Randy Gener to moderate international symposium on theater
The Nathan Award-winning editor, writer and artist
“Theater of the Voiceless” — an international symposium and festival produced by Zeitgeist DC (Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland) and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University — takes place June 16 – 19 at various venues around Washington, DC.
Randy Gener — the Nathan Award-winning editor, writer, artist, founder of the media project TheaterofOneWorld.org, and curator/organizer of Filipino Mundo-NYC — will participate in two panel discussions slated for the International Symposium.
Aiming to create a transatlantic dialogue between countries and cultures as far apart as Bangladesh, Germany and the U.S., the International Symposium takes place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on June 17th 2013 at Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center (37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC).
The symposium will begin with a presentation by Ping Chong, an internationally acclaimed director, playwright, video installation artist and a 2013 recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award; and Bruce Allardice, managing director of Ping Chong + Company, about the power of documentary theater to affect social change.
In the afternoon, Gener will lead and moderate a panel discussion, “Documentary Theatre: Creative Approaches,” featuring U.S. and European creators who will discuss the research, creative process and staging of documentary plays and their many forms.
In the evening, after the staged reading of the Swiss play “Hate Radio,” Gener will be a featured speaker in another panel discussion, entitled “Documentary Theatre: Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation,” focusing on how theater and performance can serve as tools for diplomacy. This panel features, among others, policy expert Michael Pelletier, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State.
“Theater of the Voiceless” brings together leading playwrights, artists, governmental, political and cultural experts from the United States and German-speaking countries to discuss, perform, and celebrate the international power and vitality of this art form.
Global migration challenges, government-sponsored genocide, terrorism and other manmade disasters that permanently alter our world view – these universal topics are addressed in non-fiction plays by playwrights interested in using their art for social change: Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf (Germany), Milo Rau (Swiss founder of the International Institute of Political Murder), and Kathrin Röggla (Austria).
Born and raised in the Philippines, Randy Gener is a Nathan Award-winning editor, writer, dramaturge and artist in New York. A contributor to National Public Radio, The Journalist and TDF Stages, he is the U.S. editor of Critical Stages, an international web journal that encourages cutting-edge critical writing on theater and performance from around the world. Gener founded TheaterofOneWorld.org, a media project devoted to foreign affairs, cultural diplomacy and international projects in the public interest. A dramaturge, he is presently at work on “Noli Me Tangere: The Opera,” which premieres in October 2013 at the Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse. He is the curator/organizer of Filipino Mundo-NYC, a Meetup for young professionals and visual/performing artists, at meetup.com/FilipinoMundo-NYC.