the next month we are part of the government we are paid by the government for sure there is no doubt about that France has chosen a different way but at the same time as you know nationality is not something for us we are inviting all range of artists be it French or be it living in France or be it wherever they are if they have a connection with France or whatever I take a good example of that that we have created a very new institution which name is Villa Albertine and we came to to receive in residency in the United States each year 60 people all over the United States 60 like 60 like 60 yes for residencies from one to three months and they are artists they are writers, they are researchers they are designers, makers all range of disciplines and nationality is not at all a subject for us for these residencies it's not an hundred point and I want to deline this because yesterday we have been very honored actually to award the Nigel sorry, Nigel Reden to commander of the order of Ardelet it was just as a night it was a very moving ceremony and he was reminding us actually that the first people he had invited was when he went to festival d'automne in 74 if I remember well Nicole 76 and it was Michel Guy who was the director of festival d'automne actually the production he has invited from that trip one of the three was a Chinese opera so it was very interesting because for him it was a kind of way to remind that in France we have always like in Germany we are always open to receiving artists from all over the world it's something which is in our DNA for sure in the DNA yes and it's something that has been proven over time and Nicole hi but thank you thank you Frank hello everyone my name is Nicole Birmenblum I'm program officer for the performing arts here so I've been in New York for more than 25 years now so I have many stories to tell if you want good ones always good ones but all different so the artists that we we're supporting helping they have different backgrounds I mean for the performing arts different backgrounds and different styles aesthetics and as Ariana said we connect with with curators, US partners throughout the country something that Laurent may add is that the cultural services in New York is the headquarters so we work with nine additional cultural services located in Chicago Boston Washington Atlanta Miami Houston New Orleans Los Angeles and San Francisco so it's a very large country so we have to keep what's very important is to keep the contact with American curators the professionals to be able to answer their request but also to answer the request from the artist so it's always moving, it has been moving before the pandemic it's always in movement but right now it's what's interesting is that we're exploring new models of presentation, new models of connection and so that might be one subject, one topic one of the topics of the discussion one wonderful, thank you so much Nicole and for the contribution you have made and everybody else also the good is really I think languages courses and they're focused on literature focus on discussions of really seeing theater as an art form and insisting on it is a great, great contributions we almost I think had Taylor and Jean-Pierre with us in a little spaceship whatever galaxy they are cruising we might be back let me say a few words about New York City New York City is a city of artists I think there's no other city in the US that has so many artists living in the city than the city limits no other city most probably has such prominent artistic leaders across all disciplines than a New York city and they also are visible in neighborhoods yesterday I had a wonderful talk that looked back at the arts of New York City in the 70s where the panelists said that you know you can walk around in the streets you will see an impact people who live there and in the neighborhoods it's truly a significant difference New York City is no longer a majority white it's a diverse city an experiment almost for the future where people live next to each other and they don't tolerate each other as some people say but they accept the right to be different I think the French say for very good reasons with all the complexities it's a city where people talk to each other across disciplines but also as Tony Kushner the great playwright reminded us it's a melting pot that perhaps never melted on so many levels on nations, cultures, class race and others we of course believe that theater art and performance can make an enormous contribution towards that, towards the fight for liberty the fight for freedom, free speech democracy and we had a little bit of a ghost of some say also almost a fascism passing by and I think it's time for the arts to get involved but what shall we do is the very very big question what we have now and so I would like to ask you how you envision your work as a cultural service to contribute kind of a global conscious to this and perhaps if we come to talk about the festival where it comes to Taylor and Jean-Pierre can you hear us now I'm not sure if we are hearing you they told me they were traveling there on the way to a residency recording in upstate New York so maybe I think we go ahead so my question to everybody on the panel how do you feel at the moment how is the reality sitting in your office planning the time of corona seems to be over but it's not really so many things have changed how do you react to it, what's on your mind what are you thinking about I don't know, York should start with you with pleasure thanks for the question a good question for us as an institute we are back open for the public since June again since September we are based in Union Square one block east with a library and a public space for discussions, movie screenings and exhibitions for five days a week since Labor Day since September and we're happy to be back and receive our audience back in here, I do have the feeling there's a great, like in every performance and every cultural activity I attend be one of ours or and of course one of the multitude of the things happening in the city right now what I experience is great joy and happiness being back