One Fewer Night in Baghdad by Pedro M. Víllora

Translated from the Spanish by Lina Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas

One Fewer Night in Baghdad is a contemporary take on the story of Scheherazade and the Caliph.

One Fewer Night in Baghdad was directed by Sarah Montague and produced by Sarah Montague and Matt Fidler, who also did the audio mixing and sound design. The play was performed by Mahira Kakkar and Arian Moyaed. Readings from The Arabian Nights were provided by Margot Avery, Gregory Bodine, Andrew Joffe, Lisa Beth Kovetz, Karen Michel, and Paul Singleton.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

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In this episode we’re proud to present Illegal Helpers, a documentary play written by German-Italian playwright Maxi Obexer, translated into English by Neil Blackadder, and arranged for audio presentation by Play for Voices. Illegal Helpers was recorded before a live audience at the Czech Center New York in Manhattan, as part of an event called Freedom and Movement that was held in November 2018 to commemorate the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. 

Illegal Helpers, which premiered in Salzburg in 2016 and was named one of the 2016 winners of the German-language Eurodram Prize, explores the current refugee crisis in Europe through the eyes of ordinary citizens. The play is based on verbatim interviews the playwright conducted with Swiss, Austrian, and German residents from all walks of life—doctors, judges, social workers, activists, and students—who took it upon themselves to help refugees. Some of these helpers broke the law multiple times and were charged with providing aid to illegal immigrants, and others could still be subject to legal action at any time. 

The Play for Voices production of Illegal Helpers was directed by Katrin Redfern and performed by JJ Condon, Roberto De Felice, Guenevere Donohue, Mariam Habib, Asta Hansen, Wayne Maugans, Joe Primavera, Francisco Solorzano, Harold Tarr, and Pauline Walsh. Asa Wember recorded, designed, and mixed the audio.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author and Translator

Maxi Obexer (author) writes drama, prose, and radio plays, and has made a name for herself in particular with political plays and essays, focusing especially in recent years on the refugee crisis. Her most widely produced play is Das Geisterschiff (The Ghost Ship), which deals with would-be immigrants crossing the Mediterranean. In 2011, Obexer published her first novel, Wenn gefährliche Hunde lachen (When Dangerous Dogs Laugh), a critically acclaimed work that tells the story of a young Nigerian woman who hopes to find a better life in Europe. Obexer’s plays have been produced in many cities, including Basel, Jena, Freiburg, and Stuttgart, and she has held residencies at the Literarisches Colloquium in Berlin and the Akademie Schloss Solitude. Obexer lives in Berlin and South Tyrol.

Neil Blackadder (translator) recently retired as Professor of Theatre at Knox College, where he had taught since 1998. He began translating drama and short fiction in 2002. In 2011, he was awarded a fellowship from the Howard Foundation (Brown University) and a PEN Translation Fund Grant to translate plays by Lukas Bärfuss. He has twice held residencies at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and Writers Omi at Ledig House. His work has often been supported by the Goethe-Institut, as well as by the Consulate General of Switzerland and the Austrian Cultural Forum. He is the Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine and the author of Performing Opposition: Modern Theater and the Scandalized Audience (Praeger, 2003). His short play Dad’s Guns appeared in 24 Gun Control Plays, ed. Caridad Svich and Zac Kline (NoPassport Press, 2013), and has been presented in staged readings in Australia and the US; a film version is in post-production.

For a complete list of Illegal Helpers music credits, please visit Play for Voices.

The complete translation was published by No Man's Land magazine here.

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Anaesthesia by Albert Ostermaier

Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

Anaesthesia is a short solo audio play written by acclaimed German author Albert Ostermaier and translated by Charlotte Collins. In Anaesthesia, which was commissioned by the major German theater festival Theatertreffen on the theme of “Decline and Downfall of Western Civilization,” a singer injured in a car accident on her way to a performance struggles to make sense of what is happening to her as an anaesthetic is administered. The play emerges as a stream-of-consciousness monologue which is at once dreamlike, intimate, and tautly constructed.

The Play for Voices production of Anaesthesia was performed by Jane Kaczmarek and directed by Sarah Montague. Matt Fidler designed and mixed the audio. 

