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Theatre Translator Mentorship Announcement 2024

By 08/07/2024December 5th, 2024No Comments

We’re excited to announce this year’s Theatre Translator Mentorship Cohort.

Translators from across the UK will be working on plays originally in Japanese, Spanish, Swahili, and Swedish collaborating closely with members of the company including actors, theatre-makers, and – of course – our brilliant translation mentors: Almiro Andrade, Charis Ainslie, Paul Russell Garrett and William Gregory. Throughout the programme, participants receive mentoring and take part in workshops to nurture their knowledge and skills for theatre translation.

Mark your calendars and join us for our spectacular translation showcase at Jermyn Street Theatre in January 2025! Experience the work of these talented translators and discover acclaimed international playwrights.

Supported by Jerwood Foundation and in collaboration with Jermyn Street Theatre for the showcase event, this year’s programme highlights our dedication to producing and championing theatre in translation, while nurturing emerging talent and fostering cross-cultural exchange and collaboration.

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 Deema Al-Mohammad (2020/21), Charis Ainslee (2018/19) and Jozefina Komporaly (2016/17).

Discover more about this year's mentees below!

”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

2024 participants

Elete Nelson-Fearon (she/her)

Translating Irreversible Palestine. Non-existent Palestine (Palestina irreversible. Palestina in-existente) by Ana Harcha from Spanish.

Elete is a translator, teacher, editor, facilitator of creative translation workshops, and theatre critic based in London, working with Spanish and Arabic. Elete graduated from the University of Manchester and went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Education at UCL as part of the graduate scheme Teach First, researching methods of broadening access to Arabic language education and building students’ identities as language learners. Elete spent some years teaching Spanish in secondary schools; during these years, she also participated in the Soho Writers’ Lab and the Royal Court Theatre’s Introduction to Theatre Translation group. In 2022, Elete began the year-long CASA fellowship in advanced Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Elete has translated and facilitated workshops around plays from Cuba, Egypt, Mexico and Palestine, and is really excited to begin this mentorship alongside other theatre translators.

Gareth Mattey (they/them)

Translating Beauty and Beast (美女と野獣) by Sekine Shinichi (関根信一) from Japanese.

Gareth is a writer, director, dramaturg, and translator from the North West of the UK. They studied English Literature (BA) and Screen Media and Cultures (MPhil) at the University of Cambridge, before training as a writer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. They have primarily worked as a librettist with opera and classical music, recently premiering Bermondsey, 1983 with Forensis Music Theatre at the Tête à Tête Festival, and From Tulip to Orchid (With Love) with Birmingham Opera Company.

In 2022, they were awarded a Scholarship by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. They undertook an internship with theatre company Nelke Planning, translating English language subtitles for the stage adaptation of BL visual novel game DRAMAtical Murder. Their translation/adaptation of the Noh play Sumidagawa (co-written with storyteller Xanthe Gresham-Knight) was performed at the Aldeburgh and Noh Reimagined Festivals in 2024.

JC Niala (she/her)

Translating Waves of Change (Wimbi la mabadiliko) by Dennis Shonko from Swahili.

JC Niala is an award-winning, multilingual theatre-maker based in Oxford, England. She mainly works in English and Swahili, incorporating other African languages such as Kikuyu and Luo in her plays. Her ‘Shakespeare in Swahili’ project, funded by Arts Council England, includes a translation of Macbeth. JC won the 2023 New Translator’s Bursary with Stinging Fly. For her, translation work is an act of language reclamation. She is a founder member of the African Women Playwrights Network and is currently active in the UK diaspora branch. JC is interested in translating African literature into forms of English that reflect the linguistic nuances of their cultures of origin.

Rebecca Hagberg Snäckerström (she/her)

Translating Ambulance (Ambulans) by Paula Stenström Öhman from Swedish.

Rebecca is a Swedish-born translator, writer, dramaturg and theatre critic based in the UK since 2014. She studied English and Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick before she went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Interested in new writing, dramaturgical innovations and multilingual theatre, she is currently a literary assistant at the Finborough Theatre.

In 2023, she was part of the Introduction to Theatre Translation group at the Royal Court where she found a passion for theatre translation as a way to combine her bilingual background with her love for literature and theatre. Alongside the mentorship she is due to start a course in translation at the University of Lund, Sweden. She has previously been published as a translator of educational work, combining her bilingual skills and knowledge of philosophy.

UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Nadiyah Abdullatif had to withdraw from the programme and instead we’re joined by Rebecca Hagberg Snäckerström.