Writing for Theater in the Worst/Best of Time

Two cities, so distant yet never so close. The current literature scene in Hong Kong and Minsk shares many similarities. The challenges, the threats, and at the same time, the inspiration, the obligation and the opportunities. In a series of three online talks, authors from Hong Kong and Minsk discuss their creative process in times of uncertainty. How their works react to their society and time? How they communicate with their audiences, and create a readers’ community even during difficult times?

I. Writing for Theater in the Worst/Best of Time

The Speakers:

©Yan, Pat To

Yan Pat To is the first ethnic Chinese playwright awarded by the Berlin Theatertreffen Stuckemarkt with his ground-breaking work A Concise History of Future China. Yan received a BA in English Literature from the University of Hong Kong, an MA in Sociology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an MA in Playwriting from Royal Holloway, University of London. His Cantonese play White Blaze of the Morning, which premiered at the 2015 EMW Festival of Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, was awarded Best Play at the 8th Hong Kong Theatre Libre. His latest work Happily ever after nuclear explosion was commissioned and produced by the Munich Residenztheater and premiered in June 2018 with its German version. The Cantonese version was staged at Tai Kwun in August 2019 and South Korea’s Asia Playwright Festival.

© Alhierd Bacharevič

Alhierd Bacharewitsch is a Belarusian writer. He was born in 1975 in Minsk. He is an author of many novels and essay collections: "Alindarka’s Children", "White Fly, Killer of Men", "The Mr. A.’s Last Book" and other books. His major novel, “Dogs of Europe”, was translated into Russian by Bacharevič himself. The Russian version of the book was on the short list of the largest Russian literary prize "Big Book". The Belarus Free Theater made a theatrical adaptation of the novel. Since April 2021 the book has been examined by the authorities for the expression of extremism in it.
 
Alhierd Bacharevič received the “Book of the Year” literary prize in Belarus twice and was the winner of the second Jerzy Giedroyc Prize four times. Bacharevič’s novels and essay collections have been translated into German, English, French, Russian and Polish.
 
He was a resident in the Center for Writers and Translators in Visby (Sweden), the German PEN Center (Hamburg), the Recolette Center of the French Institute in Paris and the Literary Colloquium in Berlin (LCB). In 2007-2013 he lived in Hamburg, then returned to Minsk. He is a member of Belarusian PEN-Center. Since the end of 2020, Alhierd Bacharevič and his wife poetess Jula Cimafiejeva have been living in Graz (Austria) with the invitation of the Kulturvermittlung Steiermark.

Moderator:

©Jacqueline Leung

Jacqueline Leung is a writer and translator from Hong Kong. She is an editor-at-large for the online literature magazine Asymptote and translations editor for the literary journal Cicada. Her work has appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, the Asian Review of Books, Cha (the first Hongkong-based international English-language free-access online literary journal), and Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine. She holds an MA in English from University College London and a BA (First Honors) from the University of Hong Kong.