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author and Translator

Albert Ostermaier (author), born in 1967 in Munich, is one of Germany’s leading contemporary playwrights. His first play, Zwischen zwei Feuern: Tollertopographie, premiered at the renowned Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in 1995. That same year, his first major volume of poetry, Herz Vers Sagen, was awarded the PEN Liechtenstein Poetry Prize. Ostermaier is the author of more than thirty plays, which have been performed in major theatres all over Germany and on the radio. He has published numerous volumes of poetry and four novels, and received several prestigious literary prizes, including the Kleist Prize, the Bertolt Brecht Prize, and, in 2011, the Welt Literaturpreis for his literary oeuvre. In 2015, he was inducted into the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Albert Ostermaier has been writer-in-residence and guest professor at institutions including the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, the Burgtheater Vienna, Washington University in St. Louis, the City University of New York, and others. He is also the goalkeeper for the German authors' national football team, and a curator for the DFB cultural foundation.

Charlotte Collins (translator) studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and worked as an actor and radio journalist in Germany and the UK before becoming a literary translator. She was awarded the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2017 for her translation of A Whole Life by the Austrian author Robert Seethaler, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker International. Charlotte's other translations include Seethaler's The Tobacconist, The End of Loneliness by Benedict Wells, and Homeland by Walter Kempowski, and plays by contemporary German playwrights such as Nino Haratischwili, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, and Angela Richter.

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It's Cold and It's Getting So Dark by Carmen-Francesca Banciu

Translated from the German by Elena Mancini

Set in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, It's Cold and It's Getting So Dark centers around Deborah, a former radio journalist in the GDR who is dying of cancer. Through a somewhat dreamlike dialogue between Deborah and an unnamed younger female friend, we learn about Deborah’s troubled childhood in East Germany, her failed marriage, and her later heartbreak after her female partner leaves her when she is unable to deal with Deborah’s illness.

The Play for Voices production of It's Cold and It's Getting So Dark was directed by Anne Posten. Kevin Ramsay and Kaya Bailey designed and mixed the audio. The role of Speaker 1 was played by Jocelyn Kuritsky, and the role of Speaker 2 (Deborah) by Carol Monda.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author and Translator

Carmen-Francesca Banciu (author) is the author of five novels, several short story collections, critical essays, and a radio play. Born in Lipova, Romania, she studied religious painting and foreign trade in Bucharest, and began publishing short stories in the 1980s. In 1985, she was awarded the International Short Story Award of the City of Arnsberg for the story “Das strahlende Ghetto” (“The Beaming Ghetto”). Immediately following this award, Banciu was banned from publishing her work in Romania. In 1991, she accepted an invitation extended by the DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence program and went to Germany. Since her debut in German, Banciu has established herself as a Berlin-based writer, adopting German as her primary literary language. Banciu first debuted in the German language in 1996, with her memoiristic novel Vaterflucht ("Flight from Father"). Banciu was Writer-in-Residence at Rutgers University from 2004-2005 and University of Bath in 2009. In 2016, Banciu made Loren Kleinmann’s “Most Badass Female Protagonists” list in the Huffington Post. Banciu currently lives in Berlin and works as a freelance author and co-editor/deputy director of the transnational, interdisciplinary, and multilingual e-magazine Levure Littéraire.

Elena Mancini (translator) is a German-English and Italian-English literary translator. Her published translations span the genres and include three novels as well as numerous articles of social and political commentary. Mancini holds a Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures and is a language, literature, and film professor at Queens College in New York City.

It's Cold and It's Getting So Dark was the third of the three winners of the 2016 audio drama in translation contest Play for Voices held jointly with Words Without Borders, which published the script of each winning audio play. To read It's Cold and It's Getting So Dark, go here: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/february-2018-radio-drama-its-cold-and-its-getting-so-dark-banci.

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Please Enter Destination by Tereza Semotamová 

Translated from the Czech by Barbora Růžičková

A young couple, Helena and Honza, on a weekend drive to visit bourgeois friends, find that their new GPS has a life of its own and their friendly hitchhiker is a devil. Their encounters with these characters, against the backdrop of increasingly absurd radio news updates, reveal the flaws and merits of their relationship and their respective worldviews.

