Polyphonic Translation Residency: Showcase & Discussion

We are thrilled to be showcasing two new works from our first-ever Polyphonic Translation Residency artists: Sarvin Esmaeili and Emily Jung! Following 10 days of workshopping and project development, Sarvin and Emily will share excerpts of their pieces on Friday, June 9th at 7:00pm PST, followed by a discussion between the artists and the attendees. Join us in-person at Progress Lab 1422, or online via livestream!

Tickets are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested price of $15. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

ASL interpretation will be available for the reading & discussion both in-person and online through a dedicated livestream page. (ASL vlog to come!)

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Maman, Do You Love Me? by Sarvin Esmaeili // Languages: Farsi & English

Is mother only a person or more than that? A bilingual show exploring relationships with mother in English and Farsi (the writer’s mother tongue) with the intention of holding a mirror of poems, scenes, and songs reflecting the truth of motherhood away from standards of society, religion, and TV shows. Two immigrant Persian writers dive deep in the corners of their mind and soul through childhood lullabies and relationships with their dolls to discover where motherhood lives in them. A full cast and creative team of Iranian femme.

Dead Korean Girl Comedy Show by Emily Jung // Languages: Korean & English

Dead Korean Girl Comedy Show is a bilingual (Korean & English) play that takes the absurdity of an “identity play” all the way into purgatory. Using the vessel of comedy, and with references from Korean folklore, we will explore many questions with this project: “What does it mean to live inside an Asian woman’s body on this land? So then, what does it mean to lose the body and exist as an Asian woman spirit on this land?”

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Sarvin Esmaeili, BC-Based

Born in Tehran, Iran, سروین/Sarv is a tender queer multidisciplinary theater artist with the intention of creating stories that make theatre a spiritual, experimental, process-based and community-based experience. Sarv has written plays with cohorts like Arts Club’s LEAP, the frank theatre’s Telling it bent, PTC’S Block A, Rumble Theatre and Blackout Arts Society. In May 2023, Sarv will perform as an actor and puppeteer at International Theatrical Festival VALISE in Poland. In June,سروین will be at rice and beans' Polyphonic Residency, bringing more Farsi poetry and songs on stage. Sarv is a graduate of Studio 58. When سروین needs a break, they sing, pray, drum and dance at a full moon ceremony with their soul family.

Emily Jung, Ontario-Based

Emily Jung (she/her) is an artsworker based in Tkaronto. She is the Director of Communications at The Theatre Centre, and also runs the conceptual artsworker collective and meme page ‘Labour in the Arts’. She is also a co-facilitator of the “Theatre workers stop working and chill” event series; where she and artist Amanda Lin invite theatre workers to a consciously set aside, shared, non-work related creative zone-out time.
Emily is excited and grateful to be working on her play Dead Korean Girl Comedy Show, developing in part through rice & beans theatre’s Polyphonic Translation Residency, with co-creator Jennifer Park. Her recent creative essay, Korean Seniors Don't Care for Bingo is available online at Choa Magazine.

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The Polyphonic Translation Residency is an expansion of rice & beans theatre's existing DBLSPK Program and prioritizes deepening the field of multilingual theatre makers. Welcoming two multilingual artists/translators who have a project in development, one local and one from out-of-town, artists are hosted in Vancouver at a local house rental for 10 days, and provided all the resources needed for focused, uninterrupted time on their work. Over the residency, they receive dramaturgical and collaborator support on their project and then, as a culmination of the residency, they will take part in a public presentation where community members can attend and engage in discussion with the artists around language and its dramaturgy.

With the Polyphonic Translation Residency, artists have the space to reclaim their languages unapologetically through the art they create and foster a space where community members can see their languages legitimized onstage.

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rice & beans theatre is a Vancouver-based theatre company founded in 2010 by Pedro Chamale and Derek Chan. We provide a platform for the creation, development and production of boundary-pushing theatre by artists of colour or otherwise marginalized theatre-makers, as well as support to fellow artists by providing dramaturgy, direction, and mentorship. We are dedicated to facilitating original Canadian work that is accessible, honest, uncompromising and personal. In addition to Vancouver, we have also produced original work for audiences in Toronto, Richmond, Nanaimo and Victoria. In 2018, rice & beans was nominated for a Dora Award for its production of 食盡天下/A Taste of Empire with Cahoots Theatre in Toronto. In 2019, its production of Chicken Girl was nominated for 3 Jessies in Vancouver and in 2022, its production of Yellow Objects won a Jessie Innovation Award.

Host or Publisher rice & beans theatre