New-York se met au son du théâtre caribéen

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents the Caribbean Theatre Project livestreaming on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 2 December and Tuesday 3 December 2019.

The ACT / Actions Caribéennes Théâtrales project is initiated and coordinated by Stéphanie Bérard, specialist in Caribbean Theater, author of Théâtres des Antilles, in collaboration with Frank Hentschker from the Martin E. Segal Center at CUNY-The Graduate Center, Nicole Birmann Bloom from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, with Compagnie Siyaj from Guadeloupe, and with the participation of the choreographer-cultural producer Candace Thompson-Zachery as external artistic advisor.

Monday 2 December

Roundtable: Women and/in Caribbean Theatre
11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

With Romola Lucas, Amina Henry, Magali Solignat, and Charlotte Bomaire
Moderated by Candace Thompson-Zachery

Street Sad / Trottoir Chagrin
1 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 3 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 4 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Luc Saint-Eloy (Guadeloupe)
Translated by Josh Cohen
Directed by Paul Price
Q&A moderated by Steve Puig
A prostitute is walking the streets of Paris. She does not care about anything nor anyone. One evening, she returns to the place where her brother Jeannot was murdered just a year before. There she meets a mysterious man with whom she starts a conversation and enters into a dangerous flirtation.

The Day My Father Killed Me / Le jour où mon père m’a tué
3 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 5 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 6 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Magali Solignat & Charlotte Boimare (Guadeloupe)
Translated by Amelia Parenteau
Directed by Florent Masse
Q&A moderated by Amélie Parenteau
Based on a true story of a singer who murdered his son in Guadeloupe. Devised as a documentary theatre work, the play offers a diverse narrative account of the crime and the violence in contemporary Caribbean society.

Adoration / L’Adoration
5 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 7 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 8 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Jean-René Lemoine (Haiti/France)
Translated by Amanda Gann
Directed by Sylvaine Guyot
Q&A moderated by Amin Erfani
In a nightclub on a terrace overlooking the sea, a woman, Chine, and a man, Rodez, reflect on their relationship. Memories of desire, obsession, love, and hate mix with the sounds of the waves they hear from far away. Slowly, Chine unveils the inner workings of a dangerous passion in which she lost herself.

Tuesday 3 December

Roundtable: Caribbean Theatre on the International Stage
11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

With Luc Saint-Eloy, Daniely Francisque, and Oceana James
Moderated by Stéphanie Bérard

Family / Une vie familiale
1 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 3 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 4 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Gaël Octavia (Martinique)
Translated by Katharine Woff
Directed by Lucie Thiberghien
Q&A moderated by Nandi Jacob
A father hides his homosexuality from his family and tries to escape a stifling and suffocating family. The alcoholic stay-at-home mother is jealous of the relationships her husband has with her children. In this average dysfunctional family, everyone struggles playing the social games they are expected to play. The lies, secrets, and silences ultimately blow up the constraining social conventions they lived with before.

And the Whole World Quakes: The Great Collapse / De toute la terre le grand effarement
3 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 5 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 6 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Guy Régis Junior (Haiti)
Translated by Judith Miller
Directed by Kaneza Schaal
Q&A moderated by Christian Flaugh
Two women, survivors of a catastrophe, stand on a hill overlooking a destroyed city. The Youngest and the Oldest look upon the desolated landscape and hear the lamentations, prayers, and songs of the survivors.

She-Devil / Ladjables
5 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 7 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 8 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5)

Written by Daniely Francisque (Martinique)
Translated by Danielle Carlotti-Smith
Directed by Oceana James
Q&A moderated by Andrew Clarke
During a night of the Carnival Martinique, a female masked dancer meets an arrogant man who tries to seduce her. Drunken by desire, the heartless man does not realize that the predator is slowly becoming the prey of the bewitching dancer.

Plays have been selected by a distinguished advisory board:
Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken (The Graduate Center, CUNY),
Nicole Birmann Bloom (Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York),
Stéphanie Bérard (specialist in Caribbean Theater, author of Théâtres des Antilles)
Maria Brewer (University of Minnesota), Heather Denyer (Graduate Center, CUNY),
Amin Erfani (Lehman College, CUNY), Christian Flaugh (Buffalo University),
Amaya Lainez Le Déan (translator and director, Buenos Aires).
External Artistic Director: Candace Thompson-Zachery

The ACT / Actions Caribéennes Théâtrales project is initiated and coordinated by Stéphanie Bérard, specialist in Caribbean Theater, author of Théâtres des Antilles, in close collaboration with Frank Hentschker from the Martin E. Segal Center at CUNY-The Graduate Center, Nicole Birmann Bloom from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, and with Compagnie Siyaj from Guadeloupe.

Stéphanie Bérard (Ph.D. University of Minnesota/Université de Provence) is a specialist of Francophone Caribbean and African theater and has taught in the US, Canada, and France. Her research sits at the crossroads of Postcolonial and Theater Studies, exploring the history of oral tradition, rituals, Caribbean drama, Creole and French, and drum music and dance. She is the author of Théâtres des Antilles: traditions et scènes contemporaines (2009) and Le Théâtre-Monde de José Pliya (2015) and she co-edited Emergences Caraïbes: une création théâtrale archipélique in Africultures (2010). She was awarded an NEH Fellowship for her project on Haitian drama, and a Marie Curie European Fellowship for FACT (Francophone African and Caribbean Theaters).

Founded in 2002 by Gilbert Laumord in Guadeloupe, SIYAJ is a government subsidized theater company supported by the French Ministry of Culture. SIYAJ asserts a Caribbean identity anchored in popular traditions inherited from Africa (drum rituals, oral tradition, Creole) and favors interdisciplinary aesthetic forms (music, dance, drama). Promoting intercultural collaborations (Cuba, Haiti, and South Korea), Siyaj has produced 10 plays performed in the Caribbean, metropolitan France, Asia, and the US.