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Faculty Member’s Translation Staged in New York City

More and more I've realized just how much the various branches of theatre practice inform each other.

By Niki Acton '16

Neil Blackadder, professional translator and professor of theatre at Knox College, recently traveled to New York City to participate in the Lark New Play Development Center's hotINK, a festival dedicated to bringing works by international playwrights to New York audiences.

For the first time this year, hotINK featured only plays in translation. At the end of June, a week was dedicated to refining the scripts before the festival culminated in a staged reading of each play.

Blackadder translated Thomas Arzt's Alpine Blues. After working with Arzt through e-mail to complete a polished draft, Blackadder traveled to New York for the week-long residency, where he worked with the playwright, director, and actors.

"It was a wonderful experience," said Blackadder. "These were the ideal circumstances for honing a translation by hearing it read by actors, and I quickly developed a great working relationship with the playwright and the director."

Blackadder, whose other translations have been produced in New York and Chicago, teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at Knox.

  • Professor of Theatre Neil Blackadder, whose translations of plays have been produced in New York and Chicago, teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at Knox.

"More and more I've realized just how much the various branches of theatre practice inform each other," Blackadder said. "Teaching playwriting has made me a better translator, translating plays has enhanced my teaching of dramaturgy, directing plays at Knox has improved my work as a playwright and translator, and so on."

Blackadder's recent translation of Ewald Palmetshoer's hamlet is dead. no gravity was produced by Red Tape Theatre in Chicago. He brings the practical experience he has gained from professional productions to the courses he teaches at Knox.

"Having worked closely as a translator and dramaturg on professional productions enables me, in working with students in both the classroom and the rehearsal room, to draw on concrete examples of the choices directors, playwrights, actors, and designers might make, and how those decisions relate to the most current trends in theatre practice."

Published on July 25, 2014