The Play for Voices production of Please Enter Destination was directed by Jen Zoble. Wayne Shulmister designed and mixed the audio. The role of Helena was played by Michaela Morton, Honza by Imran Sheikh, Angela the GPS by Carol Monda, and the Radio Announcer and the Devil by Mark Rayment.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author and Translator

Tereza Semotamová (author) is a Czech screenwriter, journalist, radio editor, and translator from the German. She holds a degree in screenwriting and German language and literature, and is a regular contributor to Czech Radio, the country’s national radio company. Tereza has written over a dozen radio plays and edited a number of radio shows focusing on German literature and culture. Her screenplay Tak Dobrou won the Czech edition of the NISI MASA Script Contest.

Barbora Růžičková (translator) is a translator and interpreter working between English and Czech. A native Czech, she was brought up in a bilingual environment and spent most of her childhood abroad; today, she is based in Prague, Czech Republic. Barbora holds a degree in translation and art history, and her published literary translations include two books for young adults and a series of excerpts from contemporary Scottish literature. In 2014, she took part in the Martha’s Vineyard Writers Residency program.

The Czech song featured in Please Enter Destination is "Včera neděle byla" ("Sunday Was Yesterday"). It can be purchased on iTunes or at https://www.supraphonline.cz/album/231866-legendarni-ceskoslovenske-slagry.

Music: Jiří Šlitr

Lyrics: Jiří Suchý

Voice: Pavlína Filipovská

Orchestra of the Semafor Theatre, directed by Ferdinand Havlík

(P) 1960 SUPRAPHON a.s.

Recording used with the permission of Supraphon a.s.

Please Enter Destination was the second of the three winners of the 2016 audio drama in translation contest Play for Voices held jointly with Words Without Borders, which published the script of each winning audio play. To read Please Enter Destination, go here: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/october-2017-turkish-short-stories-please-enter-destination-semotamova.

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That Deep Ocean… by Ana Cândida Carneiro 

Translated from the Italian by Stephen Pidcock

In Brazilian-Italian author Ana Cândida Carneiro’s That Deep Ocean…, a two-character audio play written in Italian and translated into English by Stephen Pidcock, a single day in a woman’s life becomes an epic journey of self-discovery. The action shifts between the character’s everyday world, where she's trapped in a dreary job, and an alternative realm, part dreamscape, part subconscious. In that world, she converses—by turns awestruck, challenging, and playful—with an underwater sea creature who presents as a powerful, seductive, masculine presence. She perceives him as a giant squid, but he might also be an aspect of herself. In language that alternates between the poetic and the matter-of-fact, That Deep Ocean... explores questions of identity, love, and death.

The Play for Voices production of That Deep Ocean... was directed and co-produced by Sarah Montague and performed by Amanda Quaid and Peter Francis James. Brazilian composer Fernando Arruda provided original music for Matt Fidler’s sound design.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author and Translator

Ana Cândida Carneiro (author) is an award-winning Brazilian-Italian playwright, currently based in the US. Her work has been internationally performed and supported by institutions such as the Royal Court Theater, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She holds a PhD in Theater Studies, focusing on innovative contemporary playwriting techniques. She is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University.

Stephen Pidcock (translator) studied English Literature and Italian at St. Andrews University, Scotland, and Verona University, Italy. He currently works as a translator and theatre publicist in London. He collaborated with the Royal Court Theatre reading and reporting on Italian scripts for the International Department from 2009 to 2013.

That Deep Ocean... was the first of the three winners of the 2016 audio drama in translation contest Play for Voices held jointly with Words Without Borders, which published the script of each winning audio play. To read That Deep Ocean..., go here: http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/september-2017-that-deep-ocean-ana-candida-de-carvalho-carneiro-stephen.

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I Regret Nothing by Csaba Székely

Part Two of Two

The second half of I Regret Nothing picks up the story of retired Romanian secret service officer Dominic Cormoş as he comes face to face with the repercussions of his past and makes a decision that will shape his future and that of his 16-year-old neighbor Liza.

In the first half of the play, Dominic was visited by two other characters: Alex Dima, one of Dominic's former subordinates and now a high-ranking agent in the intelligence service, planted a bug in Dominic's apartment and attempted to blackmail him into performing a high-stakes mission. And Liza, Dominic's sixteen-year-old neighbor, turned up asking to use his toilet when her abusive father's daily tirade kept her from her own apartment. An unexpected friendship between Liza and Dominic sprouted from a shared love of dogs.

