Over the past year, the feedback to my writings on theater included two particularly interesting responses.
Critics’ Forum: ExԱյլ: Krikor Beledian on Diasporic Multilingualism
Two translations in two years. Two translations of Krikor Beledian’s monumental Fifty Years of Armenian Literature in France, 1922-1972, From the Same to the Other were published in the past two years
Critics’ Forum: Aram Kouyoumdjian’s Ode to the Gods of Cultural Renewal
If only there were two more like Aram Kouyoumdjian. Just two more working in Los Angeles, so that the theater of the largest Armenian community outside Armenia could have a whole lot more to show for
Critics’ Forum: Matenadaran’s Restoration Department: Preserving Life and Culture
I spent part of this summer in Armenia – mesmerized by the free flight of “tsitsernakner,” birds purported to return to their original homes (much like I believe I was doing with a visit to my homeland)
Critics’ Forum: Armenian Theater by the Young and the Experience-Less
Armenian theater in Los Angeles offered stunningly little over the past year that was authentically new. Several pieces passed off as “new” by the community’s long-established theater artists were actually iterations of their typical output.
Critics’ Forum: Theater’s Dirty Word
A few weeks ago, an Armenian theater artist/producer in Los Angeles posted on Facebook that she was selling her collection of art from Armenia in order to fund her future theater projects.
Bourj Hammoud As A Palimpsest Of Culture In Ara Madzounian’s ‘Birds’ Nest’
Ara Madzounian’s “Birds’ Nest: A Photographic Essay of Bourj Hammoud” captures the almost mythical regard with which Bourj Hammoud is revered
‘Happy Armenians’ and a Post-Centennial Paradigm for Armenian Drama
“Happy Armenians” unfolds in an alternate version of history in which the Kingdom of Cilicia did not meet its end in 1375
Beyond Istanbul: When Superheroes Rule Our World Christian Batikian’s ‘Captain America’
Christian Batikian’s “Captain America” is a short story – in the style of a bildungsroman -composed in Western Armenian about a young “hero” named Sako who seeks to find adventure, solitude, and acceptance
A Deconstruction Of Connected Histories In Aline Ohanesian’s ‘Orhan’s Inheritance’
I must admit, picking up a book with a narrative already too familiar is a tall order. The task is made even more difficult when the narrative is one that speaks to my ethnic and communal sense of belonging. The room for disappointment is wide since so much is at stake.