on stage I'm still surprised, it seems to last this joy, like very long so I'm not saying I'm getting tired but every performance or event I attend people take the minute saying thanks to science for the vaccine, thank you for coming, we're happy to be back and there's huge applause already at the very beginning of the shows that's beautiful to see on the other hand I do feel that also people and artists and institutions we're working with in the city right now some of them are hesitant to return so what my from the beginning of the time I've been here in the city what I see now is there's two different worlds of the one people who are desperate to return to in-person activities and there's the other half not half, I can't say in terms of numbers but there's another group of people who for another while remains hesitant to join we play it by ear we're happy to be back but we're also every planning we do is like kind of a double planning we have a plan B or switching back to fully to Zoom or to other activities and maybe last point I would like to mention maybe this is something that is what the other members of the group are also working on trying to maneuver through as we do what are the true perspectives for hybrid activities I do feel the Zoom only things there is a big tiredness and understandable if the situation allows I do feel people want to meet but as a foreign cultural institute I'm interested in the online component because it gives us so much more opportunities to bring in people for a limited time without flying them in without having people for a one day event for a longer period and the only experience we can throw in for this was in our store front we have a store front window one block east of Union squares we had a hybrid performance between Cairo, Berlin and New York with Adam Hafiz an Egyptian choreographer and that was our first but very promising experience of we can create something new in terms of performing arts with these hybrid things that are happening in the room but people standing outside because there was before the vaccine we couldn't have more than 10 people inside the building at that time but kind of also connecting the three venues so this is something we are interested in the idea how to combine the the additional experience we now gathered with live performances Rachel is the Asia society different after the time of Corona about programming and cultural diplomacy you know so I have my title is actually culture as diplomacy and I differentiate it because cultural diplomacy sometimes has a certain connotation which I've tried to jump over to get more active because I think in this case when I say culture as diplomacy I really mean cultures as connection I don't just mean diplomacy in a governmental sense but I would say yes one of the things that's been very exciting is because I am working with artists that are arguably part of half of the world I can connect people because of the online and as you did Frank make those connections and then hopefully realize other projects and programs that we can either do in person here or that we can share globally with our colleagues across the globe and I think it's really important to see that as a real change so in terms of we have a 258C theater when we do larger work of scale I will work with either Lincoln Center or Carnegie or BAM there are larger spaces that's if it's in New York but now we have the opportunity also of connecting in a whole new way and that is in fact a change and I think so like I have a concert with an Iranian singer next Saturday and that will be a hybrid so we'll have about 100 people that are socially distanced in our theater but we're freely streaming it out so more and more I think that those kinds of opportunities or ways that the work can extend or amplify becomes more important looking at what is best for the work I mean I agree with you that being in person there's no substitute for it but it doesn't mean we can't add on Arianna you and your colleagues what are you planning what's on your mind what are you thinking or fighting about well I mean we work a bit differently since we don't have a venue of our own and don't consider ourselves to be a curatorial or programmatic body and so a lot of our work is partner driven and so we have been just undertaking through the last year and a half a lot of conversations and with those partners to try and identify how we can both support them through all of this all of these ups and downs and change and help make ends meet and the same with the artists that they work with so we have sort of moved out of the the primary or the the whole lead digital programmatic sphere since it seems to be there seems to be dwindling interest there at least for some programs and that's something that we did a lot of when our partner organizations were closed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adjusted the consulates and embassies funding schemes such that they could better support these digital and virtual programs but now we are we're following the movements of our of our partners as they begin to take the first steps into more physical programming and our sort of eager to see how it goes we have our the first big program that we have supported that will be in person is coming up just next week and that's a new commission by Gibney dance by the choreographer Alan Lucien Oil and that will be presented at the Joyce and we're very excited to see the first fully physical performance we have had in quite a while and my understanding is that the response thus far in terms of ticket sales has been good so fantastic and you're following the great mouth of the Graham company at the choice so that's great to my French colleagues you already are implementing changes is Vila Alberti tell us a little bit your new thinking also the experience we have also been in contact during the time of Corona of course and we have supported also our single work wonderfully but tell us a little bit about the new world the new way of thinking what we can expect from the French cultural services and yes actually the biggest outcome of this new thinking is definitely Vila Alberti