Lost in Translation

“Lost in Translation”

The American Heritage dictionary defines translate as: 1.   To render in another language; 2.   To put into simpler terms, explain or interpret; 3.   To change from one form, function or state to another; convert or transform; 4.   To transfer from one place or condition to another; 5.   To forward or retransmit; 6.   To convey to heaven without death; 7.   To enrapture; 8.   To be changed or transformed in effect.

Mike Daisey has been called a “master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by The New York Times for his monologues, which include “21 Dog Years,” “Invincible Summer,” “TRUTH,” “Great Men of Genius,” “Monopoly!,” “The Ugly American,” “Wasting Your Breath” and “I Miss The Cold War,” which he's performed off Broadway, across the country and around the world. Read our interview with Mike Daisey here.

Lesley Hazleton's most recent books are “Mary: a Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother “(winner, Washington State Book Award) and “Jezebel:  The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (due out in October). Both are mold-breaking biographies blending in-depth research with historical imagination and exploring the interface between sex, religion and politics. Read our interview with Lesley here.

Randall Kenan is the author of a novel, “A Visitation of Spirits”; a young adult biography of James Baldwin;  two works of nonfiction, “Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century” and “The Fire This Time”;  and a collection of stories, “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead,” (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Dos Passos Prize, a Whiting Writers Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Prix de Rome. He is associate professor of English at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Read our interview with Randall here.

With music by Devin Sullivan, who currently plays with the bands Nasa Liquor, Grebes and The Thrall as well as participating in a solo project, “Paris 1952,” which entails writing and recording a song for every day of the year 1952. Prior to this Devin played with Chomage, an art-driven three-piece band. His career as a musician started, however, with InTheory, the one-man bedroom band of his high school years. InTheory never performed live but its existence lives in the musician's lingering lonely downward stare.

Saturday, Oct. 13

1 p.m. “Memoir and the Theatrical Imagination”
A roundtable discussion with Mike Daisey, Allen Johnson, David Schmader and Matt Smith
What does it mean to perform your life? Four experienced autobiographical performers discuss the challenges and rewards of turning their lives into art, and the relationship between truth and fiction in live performance versus the written memoir.

1-4 p.m. Re-Creating Legends
A Hugo Writing Class with Lesley Hazleton
Writers re-create the past and shape it to reveal new meaning—but what happens when all we seem to have are two-dimensional stereotypes, as in Jezebel the harlot? How do we bring legendary figures back to multidimensional life? How do we blend research and imagination, the historical with the mythical, the personal with the factual?

1-4 p.m. Working the Mojo: Making Your Fictional Characters Live and Breathe
A Hugo Writing Class with Randall Kenan
We intuitively know the basics of what makes a character, but too often writers tend to forget or omit these essential traits. We will discuss elements of characterization (physicality, history, personality, dialogue, etc.); ways of presenting characters; and further ideas and issues regarding characterization.

November 16-17, 2007 “We Could Be Heroes”

February 15-16, 2008 “Love Is the Drug”