INTERVIEW: International and immigrant theater celebrated at Global Forms fest
Photo: Yue Liu is the producer and curator of the Global Forms Theater Festival. Photo courtesy of Rattlestick / Provided by Everyman agency with permission.
The Global Forms Theater Festival, being presented this week by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New York Theatre Salon, seems more necessary and timely than ever. The weeklong celebration, which this year will be distributed virtually to audience members, presents poignant international and immigrant theater pieces from dozens of artists.
This year — a year greatly impacted by COVID-19 — fans of the fest can expect virtual performances, documentaries, workshops and panel discussions delivered via Zoom, according to press notes. The overall themes of these presentations include isolation, humanity, freedom and home.
Some of the highlights include Catamenia, a theatrical dance performance from Argentine artist Stefania Bulbarella; On the Table, a food-centered animated podcast featuring artist Riw Rakkulchon; and Global Gabble, a daily 30-minute discussion that centers on art, songs, childhood games and much more.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Yue Liu, producer and curator of Global Forms and co-founder of the New York Theatre Salon. She also serves as managing director at Rattlestick. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What are some highlights that you’re looking forward to in the Global Forms Theater Festival?
The theater festival holds different events ranging from performances and panel-discussions, to workshops and networking events. Being international, we are able to feature a huge array of rich content including food, history, puppetry, revolution and immigration. I will be attending every single one of them, and I encourage audiences to immerse themselves as well.
As a theater producer, I am very excited for the International Theater Companies Panel, as I want to learn how other theater companies all over the world are coping with COVID-19; as well as how they are re-imagining the ways of producing after reopening. Some of these theaters are already re-opened, and I want to hear what those experiences have been like.
I am also interested in Revolucìon and Who are you writing it for…, which are two works of art that stem from Middle Eastern culture. I personally don’t have much knowledge about these cultures, so I am really eager to learn more through these events. With Revolucìon as a performance and the other an academic workshop on cross-cultural communication, this is going to mix the experience between art and a classroom.
Why is the mission of the theater festival so important?
As an O-1 artist, I understand the struggles of living in this country as an international artist facing discrimination and racism in both arts and arts administration. The nature of my job is in supporting artists, and I want to help my fellow O-1 artists in any way I can. During this pandemic, many of these artists’ gigs got canceled due to theaters closing, and they can’t apply for Medicare or receive unemployment or stimulus benefits. The mission of the festival is so important for two things, to support artists financially and creatively and ensure they can keep creating work, and to bridge the gap and alter perspectives between community and international cultures.
Do you feel that the theater community still has a lot of work to do to welcome diverse voices and talent?
Yes, there is a lot of work to do. There are theaters that have refused to hire O-1 artists just because they don’t understand how this visa works and refuse to learn how it works. There are arts organizations that refuse to hire certain O-1 artists just because they personally are not fond of the artist’s nationality. There are companies that hire people of color just to fulfil their company’s ‘Diversity’ goal, without any real respect for the artist’s ethnicity.
I have experienced all of these personally. It is frustrating, painful and sometimes humiliating, when you just want to create theater— an art of provoking communication, while some of these white gatekeepers are doing the opposite. One of our festival projects — Untitled Video Series — is a collection of four one-minute videos of painful words to immigrant artists as told by strangers, colleagues and friends. I hope by sharing this work, the project can increase people’s awareness of the importance of an inclusive environment. Diversity is not a slogan, not a social media statement, but rather the hard work done in changing minds and taking real actions.
How difficult is it to curate a festival like this? Were there many added challenges by making it virtual?
It took us about five weeks to come up the idea of doing this festival and present it to an audience. It sounded complicated at first, but then things quickly began to come together organically. There was a lot of work to do to pull everything together, but we’re all now enjoying the great feeling of satisfaction knowing that this is about to happen for real in a short amount of time. We are so grateful for the tremendous support from Rattlestick, and the opportunity to work with this amazing group of international artists.
There are challenges but also surprising opportunities with making the festival virtual. The intimacy of gathering together in the same space is in the beauty of theater, and doing the festival on Zoom took away some level of intimacy. So we had to be really smart about the programming.
For example, one of the projects, Through My Eyes, is a mini documentary focusing on the lives of four immigrant artists in New York City during the quarantine. Time Zone Free is a two-hour online performance and musical spectacle that will bring artists from different time zones into the same performance space. We were also able to connect with global theater companies to feature a series of panel discussions online, where we will talk about how theater-makers are coping with COVID-19 globally. Every bit of effort to make these conversations happen right now is so worth it, and that’s why this festival exists.
Do you feel that the New York Theatre Salon has achieved its original goals?
Yes, definitely, but we also trying to do better. NYTS is a monthly social event for professional theatre artists from different nations, cultures and communities, and through our monthly panel discussion and networking events, we aim to explore and revitalize the social function of theatre. I want to create more opportunities to better know artists on a human level rather than just their titles (actor, [director], dancer, etc.). After over a year of doing these monthly panels, I have been able to meet many incredible individuals, listen to their stories and eventually became great friends with them. Many of them became regular participants of our events, and some started collaborating with each other on various projects. I hope NYTS can continue to create platforms for artists to be known, be seen, be heard and be understood.
Do you keep setting the bar higher and higher?
New York Theatre Salon is a community, so there is no bar to be set higher, but rather a platform to be made wider. Our events started with monthly discussions in midtown Manhattan, then expanded to different neighborhoods with different activities in hope to be more accessible; and now we are having a week-long theater festival with rich and ample programing that is being presented in various mediums. I hope to continue to create an inclusive and welcoming community for professional theater artists and audiences, break stereotypes, and have us learn from one another.
What’s the future look like for you beyond this festival?
Besides running New York Theatre Salon, I also serve as the managing director at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York City, which is an amazing Off-Off-Broadway theater located in West Village, where we are dedicated to producing ambitious plays to inspire empathy and provoke conversation that will lead to positive social change. I love my job, and I feel so lucky to be able to work at a theater with a mission that I strongly believe in, and work with a team of amazing staff who are open-minded, diligent, caring and always willing to change for the better. I want to keep growing with Rattlestick and use my own ability to amplify the mission, as well as continuing to introduce artists of different communities, nations and backgrounds, to our audiences.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Global Forms Theater Festival is playing through June 28, courtesy of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New York Theatre Salon. Click here for more information.