and its residency program doesn't mean that we abandon at all all of our over tools like face contemporary theater and views for the contemporary dance and it also donates for contemporary art which are fantastic tools which supported both American institution and French artists to develop collaborative projects to develop exhibitions and whatever these tools are definitely at the heart of what we are doing and that here for a long time but definitely we we spend this Covid time to think about what we are doing and our goals and also the world evolving around us and we decided that we should really focus on residencies it's something that we wanted to prioritize and we were prioritizing it since a long time but definitely it's a great answer to the time we are going from why because I'm from the simple to the more complex part or not complex but obviously so no way that we invite again artists to perform one or two times in the United States and then go back I mean it's totally insane we don't can't do that anymore but also during all this Covid time we have heard so many times that we were needed to support artists we were needed to yes they were in praises they were true but the fact is that it's the other way around we need the artists to support us and we need their thinking and we need their view on the world and the future and we need their dreams and we need all that to rethink our world so our wish with Vida and the artist is to put them again if it was needed to put them at the center of our talks our thinking our our reflection they are leading us in tackling all this fantastic issues fantastic in a bad way I mean but you know we are going through yeah issues and we need their feedback that's an important point actually we need them and how can we provide a space Nicole part of the villa Albertine what I could add to what Laurent said is the artists performing arts they are all still very interested not still but they are interested in what's happening in the United States at different levels if it could be for example all the movements from Black Lives Matter that were happening last year the impact on the society all the changes so they are part of the villa Albertine since it's exploratory research residency they come to learn to know more to think about what's happening and and develop their work and compare with what's happening in Europe not just in France but in Europe in general otherwise regarding touring I could say that I'm still receiving an enormous amount of requests from French artists willing to come to the United States and show their work all concerned by the ecosystem of course not they are aware of it so they are trying to adapt their work so that it is less expensive or to adapt their text and revise their text so that they have an English version of their work so that it could be interpreted by or performed by American actors for example so we're helping them a lot with supporting the translation of their work for example having them for a couple of weeks in residence to develop their work so that is still it is happening and there is no it's still pretty high demand I would say it's such a mythical cultural landscape and I feel many American artists some of them are so recognizable in film and music but so little actually travels in between so I think it's a real importance to the myth but also what's happening now my question really also to you guys and this is also a reason for the panel we are thinking of getting involved in something like a summer festival we just wrote that Lincoln Center might be organizing something this morning but more for New York artists I feel what makes life so interesting so significant why art is of a mission that cannot be fulfilled perhaps by any other media to spend some time in someone else's shoe as someone said but taking your own shoe off first and being a global presence there are great festivals around the world in Asia when we talk in our seagull talks in Malaysia in Indonesia festivals are part of daily lives in India in Germany we have the Huar Festival the Teatro de Welt, the Berlin Festival France has perhaps the most famous festival in Avignon, Thiago Rodriguez who just performed at BAM is heading it New York City doesn't seem to have a big global summer festival perhaps all of North America doesn't really have it Canada had for a while Montreal the American Festival Transamerique all shrank down what do you think if such a festival would happen would you participate what would you think what should people think about what should organizations think about what is of importance what should be different and every city needs its festival it has to be there for citizens what are you feeling from the longer or shorter time you spend here what do we really need what is meaningful and how could such a festival look like so if this is really an international festival we might need to shake it up a bit and I think one of the old models was that American presenters went off to a country and sort of selected stuff and a newer model a new old model would be where artists in countries are more involved with the curation and one thing that might make that a little bit more focus would be to take some thematic ideas an obvious one is climate change and sustainability another one would be would be taking a historical or indigenous perspective and then the third thing I'd throw out is the idea of migration and refugees or people who are in that status because I think we've got 80 million people who are not represented in a country right now it's going to be international I think it's pretty important I mean maybe immigrants go into migrants I don't know but the idea that people move around and in every country represented on this panel even though it's a pretty western looking panel everyone has some movement of people and some different way of telling that story so I think in thinking about what is international it would be really important to be able to see if there's some way that each area of the world however we define that has a way to be to participate and that includes those in New York as well as those who need to come out from