ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a model of ensemble-based multilingual theater as a laboratory for research, performance, and community building. Based on the author’s direction of the multilingual premiere of The Orphan Sea by Caridad Svich, the chapter builds upon principles set forth in Daniel Banks’s “The Welcome Table: Casting for an Integrated Society” by setting a global table for actors, creative team, staff, and audiences. The seventeen-member cast at Skidmore College experimented with translation theory and practice to create a multilingual version of Svich’s play. Languages included Arabic, Asante Twi, Cape Verdean Crioulo, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The author argues that by casting and training actors with multiple languages, theater programs may change the field with artists who are poised to create innovative theater from a diverse, global perspective. Appealing to theater makers both in and outside academia, the author highlights benefits and strategies for audience engagement and relationship building, casting, collective translation, and the use of multiple languages in rehearsal and performance. Such practices reflect the diversity of US populations and expand the representation of global stories on stage, welcoming more actors and attracting new audiences.
