Drama Department Presents Seventh Annual hotINK International Festival

By Richard Pierce

    Now in its seventh year, hotINK is the Department of Drama’s international festival of play readings, bringing together playwrights from around the world with distinguished actors and directors from the New York theatre, as well as students, alumni, and faculty from the Tisch School of the Arts. 

      HotINK 2008 will be held January 26, 27 & 28 and February 2 and 3, and features plays from Australia, Belarus, Canada, France, Guadalupe, Quebec, Lebanon, Romania, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Readings will take place at 4:00 and 7:30 p.m. and will be held at various venues within the Tisch School, located at 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place).  The event is open to the public and admission is free.  For reservations, call 212-998-1860. For more detailed information, visit www.hotink.org.

      Among the readings featured this year are new works by the American writers Rob Ackerman, Jason Grote, Eduardo Machado, Crystal Skillman, and Mac Wellman.  The readings are curated by representatives of each of the TSOA Drama Department studios and studio affiliates. In this way, students have the opportunity to work with participating guests artists and those artists become part of the extended Tisch School of the Arts community.

      In the past, many plays have gone on to productions in New York and around the country, and hotINK readings have led to residencies and ongoing collaborations between artists, and with organizations such as the Lark Play Development Center, Theater Instituut Nederland, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Délégation générale du Québec, Deutsches Haus NYU, Goethe Institute New York, the Austrian Cultural Forum, WriterNet (London), The Fence International Translation Network, the Brooklyn Rail: In Translation, Theatre Communications Group/International Theatre Institute U.S., and other important cultural and arts organizations.