outside some hybrid thinking York, yeah I would just like to add on that particularly the third part of what Rachel just said that would be something with my limited experience in the city yet but if it doesn't exist yet this would be something that sounds new and intriguing to me for what Frank said I think you said it in the video at the beginning when you introduced the whole festival now you introduced the idea or the prelude now about like a global festival you were asking why should we do it, how should we do it and for whom should we do it so these will be also the three questions for the global festival I don't know maybe because of the specific situation in New York City that so many things are coming in anyway I am just wondering if this might be the reason for a global festival not existing yet for many groups in Germany with our help or without our help there is connections in the theater and performing artsyness stuff is happening maybe New York is a global theater festival even without having one that's interesting though they are already there just in a different form I totally agree that New York in itself is a global theater festival and I would say New York in itself is also a fantastic scenery but perhaps the opportunity I would say is that it's a great global festival inside walls I mean most of these productions are in theaters in venues dedicated to performing arts and I have seen less perhaps than somewhere else the public space to be used for artistic intervention and I would say what we have seen as an answer from the city and from the state also was great experiences actually what they have done was great and I think it's really opening a way perhaps to our thinking for a festival specifically in some way I mean when we think about for who are we doing such a festival it's a kind of obvious question so that we need to think of a festival which can unite people and which can work on inclusivity which can work on imbalance of access to culture and public space is a really really good answer for that I would say to compliment compliment that we need to part of the global festival we need to reach out to go to places where you have people who would never go and see the work that would be at the concert or even at within Manhattan and because the period has been also so difficult there are many bias many prejudice that are still very present and may be even bigger and we have to be careful about that and go with the artist or places where it wouldn't where it is not expected to be so to meet new people yeah that's that important really important points Ariane from your experience from Scandinavian experience from your time here you've been here so long also what do you observe, what do you think is needed I definitely like the idea of potentially activating public space a bit more I love what Performa has been doing with this most recent biennial and yeah I think for us for at least the way that we work is that we want artists that are living and working in Norway whether they be Norwegian or residents of Norway to be able to participate in the conversations that are happening here in New York and I think that certainly if there are some of the themes are absolutely relevant that Rachel mentioned mentioned earlier and if there are some ideas that we can rally around yeah I can see that working quite well and yeah yeah I mean the great Norwegian artist Riga Wingard was impact on the post-niveau land and the new pianist was tremendous he has never been able to record here in New York a major we have an effort here for discussion he doesn't like to do that he's not being shot I'm sure that in New York it's a tremendous thing that we are much stronger so we are missing out on just from our previous panel there should be family entertainment if you can produce your kids to a puppet show there could be theater for young adults or teenagers which doesn't really exist they have to be affordable it shouldn't be more than 30-35 dollars it should also be an organic from the Bronx which are local artists but not even known in Manhattan itself but they are world class artists because they are important not really on the screen or the songs they sing are not the ones you hear at Carnegie at Carnegie Hall and also that Gregory Moshe is there to have small companies which are tremendous great work Kortowski's of this world they are out there in small spaces it doesn't have to be BAM shows that small interesting work but still to create a place where people say this is of interest and we point to it it's not great companies come to the mama but we don't really know about it I think for us I should also mention that a lot of the work that we like to support is also not strictly performance-based but opportunities to allow artists to exchange knowledge and ideas for them so that it's not so much that they are dropping into a festival or a single performance and then flying right out that there's an opportunity for a little bit more engagement Rachel do you want to I just want to jump on to what everyone has said really and it's I'm just going to go back 30 years when I worked on the LA Festival with Peter Sellers which was focused on the Pacific Asia region and it was very similar it was about you know activating public spaces making art available to people sometimes unexpectedly sometimes not but not necessarily in a closed theater although we did have something that were there but one of the most impressive and powerful part was that we had the artists staying in dormitories their ability to spend time with each other and to share work and find time so that it wasn't just drop in drop out but there was real exchange was really powerful and you know I'm lucky enough to be old enough to see that 30 years later it still has impact so I think what everyone has brought up really speaks to this idea of making art available and people realizing they happen on it and something hits them so taking that opportunity I mean the last time I remember International Festival here was when Marty Siegel did it in 91 and then of course Nigel did a lot of Nigel and Joe at Feynman just mentioned them so many people