We’re pleased to announce this year’s participants in Foreign Affairs Theatre Translator Mentorship, which for the first time includes translators based outside the UK.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, we’re delivering this year’s mentorship in a digital format. Although we’ll miss being in the room together, we’re excited about the possibilities the digital format has to offer and thrilled to be working across borders for the fourth edition of the mentorship.
Participants translating from six languages will work alongside actors, theatre-makers and translation mentors, receive mentoring and professional development support, and have their work showcased at a public performance in 2021, introducing the work of award-winning playwrights to English speaking audiences.
The theatre translator mentorship programme is based on the company approach to working with translated play texts and nearly a decade of bringing world drama from page to stage.
The mentorship was launched in 2016 in collaboration with acclaimed translators Paul Russell Garrett, Roland Glasser and William Gregory, and continues to be supported by past participants, including Charis Ainslee, Jozefina Komporaly and Valentina Marconi.
”Of all translators, theatre translators should not be locked away in a room translating for days on end without seeing another living soul, but should be invited to participate, to investigate, to collaborate with theatres, working alongside theatre practitioners and actors.
Paul Russell Garrett
2020 participants
David McKay translating from Dutch (Flanders)
working on The Wetsuitman by Freek Mariën
Deema Al-Mohammad translating from Levantine Arabic (Syria)
working on Tammemeh by Shadi Kiwan
Ieva Lākute translating from Latvian
working on Dāmas by Justīne Kļava
Isobel Foxford translating from Portuguese (Brazil)
working on Fala Baixo, Senão Eu Grito by Leilah Assumpção
Katherine Walker translating from Spanish
working on Sed by Alejandro Butrón Ibáñez
Pauline Wick translating from German
working on Schwarze Schwäne by Christina Kettering