A REPORT FOR AN ACADEMY, A MESSAGE FROM THE EMPEROR AT THE 2024 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL
JUNE 12 | 7.30 PM
BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HALL, 321 E 73rd St New York, NY 10021
PLEASE RSVP HERE
Enjoy the two short stories A Report for an Academy and A Message from the Emperor by Franz Kafka, adapted for the stage in honor of the 100th anniversary Kafka’s death in the framework of the Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival.
Written By: Franz Kafka
Translated By: Mark Harman
A Report for an Academy
Directed By: Henry Akona
Performed by: Markus Hirnigel
Piano: Maria Dessena
Makeup: Stephanie Cox-Connolly
A Message from the Emperor
Original Music: Martin Bresnick
Percussionists: Makana Kai Noah Medeiros and Chad Beebe
Two short stories by Franz Kafka, adapted for the stage in honor of the 100th anniversary Kafka’s death.
A Report for an Academy is Kafka’s short story/monologue about an ape who has learned to be human, directed by by Henry Akona. Read and performed by Markus Hirnigel, in a music hall vein.
A Message from the Emperor is adapted by Martin Bresnick as a new music piece for two speaking percussionists. Franz Kafka describes a glorious being, never seen by his countless lowly subjects, who, from his deathbed, dispatches an indefatigable messenger (a prophet perhaps) with a most important message – just for you. For various practical reasons however the message cannot possibly be delivered. And even if it finally arrived the one who sent it will have died long ago.
Both stories are translated by Mark Harman as part of his new book of Kafka’s short stories.
The main program will last approximately 45 minutes, with a discussion after with Mark Harman, Martin Bresnick, Henry Akona, and Kafka scholar Ross Benjamin.
About the Participants
Mark Harman, Professor Emeritus of German and English at Elizabethtown College, has translated various German-language writers, ranging from Kafka (Amerika: The Missing Person and The Castle, winner of the MLA’s Lois Roth Award) to Rilke, Hesse, Robert Walser (Robert Walser Rediscovered), and various contemporary German-language writers. Author of numerous articles and book chapters on Kafka, he writes about German-language and Irish literature for journals and newspapers in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Image Credits: Matt Willen
Ross Benjamin’s translations include Franz Kafka’s Diaries, Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll and You Should Have Left, Joseph Roth’s Job, and Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion. His translation of Tyll was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker International Prize. He was awarded the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on Kafka’s diaries. Image Credits: David Schloss
About the 2024 Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival
Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival, honoring Václav Havel, is a showcase of contemporary European theater organized each year in New York City. Conceived in 2017 as a shared endeavor of the Václav Havel Center (VHC) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), the festival honors the legacy of Czech playwright, dissident and political thinker Vaclav Havel.
Each edition of Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival addresses current sociopolitical trends in Central and Eastern Europe, offering New York audiences a unique opportunity to witness the region’s theatrical zeitgeist.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This event is a cooperation of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, in association with Untitled Theater Company No. 61.