Department of Dreams

A brilliant collection of fierce, courageous voices who are unwilling to accept the dystopia so many authoritarian and would-be tyrants are determined to impose. Collectively, they speak out against the gathering darkness. Individually, they offer us remarkable works that demand to be seen and heard. —Charles Duncombe, Executive Director, City Garage Theatre, Los Angeles

Of Department of Dreams: Aplay which is about as anti-government and anti-authoritarian as can be. —WillardManus, Total Theater

Of Department of Dreams: AnOrwellian portrait of a mad world in which all individuality issuppressed. —F. Kathleen Foley, LosAngeles Times

Of Other Than We: A post-apocalypticscenario in which survivors have a chance to remake the world, a grandvision, born of catastrophe, but with the possibility of triumph. —EleanorBader, The Indypendent

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Of Other Than We: Autopian vision for a reconfigured race that will be “Other Than We.” Malpedeuses image-rich language to transmit an urgent call for global unity. —CindyRosenthal, The Theatre Times

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Of A Fable for Now: Wei’swork includes tales of war, the environment, and personal regret colliding asmankind hurtles towards a surreal apocalypse. —Jasmine Yu-Hsing Chen, PerformingInternational Plays

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Of A Fable for Now: Whenall of contemporary culture and civilization is just another face on the sandthat will be wiped away, what moral can there be? —Li Shi-Yong, Pareviews

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Of Shells with Surprises: Drought, reduced rainfall, global warming — all these issues, which currently occupy us, actually mark the beginning of the timeline in which the play takes place. Penia is recounting to her son the story of a happy people who are able to drink at will from the cool waters of a free flowing river or pour themselves a glass from a pitcher nearby. The old world, in which frozen clusters of ice fall from the sky, is now the realm of fairytales. —Ayris Alptekin, On the Obligations of Staying Alive, 19. İstanbul Tiyatro Festivali’nin

Of Department of Dreams: It’s about the rise of autocracies and the literal invasion of our imagination, not just by governments but by huge corporations. Every day we cede more and more of our privacy, of our selfhood to people who either want to control it or monetize it. —Frédérique Michel, Artistic Director of City Garage Theatre, interviewed by Jackie Sedley, The Corsair online

Of Other Than We: Wewant to believe that mending our species is indeed possible … Can thequartet of fugitives accomplish their outlandish goal? —Lena Zeldovitch, “OtherThan We: The Making of Post Homo Sapiens,” Woman Around Town

Jeton Neziraj

Jeton Neziraj is the former artistic director of the National Theater of Kosovo and the founder and current director of Qendra Multimedia. He has written more than 25 plays that have been translated into many languages, including French, Italian, German, English, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croat, Slovenian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin. His plays have been presented at festivals and performed by numerous theaters and acting companies worldwide. In 2018, the European Union office in Kosovo awarded him the European of the Year award. In 2021, he received the International Theatremakers Award from Playwrights Realm in New York. His play, The Handke Project, won the prestigious Journées de Lyon des Auteurs de Théâtre prize in 2024, and he won Kosovo’s National Drama award, “Katarina Josipi,” in both 2023 and 2024.

Ebru Nihan Celkan

Ebru Nihan Celkan began her acting education at Sadri Alişik Theatre in Istanbul in 2005. Her first play, From Heaven to Hell, was staged as part of the Sadri Alişik Theatre Festival in 2007. She has since written more than nine plays and a short screenplay, addressing themes such as domestic abuse, workers’ safety, PTSD, transgender issues, environmental dystopias, and political assassination. Her works have been widely performed throughout Turkey. In 2011, she founded the theater company Bulu Tiyatro (Cloud Theater). Honors include Best Playwright of the Year at the 7th Direklerarasi Audience Awards in 2012 and an invitation to the Emerging International Playwrights Seminar by Sala Beckett – L’Obrador Dramaturgy Institute in 2011. In 2017, she was one of four international playwrights invited to participate in the “War in Peace” project. She was a Jean Jacques Rousseau Fellow of the Academy Schloss Solitude Stuttgart in 2019. Her play Will You Come with Me? premiered in Europe at Schauspiel Stuttgart in 2019 and was staged by PlayCo in New York in 2022. Her most recent work, Loop, premiered in 2024 at the 28th Istanbul International Theater Festival.

