This paper is based on research stemming from my work as a theatre director developing and presenting new plays in a foreign language that I do not speak. I will be referring to my production of the English play Correspondence (with Divadlo 6-16 and Ústí Festival), developed and presented in Czech (starring Petra Špalková and Jan Jankovský).
In this practical research I explore the process, challenges, and opportunities presented by working with translators and interpreters throughout the whole process of professional production development. The discussion includes the challenges of text translation, practical production development, feedback in performance, and, most interestingly, work in the rehearsal room where all direction is filtered through an interpreter.
What is lost in this process? What is gained?
Furthermore, the research comments on my forthcoming production of the play The Empire Builders in Russian (another language I do not speak), and touches on the challenges posed by a new production of Richard III to be presented in Czech in 2019.
The research explores other historical examples; from Arthur Miller directing a production of one of his American Masterpieces in Mandarin in China through to Robert Wilson directing the Czech National Theatre production of 1914. Does the artistic process of directing suffer, or can it be somehow improved, by working in a foreign language that requires a re-frame of thinking and a filtered approach to the explaining of ideas?
Paul Bourne is a theatre practitioner with experience in theatre directing that spans three decades, during which he directed productions in the UK, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, USA, Russia, as well as the Czech Republic. He gained a master’s degree in Performance Studies from De Montfort University, Leicester (UK). Having worked as artistic director of Center Stage New York (USA) and the Frankfurt Playhouse, he is currently the artistic director of Menagerie Theatre, a Cambridge-based New Writing company, and simultaneously an artistic co-director of Divadlo 6-16, based in Prague (Czech Republic). As a guest faculty he teaches Creative Processes at DAMU Prague, and Directing at Meyerhold Theatre Moscow (Russia). Paul is a Fellow of Judge Business School, University of Cambridge (UK).