The character of Dominic was played by Paul Valley, Alex by Rob Neill, and Liza by Jocelyn Kuritsky, under Sarah Cameron Sunde’s direction.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author

Csaba Székely was born in 1981 in Târgu Mureș, Romania. He’s a playwright who also writes for television. His first play (Do You Like Banana, Comrades?) won the regional prize for Europe at the BBC’s International Radio Playwriting Competition in 2009. It was also chosen as Drama of the Week by the BBC. A few years later, in 2013, it won the Society of Authors’ Richard Imison Award. Székely has since written a trilogy about country life in Transylvania: Bányavirág (“Mineflower”), Bányavakság (“Mineblindness”), and Bányavíz (“Minewater”), examining issues such as unemployment, alcoholism, nationalism, corruption, and high rates of suicide in the Hungarian population of Transylvania. The trilogy has been published in a volume by the Hungarian publishing house Magvető under the title Bányavidék (“Minelands”). These three plays have been produced in Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovakian theaters. Székely also has written a historical comedy called Vitéz Mihály (“Michael the Brave”) about the rise and fall of a medieval Romanian national hero. This play won first prize in the playwriting competition held by Hungary’s Weöres Sándor Theatre, which also produced it. He has written a musical titled Hogyne, drágám! (“Sure, honey!”), produced by the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș, Romania, as well as a contemporary take on Euripides’ tragedy Alcestis (also produced by the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș). He was one of the scriptwriters for the third season of HBO Hungary’s show Terápia (In Treatment).

Part Two of I Regret Nothing features music by the following artists:

Grigore Leșe, “Cântă cucu-n Bucovina” http://grigorelese.com

Fanfare Ciocărlia, "Sandala” http://www.asphalt-tango.de/fanfare/fanfare_ciocarlia.html

Zdob și Zdub, “Goodbye” http://www.zdob-si-zdub.com

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I Regret Nothing by Csaba Székely

Part One of Two

It’s the summer of 2006, and Dominic Cormoş, a retired agent of the Securitate--the notorious secret police of Communist Romania--is living alone in his Transylvania apartment. With media coverage of the prosecutions of ex-Communist law enforcement officials in the background, Dominic is paid two surprise visits that will prove deeply consequential: the first, by Alex Dima, who served under Dominic in the Securitate and is now working in the Romanian Intelligence Service; and the second, by his sixteen-year-old neighbor Liza.

The character of Dominic was played by Paul Valley, Alex by Rob Neill, and Liza by Jocelyn Kuritsky, under Sarah Cameron Sunde’s direction.

Play for Voices audio plays are recorded at Harvestworks by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay.

Play for Voices is produced by Matt Fidler, Anne Posten, Katrin Redfern, and Jen Zoble.

About the Author

Csaba Székely was born in 1981 in Târgu Mureș, Romania. He’s a playwright who also writes for television. His first play (Do You Like Banana, Comrades?) won the regional prize for Europe at the BBC’s International Radio Playwriting Competition in 2009. It was also chosen as Drama of the Week by the BBC. A few years later, in 2013, it won the Society of Authors’ Richard Imison Award. Székely has since written a trilogy about country life in Transylvania: Bányavirág (“Mineflower”), Bányavakság (“Mineblindness”), and Bányavíz (“Minewater”), examining issues such as unemployment, alcoholism, nationalism, corruption, and high rates of suicide in the Hungarian population of Transylvania. The trilogy has been published in a volume by the Hungarian publishing house Magvető under the title Bányavidék (“Minelands”). These three plays have been produced in Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovakian theaters. Székely also has written a historical comedy called Vitéz Mihály (“Michael the Brave”) about the rise and fall of a medieval Romanian national hero. This play won first prize in the playwriting competition held by Hungary’s Weöres Sándor Theatre, which also produced it. He has written a musical titled Hogyne, drágám! (“Sure, honey!”), produced by the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș, Romania, as well as a contemporary take on Euripides’ tragedy Alcestis (also produced by the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș). He was one of the scriptwriters for the third season of HBO Hungary’s show Terápia (In Treatment).

Part One of I Regret Nothing features music by the following artists:

Grigore Leșe, "Cântă cucu-n Bucovina" http://grigorelese.com/

Jurica Jelić, "Under morning clouds" https://juricajelic.bandcamp.com/

Gabi Luncă, “Anii mei şi tinereţea” http://gabiluncaonoriu.ro/

Zdob și Zdub, "Mamaligamania" http://www.zdob-si-zdub.com/

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