Orange Polar Bear - a cross-cultural performance piece for teenagers in Seoul and Birmingham
(2020)
author(s): Peter Wynne-Willson
published in: Research Catalogue
Orange Polar Bear (2014-19) is an innovative bilingual theatre project created by Hanyong Theatre, the National Theatre Company of Korea and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The main research aims were to develop a methodology for devising and presenting bilingual work in a way that maintains equality between collaborative partners, and, by focusing on the experience of teenagers in Seoul and Birmingham, to consider what young people can teach adults about bridging cross-cultural and language divisions.
The research resulted in a novel methodology for devising bilingual theatre leading to a cross-cultural performance for young people in two languages, presented in the same form in South Korea and the UK. It was unique among Anglo-Korean collaborations for its focus on the experience of teenagers, and conscious balance of languages, cultures and practices. Additionally, the research demonstrates the value of adopting a child-led approach to creating cross-cultural theatre and has created new insights into long-term approaches to developing fair and equal cross-cultural partnerships.
Tongue-Tied: Words Against Worlds
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Narges Porsandekhial
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exposition explores the experiences, struggles, challenges, and discoveries of an allophone within Canadian society. Through research-creation, I aim to illuminate the bittersweet nuances of bilingual existence in the contemporary art world. The text addresses not only language and translation in academia and art writing, but also examines how language can act as both a driving force and a barrier in the creative process—particularly in text-based artworks, book art, and socially engaged or community-based practices. Grounded in the principles of autotheory, this work draws on socio-political, environmental, and personal factors that have shaped and informed my artistic practice. Spanning from 2022 to the present, this research is an ongoing effort to reconcile the fragmented thoughts, ideas, and processes of research-creation as a bilingual researcher/creator.