ABSTRACT
Why do we translate? Why do theatrical translation? Why is theatrical translation a dramaturgical endeavor? The answers to these questions are both simple and complex, bridging as they do concepts global, local, and epistemological. At the most basic level we translate to know words in another language, to gain cultural understanding, and by opposition to learn something about ourselves. Theatre, with its multimodal structure encompassing word, image, and physical presence, is in a unique position to contribute to this acquisition of knowledge. As Gershon Shaked puts it,
We become familiar with foreign cultures through plays because in the process of reading or viewing them we must interpret and translate materials, patterns of behavior, and images of the world which are alien and incomprehensible in order to expand our world and familiarize ourselves with the unknown. 1
As dramaturgs we are concerned with how meaning is conveyed in performance in all of its facets. Theatrical translation is, therefore, inherently a dramaturgical enterprise and increasingly urgent given the asymmetrical and inequitable production of knowledge and information due to globalization. 2 Theatrical translation is a powerful tool for facilitating the global exchange of cultural production. It increases our ability to know.