danzon_eng

What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion? Something that entertains me, keeping me away from my own existence for some while. And then it gets back at me while i’m driving home to perceive that it was a moment of non self-explicative text that spoke about things that keep me awake at night.  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? I have to, otherwise I would be doing it for rocks and plants. The fact that we charge tickets for our works of art is the perfect answer to that question. We keep trying to send a message to our audience, not essentially trying to convince them of what our points of view are, but just to keep them aware that we exist. It is a market exchange: I tell you something, you’ll leave the place richer, whether it’s on self-awareness or on the things that surround you that you didn’t know.  When you are working on a text, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works? When I start a text I never know where ...

Organized by GalataPerform and being the first playwriting festival in Turkey, the New Text Festival was held for the tenth time this year between November 1st and 28th, 2021, with a hybrid structure focused on the theme of "Breath", both in the physical space and digitally. We hosted Joan Yago in the last of our conversations with international playwrights whose plays were translated into Turkish and staged and read at the festival. Ayşe Draz & Mehmet Kerem Özel What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion?   Wow, I am not sure at all. But it probably has something to do with the fact of knowing what do you want to do to the audience, what do you want to happen to them, and then work hard thru your writing until make sure that this is working in the way you want. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? I want to believe. Otherwise why would I keep doing that? I know that theatre has the power of “lighting the spark”: a show can make you do...