Last night we marked the end of our season with an informal celebration – and an early toast to our 15th anniversary (with the actual “birthday” coming up this August).
It’s been a season of theatre beyond borders (then again, when isn’t it?). In January, we kicked things off with our Theatre Translator Mentorship showcase at Jermyn Street Theatre – two packed-out performances followed by post-show talks.
That was followed by Make Theatre With Foreign Affairs – our workshop programme for emerging theatre-makers (aged 18–30), co-led by our brilliant associate artists Eugenia Low, Ria Smartzi, and Youness Bouzinab, and steered by Trine Garrett.
We also ran a series of workshops and creative sessions for theatre translators and makers – including translation labs and workshops as well as ensemble sessions celebrating cross-cultural exchange. Alongside that, we hosted informal Coffee Chats – open-house-style sessions sharing our journey as self-taught producers. We spoke about starting a company, the ups and downs of fundraising, and the ongoing challenge of balancing art-making with running an organisation.
To round things off, we launched our new digital knowledge hub, Field Notes: Perspectives on Theatre in Translation.
Field Notes is a space to gather what we’re learning (and sometimes unlearning) through our work on staging plays in translation – and through our broader translation practice. It features a mix of archive content and newly commissioned pieces, including the first episode of Around the Table with Foreign Affairs – our new long-form podcast. The opening episode brings together mentors from the latest mentorship edition, chaired by alumna Jozefina Komporaly.
We’ve also commissioned two new written pieces:
- A conversation between Paul Russell Garrett and Charis Ainslie
- A personal reflection from JC Niala, one of the mentees from this year’s mentorship
More pieces will follow – podcasts, essays, reflections, resources – as Field Notes grows into a living, digital notebook of our work and community.
This season was made possible with support from Arts Council England, TNL Community Fund, and Jerwood Foundation, who funded the 2024/25 mentorship.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been part of this season – whether as a performer, participant, volunteer, audience member, or collaborator. A special shoutout to Rachel Toogood and Ruth Newbery-Peyton, our freelance associate producer and engagement coordinator, for their incredible support throughout.
Take a look at Field Notes – and if there’s something you’d like to see us share on the practice of translating or staging plays in translation, we’d love to hear from you.
Until next time,
Camila & Trine
P.S. Ahead of launching Field Notes, we also gave our website a bit of a spring clean. Things have been tweaked, updated, and reorganised – and more changes are on the way. We’re not going full Marie Kondo, but it is about sparking joy (and making things easier to find). Pages might still shift around a little over the summer – thanks for bearing with us as we settle into the new setup.