Karen Malpede

Karen Malpede is the author and director of 20 plays and co-founder with George Bartenieff of Theater Three Collaborative. Her plays include Other Than We, Extreme Whether, the short plays Dinner During Yemen, Hermes in the Anthropocene: A Dogologue, a revival of her 1995 play The Beekeeper’s Daughter, Another Life, Prophecy, the docudrama Iraq: Speaking of War, and her most recent play, Blue Valiant, which debuted in 2021. She is the author of the anthologies Plays in Time, A Monster Has Stolen the Sun and Other Plays, and lead editor of Acts of War: Iraq and Afghanistan in Seven Plays. Her short plays, fiction, and essays have been published in various journals and publications. She was an adjunct associate professor at John Jay College, City University of New York, and has received numerous fellowships and awards. She is a member of PEN, the Dramatists Guild, ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Ecology), and Brooklyn for Peace.

Ozlem Karadag

Ozlem Karadag is an Associate Professor of English in the Department of English Language and Literature at İstanbul University. Her research focuses on British theatre, poetry, adaptation, and contemporary literary theories, with specific interests in contemporary theatre, ecofeminism, posthumanism, and trauma narratives. She has combined her academic career with practical involvement in theater, joining BuluTiyatro in 2012 as a resident dramaturg and assistant director. Karadag has also translated numerous contemporary English plays that have been produced by theater companies in Istanbul. Her recent publications include a co-edited volume, Different Voices: Gender and Posthumanism, and journal articles on topics such as trauma narratives and ecofeminism in dramatic works.

Bosco Cayo Alvarez

Bosco Cayo Alvarez trained in acting, directing, and playwriting at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and in psychology at the Universidad de La Serena. He is a member of the theater companies Compañía Limitada, Teatro Sin Dominio, and Teatro la Mala Clase, and has taught in drama schools throughout Chile. His play Negra, la enfermera del General was selected by the Royal Court Theatre, London, for its 2013 New Plays from Chile season. Other stage works include Limítrofe, Leftraru, La dama de los Andes (winner of the 2017 Chilean National Council for Arts and Cultures literary award for best play), El Dylan, Plan Vivienda 2015-2045, Los despertares de Marín, José Desierto (winner of the 2020 Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage playwriting award), Evangelista, and La Belleza de Judith.

William Gregory

William Gregory is a dramaturg and translator from Spanish. Productions of his translations include A Fight Against … by Pablo Manzi, B and Villa by Guillermo Calderon, Cuzco by Víctor Sanchez Rodríguez, Chamaco by Abel Gonzalez Melo, The Concert by Ulises Rodríguez Febles, and various texts for the Royal Court’s Arena Mexico and New Plays from Chile seasons. His published work includes The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays, The Children of Taltal by Bosco Cayo Alvarez, Selected Plays by Cuban Playwright Abel Gonzalez Melo, The Uncapturable by Ruben Szuchmacher, The Widow of Apablaza by Germán Luco Cruchaga, and contributions to other anthologies. He also co-edited The Methuen Drama Book of Contemporary Uruguayan Plays.

Alexandra Channer

Alexandra Channer began translating in Kosovo in 2009 while conducting research for her doctoral thesis. She worked as a freelance translator for four years in Kosovo, translating a variety of political and technical documents. Her collaboration with Jeton Neziraj began during this time, and she has since translated and edited many of his plays into English. Channer has also translated plays, prose, poetry, and film scripts by various authors from Kosovo, covering both creative literature and historical and political analysis. She currently runs her own consultancy in the UK providing human rights due diligence services to businesses, charities, and international organizations, drawing on her professional background in politics and human rights.

Jeremy Tiang

Jeremy Tiang is a playwright, novelist, and translator. He won the 2024 Obie Award for Outstanding New Play for his bilingual play Salesman之死. His other stage work includes A Dream of Red Pavilions and The Last Days of Limehouse, as well as translations of plays by other authors. He has translated over thirty books from across the Chinese-speaking world, including novels by renowned authors. He was longlisted for the International Booker Prize for his translation of Zou Jingzhi’s Ninth Building and won the Singapore Literature Prize for his novel State of Emergency. He is the co-editor of Violent Phenomena: Essays Toward the Future of Literary Translation. Originally from Singapore, he now lives in New York City.

Wei Yu-Chia

Wei Yu-Chia holds an MA in playwriting from the Department of Drama and Theater, National Taiwan University. She won the 2014 Taiwanese Literature Award for Playwriting with A Fable for Now, which was performed in 2016. Other plays include Mama/Popstar (nominated for the 2015 Taipei Literature Award for Playwriting), A Child from Nankoku (nominated for the 2017 New Taipei Award for playwriting), YouTube (The Deadend Flowers, 2015), and Big Zoo.

Nina Kamberos

Nina Kamberos studied comparative literature at Northwestern University and philosophy of religion at Hampshire College. In 2015, she founded Laertes, a Press for Literary Translation, with the aim of publishing works that convey the full human experience. The Egret imprint was launched shortly after, focusing on pressing themes and circumstances, particularly those informed by documentary work.

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