New York with an Accent or Aliens with Extraordinary Skills (Writing/Performing the Immigrant Experience)
Award-winning playwright Saviana Stanescu, author of the acclaimed plays « Aliens With Extraordinary Skills » (produced off-Broadway at Women’s Project, New York; in regional US theatres; in Mexico – in the Spanish version: “Inmigrantes con Habilidades Extraordinarias”, in Turkey, Romania, etc), « Lenin’s Shoe », « Ants », « For a Barbarian Woman », « Waxing West » (winner of 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Script), will talk about writing/performing her immigrant experience after 25 years since the Fall of the Iron Curtain.
Saviana grew up during the totalitarian regime of Ceausescu and, as a college student, protested in the streets of Bucharest during the 1989 revolution. She worked as a journalist for the newly emerged free press and published books of poetry and drama in Romania, USA, Mexico, etc. Saviana arrived in New York City two weeks before 9/11 to study at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, as a Fulbright fellow in Performance Studies. Since then, her artistic work has been inspired and informed by the vibrant everyday life in the Big Apple’s melting pot. She is committed to explore hyphenated identities and that alien in-between space where global foreigners and migrants dwell.
NEW YORK WITH AN ACCENT (Writing/Performing the Immigrant Experience) will include monologues, production pictures and Saviana’s photos of the American Flag displayed in NYC in the aftermath of 9/11, investigating the power of symbols/objects to perform identity, patriotism, and post-traumatic community engagement. An imaginary dinner with Marx might conclude this political yet humorous autobiographical performative lecture.
Saviana Stanescu (www.saviana.com) is a Romanian-born award-winning playwright. Her work has been widely presented internationally and in the US. Recent productions include “Ants” at New Jersey Rep, “For a Barbarian Woman” (a co-production Fordham/EST), “Aliens with extraordinary skills” at Women’s Project (published by Samuel French), “Polanski Polanski” at HERE Arts Center, “Bechnya” at Hudson Theatre in LA, « Waxing West » (2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-length Script) at La MaMa Theatre, « Suspendida » and “Vicious Dogs on Premises” (with Witness Relocation) at Ontological Theatre, “The E-Dating Project” at Strasberg Institute for Theatre&Film, and the site-specific « I want what you have » at the World Financial Center. Ms Stanescu has published books of poetry and drama including “The New York Plays”, “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills”, “Waxing West”, « Google me! », « Black Milk », and « The Inflatable Apocalypse” (Best Play of the Year UNITER Award in 2000). She co-edited the anthology of plays “Global Foreigners” (with NYU professor Carol Martin) and “roMANIA after 2000” (with CUNY professor Daniel Gerould). Saviana holds an MA in Performance Studies (Fulbright fellow) and an MFA in Dramatic Writing (John Golden Award for excellence in playwriting) from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, where she was on faculty in the Drama Department (2003-2012). She has taught at Strasberg Theatre&Film Institute, ESPA – Primary Stages, Lark Transylvania Playwriting Camp, Centro Cultural Helénico, Mexico City, etc. Currently Saviana teaches Playwriting and Theatre Studies at Ithaca College. She has a PhD in Theatre from the National University of Theatre&Film, Bucharest, Romania. Ms Stanescu is the Director of Eastern European Exchange for The Lark Play Development Center, the curator of playgroundzero and New York with an Accent, and the founder of Immigrant Artists and Scholars in New York (IASNY).
Duration: 40 min