are but hasn't happened with our work as well as it should is that we're connecting and the advantage to a festival is it makes a place a destination there's a kind of cumulative of energy that happens when you bring people together so that's why I would advocate I guess New York is already pretty international and some of this already happens but there's an amplification that happens when you're all together and when you're able to share and maybe it has residency sort of as you've all brought up so that that's the ability to be in exchange is deeper I think if I can add something for the last thing outcome of such a festival is very important and it's why for us we would see very well that it fits with one or two of our residency that we would host at that time it would be a great opportunity for an artistic residence in Villa Albertine to be part of such a festival and it would make a lot of sense yeah I was I was thinking we should I mean it's a suggestion we should combine our efforts and bring also little Amal to New York I mean I don't know if you have followed the project of the work little Amal this giant Puppet Basil Chou a condescending company 80 cities from different country living in Syria and coming back going through I think it's 80 cities throughout Europe and going to to England it's an interesting project we are friends with him and that's a great idea I was thinking through just the neighborhoods of New York it would combine just the sensation of that giant puppet that is a little girl and a refugee girl and that marches by foot and it's received by communities locally what they wanted two weeks ago the puppet was in Bobigny in it's suburbs of Paris and you had the parents, the children speaking with her and of course the community of artists working on the project and then she I don't know where she went after Bobigny maybe one more city in France and then England the question for York I know you were also in Ramallah I think before your colleagues in the Goethe to go around the world what are examples this was great this worked an impact a cultural institution has on a city yeah I mean in German it's called Gastspiel so it's like a tour of a stage place when I look back on my time in Ramallah the Chaubeune had a huge impact in the Palestinian cultural scene because it was a theater of a size and the play with Hamlet resonated with the society and they took the time to stay for like three weeks and really managed to establish a kind of collaboration like in the last session this might be the key for a successful festival in Ramallah or any other place that's actually what I was wondering from the last round which is something I definitely will take home I do believe also for here and what we learned about West Coast and other festivals we should all invest in these coincidences invest in allowing people to collaborate rather than presenting things it's like so the co-production is the more interesting part we have experiences with both as a German cultural center but I do believe for our mission to bring people together to create something new this is the more exciting path that was said before but I don't know who I think Nicole was speaking about translations as well so that would be a question also to my fellow panelists what your experience is with a collaboration and a process of thinking about what to put on stage is also very much affected to what texts are available and my question is what your experience is in the US is translation support something particularly for our stages we need to rethink is this working or running or going in the right direction maybe Frank has a take on that do you feel that theater makers in the US are familiar with other theater texts from around the world from Europe from anywhere else or interest in other pieces these were the two things I was thinking about when I listened to the other panelists the emphasis on collaboration and co-production and also how do we get our sources available as a as a fundament for the creation of new pieces maybe Nicole and Laurent your answer first about ideas of translation how does it work it's a different language well Frank you could answer that because we have partnered and we are partnering a lot on Caribbean voices yes just to mention that translation is key actually definitely it's a universal language the only universal language is translated and we need that and for sure such a festival could have a strong input on translation allowing texts voices from from everywhere in the world to be here in New York so it's a good point George we collaborated on a project together on Caribbean it turned out we made a little bit of theater history it was the first time that anyone had ever put up a festival of French speaking Caribbean islands we had together here in New York it's shocking especially how big and huge the Caribbean community is the largest actually in New York City because also Jamaica falls into it speaking of course but the big idea of translation is I think the right one, it's a good question a director translates the idea of the playwright the playwrights works that are translated and then you guys translators are you're playing something from another place and to find a new meaning additional meaning local meaning to it and I think this is perhaps also a great mission to translate what people are thinking around the world that we are out of tunnel visions and that we are listening globally and also get inspired like musicians do listen to music from all around the world painters look at paintings from all around the world theater especially in the US is a bit because of its unique highly commercial nature it's a little bit tougher but in the US the playwrights have no chance they are small companies like the play company that put on Schimmel Fennig after we did a reading or others and we work together Nicole is very successful most probably the most successful I know in the US who gets French work also translated and done if we would produce for very little money for a French place within a festival they would run and wrap up you guys would help or find some money to do four plays from Berlin