Orhan Pamuk’s Snow

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented Orhan Pamuk’s Snow: Staged Reading with Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 24 October at 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York).

Nobel Prize laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk called Snow “my first and last political novel.” Set in the small city of Kars in northeastern Turkey, it tells a story of violence and tension between political Islamists, soldiers, secularists, and Kurdish and Turkish nationalists. An international sensation, the novel has been adapted for the stage in France by Blandine Savetier and Waddah Saab. After the American Premiere staged reading, translated by Taylor Gaines, Pamuk joins in conversation with Frank Hentschker, Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.

Orhan Pamuk, born 1952, is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, and academic. One of Turkey’s most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three languages, making him the country’s best-selling writer. Pamuk is the author of Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, and The Museum of Innocence, among others. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.

Blandine Savetier has spent most of her life between France and Belgium. She has lived in Africa, the U.S., Russia, and central Asia. After studies in drawing and a master in Performing Arts, Blandine began to study under Claude Buchvald, Stanislas Nordey, Thierry Salmon (Belgium), Marc Liebens (Belgium), and take Anatoli Vassiliev’s master classes in Moscow and Paris. She is a frequent artistic collaborator with Stanislas Nordey and Thierry Roisin. She has been an associated artist with the Théâtre National de Strasbourg since 2014, where Stanislas Nordey is Artistic Director. Previously she was an associated artist for four years with the Comédie de Béthune, national theatre in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.

In 2002 she directed her first professional work, Stabat Mater Furiosa by Jean-Pierre Siméon in Brussels, which toured in France and Lebanon, and founded her company Longtemps je me suis couché de bonne heure. Some of her directing work includes: The Ruthless Killer Hasse Karlsson by Henning Mankell (Comédie de Béthune, Théâtre Gerard Philippe, Théâtre de la Place in Liège), Le President by Thomas Bernhard (Comédie de Béthune, Théâtre de la Colline), Critic’s Union prize-winning Le Marin by Fernando Pessoa (Théâtre National de Bretagne), The Little Room at the Top of the Stairs by Carole Fréchette (Théâtre National de Bretagne, Festival Mettre en Scène, Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris), Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (Comédie de Béthune, Théâtre de la Commune Aubervilliers, Théâtre National de Toulouse), Life Within the Folds by Henri Michaux (Comédie de Béthune, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers), and Love and Money by Denis Kelly (Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Théâtre du Rond-Point). She regularly teaches at national theatre schools, including the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Théâtre National de Bretagne, and the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris. Work with actors is central to her directorial approach, and is the object of her continued research.

Waddah Saab is a French-Lebanese writer and dramaturg, born and raised in Senegal. After completing his studies in Paris, he worked in the European civil service. Passionate about literature and theatre, he has worked on Blandine Savetier’s productions as a dramaturg since 2002, making writing and theatre his primary career in 2013. His first novel, Si je t’oublie Tambacounda, is in the process of publication. He now lives in Brussels.

Taylor Gaines is a translator and freelance copyeditor based in New York. After a BA in Drama and French from the University of Virginia, and an MA in Cultural Translation from the American University of Paris, Taylor was a literary intern at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and a literary fellow at The Play Company. She recently participated in the Rencontres de Traduction workshop as part of the Dramaturgies en dialogue festival, hosted by the Centre des auteurs dramatiques in Montreal.

Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, New York, and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs, with additional support by FACE Contemporary Theater. Co-produced by Taylor Gaines in collaboration with the Segal Center.

Supported by FACE Contemporary Theater, a program developed by FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation, Institut français -Paris, the French Ministry of Culture and private donors. Additional support for women artists has been provided by Fondation CHANEL.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.