Randy Gener Represents USA in the German and American Media Dialogue

Randy Gener, the Nathan Award-winning editor, writer, critic and artist, will represent the U.S. media in Washington, D.C.'s first-ever "German and American Media Dialogue: Symposium on Contemporary Theater in Germany and the U.S.," organized by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Taking place on the weekend of November 6 and 7, 2011, the Media Dialogue is a project of the German embassy in Washington to provide further insights into the politics, economies and cultures of both Germany and the United States. This Dialogue will launch a sustained dialogue among theater critics between the two countries. Joining Gener from Germany are Peter Kümmel, theater critic for the newspaper Die Zeit, and Peter Michalzik, journalist and theater critic for the newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau.

Organized in cooperation with the Studio Theater of D.C. and the Goethe-Institut Washington, the D.C. weekend events will begin with the press premiere of "The Golden Dragon" by German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig at the Studio Theater on Sunday, November 6. Germany's most produced playwright, Schimmelpfennig will be in attendance.

The Media Dialogue itself will take place on Monday November 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Goethe-Institut, located at 812 Seventh Street NW, Washington D.C. To RSVP, call 202-289-1200 ext. 162 or rsvp@washington.goethe.org. The dialogue will be taped and made available electronically over the Internet. Simultaneous translation is planned for the event.

"The Golden Dragon" takes place in the cramped kitchen of an Asian restaurant, where four cooks pull the tooth of a young Chinese co-worker. "His tooth," adds the play's description in the Studio Theater website, "ends up in the Thai soup of a flight attendant-who overhears the fight of a young couple who live above the restaurant, whose fighting disturbs the shopkeeper of the dry goods store next door to the restaurant, who is more connected to the young Chinese man than anyone suspects. A kaleidoscopic look at a globalized world, this play by one of Germany's most innovative and adventurous writers unfolds in brief and fierce comic scenes. Five actors cross age, race, and gender to play 15 characters in this vicious, poetic, and surprisingly moving investigation of how intertwined our lives really are."

Known for his surprising juxtapositions of lyricism and violence, as well as his breadth of storytelling techniques, Schimmelpfennig's work shares recurrent themes of alienation and connection, desire and regret, along with the peculiar ways his language unfolds. Marked by a direct and almost clipped diction, his language can be both brutal and near-mythic by turns. His characters are frequently isolated from one another, but share a set of images and experiences that suggest a connection they rarely recognize, even when they're literally sharing dreams.

Directed by Serge Seiden, the U.S. premiere of "The Golden Dragon" features Deb Booth's set design, Michael Giannitti's lighting design, Helen Huang's costume design, and Evan Rogers's sound design. The cast includes Sarah Marshall, Joseph Anthony Foronda, Amir Darvish, KK Moggie and Chris Myers. The play runs November 2 - December 11, 2011. Studio Theatre is located at 1501 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20005. Phone: (202) 332-3300. V/TTY: 202-667-8436. Email: studio@studiotheatre.org.

Randy Gener is the Nathan Award winning editor, writer and artist based in New York City. Acclaimed in the U.S. press as "an internationalist, a champion of cultural exchange and dialogue" (New York Daily News) and as "a model for theater journalists" (Superfluities Redux), Gener is the Broadway editor and theater critic of the New York Theatre Wire, an online arts magazine which he co-founded in 1995. He is the U.S.A. editor of Critical Stages, a web journal covering world theater, recently launched by the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO organization.

For his editorial work and critical essays as the senior editor of American Theatre magazine, Gener has received, among others:
the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, the highest award for dramatic criticism in the USA and one of the most distinguished in the American theatre;
the 2010 Deadline Club Award for Best Arts Reporting awarded by the New York chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for "enterprise reporting" and "for shedding light on government censorship and repression of artists";
a 2003 New York Times Critic Fellowship;
a Ford Foundation / Institute of International Education fellowship;
a grant from Trust for Mutual Understanding;
Evan Shipley Hook educational grant from the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association;
a total of five travel media awards for excellence in travel writing from the annual North American Travel Journalists Association Awards competitions;
and was named NLGJA Journalist of the Year 2010.

Gener's work embraces all aspects of the local, national and international cultural scenes:
In June 2011, Gener served as a curatorial advisor for "From The Edge," the USA National Exhibition for the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Focusing on the most cutting-edge and socio-politically committed theater works in the U.S., this USA pavilion takes the form of an arrestingly iconic structure - a beat-up old performing garage space in a grubby section of a city in Nowheresville, U.S.A., with a huge graffiti of President Barack Obama's face prominently painted on one side of the exterior wall.
In October 2011, Gener served as the USA jury member of an international jury of prominent artists and critics for the 51st annual edition of MESS Sarajevo International Theater Festival in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Gener freelances as a dramaturg, presently for Pan Asian Repertory Theater, founded 30 years ago to explore the Asian American experience.
He is a core member of NoPassport theater alliance and press, which is devoted to fostering cross-cultural diversity in the arts, with an emphasis on US Latino and Latina theater making.

An author and independent scholar, Gener has contributed to numerous books and anthologies. In 2011, his essays on U.S. and the international theater will be published in "About the Phenomenon of Theatre" (published in Iran); "The World of Theater" (published by International Theatre Institute in France and in Bangladesh); the encyclopedia "Cambridge Guide to the American Theater" (Cambridge University Press); and "Out of Silence: Censorship and Self-Censorship in Theatre and Performance" (Manchester University Press, U.K.).

In December 2010, Gener was among six individual artists from around the world who were conferred by His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III with a Presidential Award bestowing him the title of "Pamana ng Pilipino (Legacy of the Filipino Nation)."

Gener's website is theaterofOneWorld.org.