ABSTRACT

This chapter explores translation as a constituent activity within theater practice, with a clear emphasis on stagecraft and the dramatic actions that together constitute the performability of the play. It formulates a working definition of the stage translator's task to ensure the performability of the target text. The overall task itself is presented to the students as a series of phases. These phases are a series of concentric activities that together form a taxonomy of translator process linked at all times to theater practice. The taxonomy consists of the following checklist: background research; text work; writing for the actor; writing for the audience; working with other theater professionals. Students are encouraged to infuse their writing process with the sort of dramaturgical awareness that characterizes the work of other theater practitioners. Readings in the work of Jill Dolan and Pavis help to prise translators away from what is at times an overweening reluctance to engage and negotiate with other theater practitioners.