Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series, the annual fall PRELUDE festival, and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theater festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright, performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne) and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years.
Sarah Stites is a New York-based theatre artist and choreographer. She has developed dance and theater pieces with King William Players, 9BC Performance Project, The Habitat, Manhattan Rep, The Chain Theatre, The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Company Cypher, and The Pittsburgh Cultural Council, and Wood Street Galleries, among others. Sarah is the founder of Summertime Rewrite New Play Festival and was the Producer of The PRELUDE Festival of Contemporary Performance in 2014. www.sarahstites.com
Daria Deflorian and Antonio Tagliarini are two performers, writer and directors who, alongside their own personal works, have embarked on an intense and regular collaboration since 2008. Inspired by their common stage performance background they continually explore and research other modes of representation and alternative audience-performer alliances. Their first such collaborative work was Rewind, A Tribute to Café Muller by Pina Bausch created in 2008.
In 2009 they co-wrote, directed and acted in their own production called From A to D and back again, loosely based on Andy Warhol’s similarly titled book. Since 2011 they have worked on Progetto Reality (‘Project Reality’) which has morphed into two works: czeczy/cose (‘things’), an installation/performance and Reality, Ubu Award 2012 for Best Italian Actrice.
In November 2013 they presented Ce ne andiamo per non darvi alter preoccupazioni (We decided to go because we don’t want to be a burden to you), where they were joined on stage by two other performers Monica Piseddu and Valentino Villa. This play won the Ubu Award 2014 for Best New Italian Dramaturgical Research and the Quebec-Canadian Awards 2016 for the best foreign show.
Their latest project, Il cielo non un fondale (‘The Sky Is Not a Backdrop’), where they were joined on stage by two other performers Monica Demuru e Francesco Alberici, was presented in Autumn 2016. From Autumn 2015 Daria and Antonio presented their shows at the Festival d’Automne in Paris. This also marked the beginning of an international tour through France, Swiss, Germany, Canada and Brasil.
Rewind, a Tribute to Café Muller, czeczy/cose, Reality and Ce ne andiamo per non darvi altre preoccupazioni were published by Titivillus 2014 in one edition called Trilogia dell’invisibile (Trilogy of the Invisible). Il cielo non un fondale was published by Cue Press 2017.