from the Gorky we had the Gorky with us if they would be produced everything is complicated in the US we have a little bit of money you can produce but nobody will really produce anything it's so hard to make theater people work create at least we do our own work we do our offerings and Britain is so overpowering and so they almost know Rachel I just want to think about the word interpretation sometimes translation is fine but sometimes interpretation is the appropriate word because so far I'm thinking when I did a wine cool it which is the shadow puppets from Java we had simultaneous translation because it's made up on the fly you have to have someone very good to make that work but it is doable so each form has you have to find the right way to make that interpretation they're not all great plays theater is so varied having contextual strategies has to have different avenues depending on the form and the theater piece that you're doing well it's I would say that it's a collaborative work when we worked on translating a play for example we make sure that the writer comes and participates at the table with the actors, with a director it might not be the director that would develop the work but at least the director and it's all these people together who work on the text the language is not a barrier there are differences but it's not a barrier so it's together they're working on the translation and there are many questions it's true that some words might be difficult to translate but they some are interpretation or juxtaposition of something that is close to what is happening in the other country but it's usually they're all very interested and what's interesting from the playwright is I remember one playwright, Fabrice Melchio who heard his work in English and he was so happy to hear new sounds from the text translated into English that he was happy that the text was not his text anymore but a new text and that that sounded differently in his ears and brain so there was a very interesting experience so there is work to do there so I think we all should meet again maybe also with the director Rachel is right which looks a little bit different but we have to reach out and we have to make this a global Africa, Latin America Asia is represented but it's easy we have done that we can do that and also there's this collision of theaters of color 50 of them are in the city here we don't also have to look at BAM to get into BAM 20 CUNY's theater is 21 so perhaps we can find and build a coalition and change and have public spaces and also create a theater performance for the people who we called for everybody that's called a hero the workers, the bus drivers, the nurses the people, the construction workers in all the five boroughs what do they see who cares about them I think we do and especially I think in the global world where art also has a different standing we can bring and make a contribution to this great city and also a country that has given so much I think also to the world that we can bring something in Taylor from Quebec said that also artists from Quebec you have been very busy and active developing new work during the lockdown and their work actually needs to be showed they want to travel they are so close to us Canada is that neighboring country and they are better known in Berlin and they are in New York and they are excited perhaps to join an initiative by the Segal Centre and our fellow view guys and they would be thrilled to collaborate and also bring Canadian colleagues their work to a loss of native work also indigenous work that is happening there and we also would like to take this moment to acknowledge the Lenape people about whose land we are gathered today as we always say and we pay respect to them their ancestors in the present past but also in the future so I think there has to be a new approach and perhaps this is something we can bring and often it is cultural exchange that also brings new ideas and I think this is something we could do together and we find a way and if there is a need for it so I would like to thank you all for participating we could go on I think much longer we could have had a session just as one of you we could have had a session with all the 15 other institutions who are at the moment not with that but it is a baby step but it is good we did something and we added it we were thinking should we do it at our festival or not of course let's just start and having a public discussion and here you would look forward to seeing you all we are trying to get a life prelude party together in two weeks in a space or restaurant if it worked out the restaurant which we planned didn't pass the gas inspection and it got cancelled we will do that and then hopefully we can also talk over glass mine beer or tea or water so again thank you York, Rachel Ariana, Laurent and Nicole and Taylor and Jean-Pierre who were listening in somehow the connection didn't work so it was very important to hear from you and as in the impact of your institution is tremendous it's significant it's stands for the bigger world for the global world that is here the realities that exist next to the New York reality and we need to be reminded learn from it and also enjoy it it's all about imagination and we can imagine a better life a better city, a better democracy and then art is also our team member in achieving that and we need we get something from them because they are not only in the moment they anticipate the future as Hans here the great French philosopher always said and this is why we need to listen to artists and help us to create meaning to adjust to the new world so thank you all and I hope you forgive me that it's a short one but it was so meaningful and for me and I really, really, we are honored that you took your time and energy I cannot imagine how many thousands of Zoom meetings especially you guys had in cultural services but I would like to say thank you the name of the theater community also from New York City for all you have been doing and will be doing what's significant being part as Marty always said you are part of the civilized world thank you thank you Frank thank you