Local Collaboration Gets Dramatic

It's the second year for Shanghai Repertory Theatre's (SRT) Creative Collaborators Competition (CCC), a contest that gives local English language playwrights a chance to have their own one-acts read and even staged as a full-fledged production, at the end of this month. Executive Producer Rosita Janbakhsh and creative collaborator Barbara Anderlič share their thoughts on the event and what we can expect.

In writing her one act play Source, Barbara Anderlič has found herself delving into familiar territory. With a degree in translation studies and having written a thesis on power in translation and translation activism, Anderlič's new play is about two translators discussing the translation of a sensitive document. "Basically, it's my master's thesis, but as a one act play."

As the dialogue unfolds, the power of translation becomes more and more apparent. "For a lot of people the translator is seen as an intermediate or a necessary evil, but there's tons of other stuff going on around that. It's supposed to teach people about translators and interpreters and how significant and important we actually are."

In terms of writing the play, Anderlič doesn't feel that living in China played a critical role, although she admits that the issues it touches upon can be seen as applicable to life here or in any cosmopolitan environment. "I wrote the play in Austria where I studied, although it's an idea that I've been toying around with for a year. It's something that I wanted to write for last year's CCC, but at that time I only got around to writing one of my ideas."

And while Anderlič is relatively modest about her work having undergone any significant changes between this year and last year's competitions, producer Janbakhsh finds there has been a noticeable change: "[She's] one of the few playwrights who submitted both last year and this year. I think you can see new influences in [her] work that you didn't see before."

Janbakhsh also notices the change in the work of Audrey Murray, who was the winner of last year's competition with a retelling of Grimm’s fairytales. "It's a difference that you notice with younger writers like Murray and Anderlič that you don't see with older writers who are more set in their ways of doing things."

Murray's work this year, entitled 'A Social Call', deals with a sister confronting her estranged brother about his prescription drug abuse. As she continues to push him to admit to his problem, he snidely point out her own foibles until the conflict reaches a breaking point. "It's really an American issue, but also a very personal one which can reach the individual regardless of nationality. Likewise with [Anderlič’s] 'Source,' what you see is a very global perspective reduced to something very personal," says Janbakhsh.

For a work more close to home for Shanghai's expat residents, Christopher Adams' 'Shelter' stands out. Taking place in the near future where Iran has successfully carried out a nuclear attack against the United States, the play concerns the lives of four Americans stranded in Shanghai and trying to survive as their situation becomes more and more dire.

For those familiar with last year's CCC, Janbakhsh admits that the way SRT is approaching the CCC this year is much different from the inaugural show last year. "Last year was the first year that we did it; it was a new idea. So it took a while to talk it through and find a format that worked best for us. The other thing that made it more difficult last year was that it was part of a larger festival. It was a bit crazy." This year SRT has "scaled down" its ambitions and decided to do the CCC as a stand alone event, giving everyone involved the time to work. However, ambition isn't far away; Janbakhsh is already considering "taking things up a notch" next year incorporating dancers, videographers and even more artists from the local Shanghai community.

Shanghai Repertory Theatre presents the Creative Collaborators Competition, 26 May (8pm) and 27 May (3pm and 8pm), RMB 100, Ke Center for Contemporary Arts, 613-B Kaixuan Lu, near Yan'an Xi Lu