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Adaptation and Translation

What considerations are at play when adapting and translating works for the stage? Content in this section explores work that is adapted from one form into another, or is translated between languages. A great place to start is the Translating the Future series, in which renowned translators from around the world discuss their craft.

The Latest

Video
Ukrainian Drama Showcase
Theatre Festival of Staged Readings and Artist Talks
Saturday 9 May and Sunday 10 May 2026
New York City
Essay
Slow-Motion Gives Forced Migrants the Chance to Move at Their Own Speed
by Dmitrii Zenkov
15 April 2026
Video
Symposium and Book Launch for Latin American Plays in Translation
Six New Plays Translated for an English-Language Audience
Friday 27 March 2026
Photo from The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume 1.
Essay

An Interview with Christopher Andrew Loar

8 April 2014

Bess Rowen interviews Christopher Andrew Loar of the New York Neo-Futurists, creator/director of The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill.

event poster
Video
Friday 21 March 2014
Wales, UK

University of Wales Trinity St David (UK) presented Barbie Caerdroia—a Welsh translation of Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans, livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 21 March at 7 p.m. GMT / 3 p.m. EDT (New York) / 2 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 12 p.m. (Vancouver).

 

Photo from a performance in the BCAP.
Essay

The Classical Experimental

13 March 2014

Allison Vanouse continues her look at productions from university students in Boston. In this post she reviews Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, directed by Elaine Vaan Hogue

Photo from Blood Wedding.
Essay

Blood Wedding

25 February 2014

Alice Stanley Jr. reviews Orange Theatre’s experimental production of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding, which incorporated contemporary multimedia technology in its warehouse set.

Essay

Conspiracy

20 February 2014

Allison Vanouse looks at student theatre — which is infrequently reviewed — choosing to critique Conspiracy (an adaptation of the 2001 HBO film), from the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club.

Peter Pan promo shot.
Essay

Notes For NBC’s Creative Team

31 January 2014

Talleri McRae offers her thoughts on Peter Pan Live, and how NBC might approach bringing the family tale to the small screen.

The cover of Fun Home.
Essay

Fun Home and New Musical Theatre

14 January 2014

Rob Onorato discusses Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, its musical adaptation, how both inspire him and advance the form of musical theatre.

The Twitter logo.
Essay

Lost in Translation?—The Weekly Howl on hashtag #newplay—Thurs, Jan 9

7 January 2014

This week's conversation topic is "Stage to Screen/Screen to Stage: Lost in Translation?" which will be about the transition of a work from stage to screen and vice-versa, and the changes in theater’s place in the culture. Join us on Twitter hashtag #newplay on Thursday, January 9 at 11am PST – 12pm PST (Vancouver) / 1pm CST – 2pm CST (Austin) / 2pm EST – 3pm EST (New York) / 19:00 GMT – 20:00 GMT (London) / 8pm CET - 9pm CET (Berlin).

Still from The Sound of Music Live.
Essay

Osage County and The Sound Of Music Provoke About Theater

6 January 2014

Regular contributor Jonathan Mandell delves into the worlds of August Osage County and The Sound of Music Live to discuss theater's relevancy – and whether we can count televised adaptions as theater.

Portrait from Platonov.
Essay
5 December 2013

Jay Scheib's adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Platnov titled Platonov, or The Disinherited merges with grunge culture-drugs, sex, and alcohol to take a look at values and viewpoints. 

Photo from The Jungle Book.
Essay
31 October 2013

Allison Vanouse writes about Disney Theatrical Enterprise's approach to theatermaking, and how high art and children's theater meet in their regional theater collaboration: The Jungle Book.

Portrait of Seamus Heaney.
Essay

The Plays of Seamus Heaney

25 October 2013

By 2003, Sophocles’ Antigone, a fifth century B.C. tragedy about a violent confrontation between a defiant young woman and an arrogant ruler, was one of the most widely adapted plays in Ireland.

Photo from Jacob's Pillow.
Essay
15 October 2013

Allison Vanouse writes about Pavement, an adaptation of the 1991 film, Boyz N the Hood at Jacob's Pillow Dance.

Essay
24 June 2013

As an Aboriginal playwright, director, and more who goes project to project-theater to theater- Lisa Ravensbergen stitches all these identities together to find her own artistic home.

Poster for Juliet and Romeo.
Essay

Reflections on creating political theater

16 June 2013

Victoria Tucci reflects on her time producing queered adaption of Romeo & Juliet, Juliet & Romeo, in the wake of the Marc Carson murder.

Essay
30 May 2013

Andrew Alexander looks at Atlanta-based theatre company Saiah, which took on the challenge of making a sea and whale come alive for audiences in their adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

The word translate and its equivalent in various languages.
Essay
4 September 2012

Adam Versenyi propses a national effort in the US to translate plays into English, and what this initation would look like

Video
Friday 25 May to Sunday 27 May 2012
San Francisco, CA, United States

Playwrights Foundation presents Des Voix...Found in Translation: A Festival of Contemporary French Playwrights in Translation featuring plays by Marion Aubert, Nathalie Fillion, and Samuel Gallet, livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Friday 25 May to Sunday 27 May 2012.

Taffety Punk's logo.
Essay

A Video by Taffety Punk

12 April 2012
Essay

A Cabaret from the Terezín Ghetto

6 April 2011

Lisa Peschel considers her experience adapting a comedic play written by survivors of the Holocaust and the way in which its humor translates to audiences today.

event poster for world voices with marius von mayenburg germany.
Video

World Voices

Monday 18 May 2026
New York City

Join us for an evening with one of Germany's most celebrated playwrights, dramaturgs, and translators.

Ukrainian Drama Showcase event poster.
Video

Theatre Festival of Staged Readings and Artist Talks

Saturday 9 May and Sunday 10 May 2026
New York City

The Ukrainian Drama Showcase is a theatre festival in New York City of staged readings aimed at introducing classic and contemporary Ukrainian dramatic texts to new audiences through dynamic, developmental work.

event poster for  Buenos Aires in Translation, with Romina Paula's SOMBRAS (Argentina).
Video

With Romina Paula

Monday 20 April 2026
New York City

Romina Paula will direct excerpts of her new play Shadows, of course (Sombras, por supuesto), a translation-in-progress by April Sweeney and Brenda Werth. Followed by a panel with artists and presenters.

A group of people push up a balloon in a corner.
Essay
15 April 2026

To make theatre with forced migrants in Serbia, Dmitrii Zenkov knew he had to slow down. He reflects on the ethics of tempo in the slow-motion Phiz-Drama project and offers exercises for others to bring into their own work. 

Symposium on Latin American Plays in Translation event poster.
Video

Six New Plays Translated for an English-Language Audience

Friday 27 March 2026

Join us for a conversation about creating theatre across borders, its challenges, and its possibilities; and imagine with us a global community that crosses oceans and continents to produce new spaces.

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