Foreign Affairs

For the international theatre company Foreign Affairs, I have been a mentor on the theatre translation programme Foreign Affairs Translates since 2016. The programme supports emerging theatre translators in the translation of a play, through to a public showcase, and returned in 2022. I also provide ad hoc training sessions for the Foreign Affairs theatre translation lab, for more experienced translators.

My work for the programme has included: one-to-one mentoring of translators throughout the programme; consultancy on the design and strategy of the programme overall; designing and facilitating workshops during the programme, and assessment and selection of candidate translators and plays.

Foreign Affairs Translates has now showcased fifteen plays in translation to new audiences. It has supported translators working in theatre for the first time and multilingual theatre-makers taking their first steps as translators. The works showcased have ranged from 100-year-old texts to plays only recently written.

The programmes is a central part of the work of Foreign Affairs, the company established by Trine Garrett and Camila Franca in East London with the goal of creating ‘theatre that knows no borders’, bringing international stories to UK and other audiences and making spaces where international theatre artists can come together to make and share their work in a variety of locations.

As part of the mentorship programme and outwith it, I have delivered or co-delivered a range of workshops on themes of international theatre-making…

‘My First Theatre Translation’ (info), 2020

‘Whose Translation is it Anyway?’, 2020

‘Troubling Text’, with Charis Ainslie, 2020

Translating Japanese Drama, with Trine Garrett and Nozomi Abe, SOAS (info), 2018

‘Translation Centre Stage’, International Translation Day plenary workshop, with Trine Garrett and Camila França, British Library, 2017

‘Playing around with Luther’, School of Advanced Study, with Trine Garrett, 2017

Theatre translation workshop, International Translation Day, with Trine Garrett and Camila França, British Library, 2016

…and taken part in a series of talks and panel discussions

Theatre Translation Round Table (watch), 2020

World Theatre in Brexit Britain (info), 2017

Translation for the Stage, 2016

Foreign Affairs also produced the premiere reading of my translation of Electra in the Forest of Oma by Pedro Víllora.