The 2010 PRELUDE festival will be from Wednesday, September 29 to Friday, October 1, 2010 @ the Martin E. Segal Theatre at the Graduate Center at CUNY. PRELUDE 10 is curated by Morgan von Prelle Pecelli and Frank Hentschker, dramaturgy by Mashinka Firunts, and produced by Arwen Lowbridge. SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA curated by Mallory Catlett. www.nycprelude.org

PRELUDE is a festival exploring the forefront of contemporary NYC theater and performance. Past years have featured over 20 short performances, readings, and open rehearsals with a focus on works-in-progress, as well as panels and informal networking opportunities. It also looks beyond New York City with its international SPOTLIGHT series. After focusing on Japan, Argentina, Poland and Korea this year’s SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA will showcase the work of contemporary Catalan theater artists - Àngels Aymar, Marta Buchaca, Sergi Belbel and Esteve Soler. Catalonia, home to Barcelona, is a distinct region of Spain with it’s own language and cultural history. With the generous support of The Institut Ramon Llull four new American translations have been commissioned which will be presented at the PRELUDE Festival. The SPOTLIGHT brings together playwrights in collaboration with New York City translators and directors in a cross cultural conversation around the production and development of new theatrical texts. The plays range in style and content from a dark comedy about the financial crisis, an immigrant story of a cuban exile, a waiting room drama and a
surrealistic social commentary in 7 scenes on the subject of progress.

Excerpts of the Plays will be presented and followed by a Panel Discussion on
October 1, 2010 at 3 p.m. at Elebash Hall, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue ~ New York, NY
www.theSegalCenter.org ~ www.llull.cat

SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA will also present full readings of each of these new translations in a
series to be hosted by different theatrical organizations across New York City.

Offside by Sergi Belbel
on Sept 30 at 7pm at The Lark Development Center
(939 8th Ave. btwn 55th & 56th)

Girls Shouldn’t Play Soccer by Marta Buchaca
on Oct 3 at 7pm at New Georges
(The Room 520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 326)

Solavaya by Àngels Aymar
on Oct 4 at 6:30 pm at Repertorio Español
(138 East 27th St)

Against Progress by Esteve Soler
on Oct 5 at 7 pm at La MaMa
(1st Floor Theatre 74A East 4th St)

SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA ~ Curated by Mallory Catlett
ALL SPOTLIGHT EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

AGAINST PROGRESS by Esteve Soler
7 short plays that mix horror and comedy. 7 moments as bizarre as familiar. 7 surrealistic visions of a progress that is not progressing, a progress full of disdain, the same progress as ever. 1) A middle-aged couple tries to get rid of a Third World boy who has mysteriously showed up under their table. 2) A man hit by a streetcar cries out for help in the middle of the night. While he lies dying, a woman explains to him why she won’t call the ambulance. 3) Two businessmen consider the advantages of applying the most radical of religions to the productivity of their enterprises. 4) A family wakes up to find a gigantic apple in their dining room and must decide what to do next. 5) A teacher reads a story for children to her students. But the story has a life of its own and proves pitiless. 6) Two lovers are about to end their relationship because their marriage depends on a temporary agreement that has just expired. 7) A seal kills a baby while reflecting on the sad situation of both
species.

Esteve Soler - Among his plays, the most notable are: Runes, published by the Institut del Teatre; Jo
sóc un altre!, premiered at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya and published by Proa; Davant de l’home, dramatisation of Thomas Bernhard’s texts within the Teatre Lliure’s open rehearsal programme. His play Against Progress was selected from among 646 plays to participate in the Stückenmarkt 2008 (Berlin Theatertreffen) and was premiered in Santiago de Chile (Deusches shule), Barcelona (Sala Beckett), Munich (Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel), Nordhausen (Theater Nordhausen), Pont-a-Mousson (in the Mousson d’ Été festival), Paris (during the festival of belgian theatre), Athens (Synergío Theatre) and Biel-Solothurn (Theater Biel-Solothurn). The play will be premiered soon in Brussels, Aachen and Caracas. He has also translated two plays by Sarah Kane:
4.48 Psychosis (premiered at the Sala Beckett) and Cleansed (premiered at the Teatre Estudi of the Institut del Teatre). As a journalist, he reports on cinema for the newspaper Regió 7, and is a member of the writing team of the theatre journal Pausa. He holds a degree in Direction and Dramaturgy from the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.

Hillary J. Gardner (Translator) is a Catalan translator whose work appeared most recently in “Poetàrium” (Institut Ramon Llull, 2009). She studied English and Spanish literature at UC Berkeley and in Barcelona and is a graduate of the UI Writers’ Workshop. Her theater credits include The Night Just Before the Forests for the Koltès NY 2003 Festival.

Dan Safer (Director) & Witness Relocation (www.witnessrelocation.org) make dance and theater shows that have performed across the US, in Southeast Asia and Europe. They recently did the English language premiere of Toshiki Okada's Five Days In March, and are working on Heaven On Earth, a new play by Chuck Mee to premiere at La MaMa in February 2012, and are, amongst other things, performing at Theater de Chaillot in Paris next Spring. Dan is also choreographing Ridge Theater’s Persephone at BAM and teaches at NYU.