Adapting Translation for the Stage presents a sustained dialogue between scholars, actors, directors, writers, and those working across boundaries, exploring common themes encountered when writing, staging, and researching translated works.

Translating for performance is a difficult – and hotly contested – activity. Adapting Translation for the Stage presents a sustained dialogue between scholars, actors, directors, writers, and those working across these boundaries, exploring common themes and issues encountered when writing, staging, and researching translated works. It is organised into four parts, each reflecting on a theatrical genre where translation is regularly practised: The Role of Translation in Rewriting Naturalist Theatre Adapting Classical Drama at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Translocating Political Activism in Contemporary Theatre Modernist Narratives of Translation in Performance A range of case studies from the National Theatre’s Medea to The Gate Theatre’s Dances of Death and Emily Mann’s The House of Bernarda Alba shed new light on the creative processes inherent in translating for the theatre, destabilising the literal/performable binary to suggest that adaptation and translation can – and do – coexist on stage. Chronicling the many possible intersections between translation theory and practice, Adapting Translation for the Stage offers a unique exploration of the processes of translating, adapting, and relocating work for the theatre.

This book provides a pioneering and provocative exploration of the rich synergies between adaptation studies and translation studies and is the first genuine attempt to discuss the rather loose usage of the concepts of translation and adaptation in terms of theatre and film. At the heart of this collection is the proposition that translation studies and adaptation studies have much to offer each other in practical and theoretical terms and can no longer exist independently from one another. As a result, it generates productive ideas within the contact zone between these two fields of study, both through new theoretical paradigms and detailed case studies. Such closely intertwined areas as translation and adaptation need to encounter each other’s methodologies and perspectives in order to develop ever more rigorous approaches to the study of adaptation and translation phenomena, challenging current assumptions and prejudices in terms of both. The book includes contributions as diverse yet interrelated as Bakhtin’s notion of translation and adaptation, Bollywood adaptations of Shakespeare’s Othello, and an analysis of performance practice, itself arguably an adaptive practice, which uses a variety of languages from English and Greek to British and International Sign-Language. As translation and adaptation practices are an integral part of global cultural and political activities and agendas, it is ever more important to study such occurrences of rewriting and reshaping. By exploring and investigating interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives and approaches, this volume investigates the impact such occurrences of rewriting have on the constructions and experiences of cultures while at the same time developing a rigorous methodological framework which will form the basis of future scholarship on performance and film, translation and adaptation.

This exploration of the territory between theory and practice in contemporary theatre features essays by academics from theatre and translation studies, and delineates a new space for the discussion of translation in the theatre that is international, critical and scholarly, while rooted in experience and understanding of theatre practices.

In today's theatre, productions of plays that originated in another language are frequently distinguished by two characteristics: the authorship of the English text by a well-known local theatre specialist, and the absence of the term 'translation'-generally in favour of 'adaptation' or 'version'. The Translator on Stage investigates the creative processes that bring translated plays to the mainstream stage, exploring the commissioning, translation and development procedures that end with a performed play. Through a sample of eight plays that span two thousand years and six languages-including Festen, Don Carlos, Hedda Gabler and The UN Inspector-and that were all staged within a three-month period, Geraldine Brodie brings in a wide range of theatre practitioners to discuss their roles in the translation process and the motivations that govern London theatre translation activities. The Translator on Stage is informed by specially conducted interviews with the productions' producers, artistic directors, directors, literary managers, playwrights and specialist translators, including Michael Grandage, Rufus Norris, David Eldridge, Juan Mayorga, David Johnston and Mike Poulton. It sheds new light not only on theatrical translation procedures, but also on the place of translation in society today.

Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage is a practical guide for writing adapted works for theatrical performance. Broadway translator and dramaturg Allison Horsley and award-winning playwright and educator Jacqueline Goldfinger take readers step-by-step through the brainstorming, writing, revision, and performance processes for translations and adaptations. The book includes lectures, case studies, writing exercises, and advice from top theater professionals on the process of creating, pitching, and producing adaptations and translations, covering a wide range of topics such as jukebox musicals, Shakespeare adaptations, plays from novels, theater for young adults, and theater in translation and using Indigenous language. Artists who share their wisdom in this book include: Des McAnuff (Tony Award), Emily Mann (Tony Award), Dominique Morisseau (Broadway Adaptor, Tony Award nominee, MacArthur Genius Fellow), Lisa Peterson (Obie Award, Lortel Award), Sarah Ruhl (Broadway Playwright, Tony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist, MacArthur Genius Fellow), and Tina Satter (Broadway Director, Obie Award, Guggenheim Fellowship). The book also features interviews with artists working both in the US and internationally, as well as guest columns from artists who work in less traditional adaptive forms including cabaret, burlesque, opera, community-engaged process, and commercial theater. Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage is an essential resource for students and instructors of Dramatic Writing, Playwriting, and Creative Writing courses and for aspiring playwrights.

Why are so many theatre productions adaptations of one kind or another? Why do contemporary practitioners turn so frequently to non-dramatic texts for inspiration? This study explores the fascination of novels, short stories, children's books and autobiographies for theatre makers and examines what 'becomes' of literary texts when these are filtered into contemporary practice that includes physical theatre, multimedia performance, puppetry, immersive and site-specific performance and live art. In Adaptation in Contemporary Theatre, Frances Babbage offers a series of fresh critical perspectives on the theory of adaptation in theatre-making, focusing on meditations of prose literature within contemporary performance. Individual chapters explore the significance and impact of books as physical objects within productions; the relationship between the dramatic adaptation and literary edition; storytelling on the page and in performance; literary space and theatrical space; and prose fiction reframed as 'found text' in contemporary theatre and live art. Case studies are drawn from internationally acclaimed companies including Complicite, Elevator Repair Service, Kneehigh, Forced Entertainment, Gob Squad, Teatro Kismet and Stan's Cafe. Adaptation in Contemporary Theatre is a compelling and provocative resource for anyone interested in the potential and the challenges of using prose literature as material for new theatrical performance.